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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Global Analysis Of Seagrass Restoration: The Importance Of Large-Scale Planting, Mm Van Katwijk, A Thorhaug, N Marba, R J. Orth, Cm Duarte, Et Al.
Global Analysis Of Seagrass Restoration: The Importance Of Large-Scale Planting, Mm Van Katwijk, A Thorhaug, N Marba, R J. Orth, Cm Duarte, Et Al.
VIMS Articles
In coastal and estuarine systems, foundation species like seagrasses, mangroves, saltmarshes or corals provide important ecosystem services. Seagrasses are globally declining and their reintroduction has been shown to restore ecosystem functions. However, seagrass restoration is often challenging, given the dynamic and stressful environment that seagrasses often grow in. From our world-wide meta-analysis of seagrass restoration trials (1786 trials), we describe general features and best practice for seagrass restoration. We confirm that removal of threats is important prior to replanting. Reduced water quality (mainly eutrophication), and construction activities led to poorer restoration success than, for instance, dredging, local direct impact and …
Biological Activity Exceeds Biogenic Structure In Influencing Sediment Nitrogen Cycling In Experimental Oyster Reefs, Ashley R. Smyth, Nathan R. Geraldi, Suzanne P. Thompson, Michael F. Piehler
Biological Activity Exceeds Biogenic Structure In Influencing Sediment Nitrogen Cycling In Experimental Oyster Reefs, Ashley R. Smyth, Nathan R. Geraldi, Suzanne P. Thompson, Michael F. Piehler
VIMS Articles
Oysters are estuarine ecosystem engineers, in that their physical structure and biological function affect ecosystem processes such as organic matter and nutrient cycling. Oysters deliver material to the sediments through biodeposition and sedimentation caused by modification of flow around the reef. We conducted an experiment to distinguish between biotic effects and physical structure of oyster reefs on sediment nitrogen cycling. Experimental reefs consisting of live oysters, oyster shells alone and mudflats (controls) were sampled for a period of 4 wk for sediment organic matter, C and N content and fluxes of nitrogen (NH4 +, NOX and N2) and oxygen (O2). …
Saltmarsh Plant Responses To Eutrophication, David S. Johnson, Rs Warren, La Deegan, Tj Mozdzer
Saltmarsh Plant Responses To Eutrophication, David S. Johnson, Rs Warren, La Deegan, Tj Mozdzer
VIMS Articles
In saltmarsh plant communities, bottom-up pressure from nutrient enrichment is predicted to increase productivity, alter community structure, decrease biodiversity, and alter ecosystem functioning. Previous work supporting these predictions has been based largely on short-term, plot-level (e.g., 1-300 m(2)) studies, which may miss landscape-level phenomena that drive ecosystem-level responses. We implemented an ecosystem-scale, nine-year nutrient experiment to examine how saltmarsh plants respond to simulated conditions of coastal eutrophication. Our study differed from previous saltmarsh enrichment studies in that we applied realistic concentrations of nitrate (70-100 mu M NO3-), the most common form of coastal nutrient enrichment, via tidal water at the …
Beyond The Benchtop And The Benthos: Dataset Management Planning And Design For Time Series Of Ocean Carbonate Chemistry Associated With Durafet (R)-Based Ph Sensors, Emily B. Rivest, M O'Brien, L Kapsenberg, Cc Gotschalk, Ca Blanchette, U Hoshijima, Ge Hofmann
Beyond The Benchtop And The Benthos: Dataset Management Planning And Design For Time Series Of Ocean Carbonate Chemistry Associated With Durafet (R)-Based Ph Sensors, Emily B. Rivest, M O'Brien, L Kapsenberg, Cc Gotschalk, Ca Blanchette, U Hoshijima, Ge Hofmann
VIMS Articles
To better understand the impact of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems, an important ongoing research priority for marine scientists is to characterize present-day pH variability. Following recent technological advances, autonomous pH sensor deployments in shallow coastal marine environments have revealed that pH dynamics in coastal oceans are more variable in space and time than the discrete, open-ocean measurements that are used for ocean acidification projections. Data from these types of deployments will benefit the research community by facilitating the improved design of ocean acidification studies as well as the identification or evaluation of natural and human-influenced pH variability. Importantly, the …
Marine Phytophthora Species Can Hamper Conservation And Restoration Of Vegetated Coastal Ecosystems, Ll Govers, Wam In 'T Veid, Jp Meffert, Tj Bouma, Pcj Van Rijswick, Jht Heusinkveld, R J. Orth, Mm Van Katwijk, T Van Der Heide
Marine Phytophthora Species Can Hamper Conservation And Restoration Of Vegetated Coastal Ecosystems, Ll Govers, Wam In 'T Veid, Jp Meffert, Tj Bouma, Pcj Van Rijswick, Jht Heusinkveld, R J. Orth, Mm Van Katwijk, T Van Der Heide
VIMS Articles
Phytophthora species are potent pathogens that can devastate terrestrial plants, causing billions of dollars of damage yearly to agricultural crops and harming fragile ecosystems worldwide. Yet, virtually nothing is known about the distribution and pathogenicity of their marine relatives. This is surprising, as marine plants form vital habitats in coastal zones worldwide (i.e. mangrove forests, salt marshes, seagrass beds), and disease may be an important bottleneck for the conservation and restoration of these rapidly declining ecosystems. We are the first to report on widespread infection of Phytophthora and Halophytophthora species on a common seagrass species, Zostera marina (eelgrass), across the …
Effects Of Sediment And Salinity On The Growth And Competitive Abilities Of Three Submersed Macrophytes, Erin C. Shields, Ken Moore
Effects Of Sediment And Salinity On The Growth And Competitive Abilities Of Three Submersed Macrophytes, Erin C. Shields, Ken Moore
VIMS Articles
Submersed macrophytes are generally found in multispecies beds, with the dominance of individual species varying in both space and time. In estuarine environments, these plants can grow across a range of environmental conditions which may alter species interactions. Three species common to the Chesapeake Bay region, Vallisneria americana (wild celery), Heteranthera dubia (water stargrass), and Stuckenia pectinata (sago pondweed), were planted in a microcosm designed to test their growth and interactions (relative yielding) under a range of conditions of salinity (0, 5, or 10), sediment type (mud or sand), and species combinations. H. dubia was most sensitive to elevated salinity, …
Virtualspecies, An R Package To Generate Virtual Species Distributions, B Leroy, Cn Meynard, C Bellard, F Courchamp
Virtualspecies, An R Package To Generate Virtual Species Distributions, B Leroy, Cn Meynard, C Bellard, F Courchamp
VIMS Articles
virtualspecies is a freely available package for R designed to generate virtual species distributions, a procedure increasingly used in ecology to improve species distribution models. This package combines the existing methodological approaches with the objective of generating virtual species distributions with increased ecological realism. The package includes 1) generating the probability of occurrence of a virtual species from a spatial set of environmental conditions (i.e. environmental suitability), with two different approaches; 2) converting the environmental suitability into presence-absence with a probabilistic approach; 3) introducing dispersal limitations in the realised virtual species distributions and 4) sampling occurrences with different biases in …
Biodiversity Enhances Reef Fish Biomass And Resistance To Climate Change, Je Duffy, Js Lefcheck, Rochelle Stuart-Smith, Sa Navarrete, Gj Edgar
Biodiversity Enhances Reef Fish Biomass And Resistance To Climate Change, Je Duffy, Js Lefcheck, Rochelle Stuart-Smith, Sa Navarrete, Gj Edgar
VIMS Articles
Fishes are the most diverse group of vertebrates, play key functional roles in aquatic ecosystems, and provide protein for a billion people, especially in the developing world. Those functions are compromised by mounting pressures on marine biodiversity and ecosystems. Because of its economic and food value, fish biomass production provides an unusually direct link from biodiversity to critical ecosystem services. We used the Reef Life Survey's global database of 4,556 standardized fish surveys to test the importance of biodiversity to fish production relative to 25 environmental drivers. Temperature, biodiversity, and human influence together explained 47% of the global variation in …
Copepod Summer Grazing And Fecal Pellet Production Along Thewestern Antarctic Peninsula, Mr Gleiber, Deborah K. Steinberg, Ome Schofield
Copepod Summer Grazing And Fecal Pellet Production Along Thewestern Antarctic Peninsula, Mr Gleiber, Deborah K. Steinberg, Ome Schofield
VIMS Articles
Copepods are important grazers on phytoplankton and contributors to carbon export, but their role is poorly understood in theWestern Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), a region of high productivity and rapid climate warming. We conducted grazing and egestion experiments with large, dominant copepods each January from 2012 to 2014. We found higher gut evacuation rates (k), initial gut pigment and ingestion rates (I) for Calanus propinquus and Rhincalanus gigas compared with Calanoides acutus. Since k and I linearly increased with chlorophyll a for most species, ingestion rates were 4-70 times greater in more productive coastal regions than offshore, slope waters. Copepods have …
Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Atlantic Menhaden (Brevoortia Tyrannus) Recruitment In The Northwest Atlantic Ocean, A Buchheister, Tj Miller, Ed Houde, Dh Secor, Rj Latour
Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Atlantic Menhaden (Brevoortia Tyrannus) Recruitment In The Northwest Atlantic Ocean, A Buchheister, Tj Miller, Ed Houde, Dh Secor, Rj Latour
VIMS Articles
Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, is an abundant, schooling pelagic fish that is widely distributed in the coastal Northwest Atlantic. It supports the largest single-species fishery by volume on the east coast of the United States. However, relatively little is known about factors that control recruitment, and its stock- recruitment relationship is poorly defined. Atlantic menhaden is managed as a single unit stock, but fisheries and environmental variables likely act regionally on recruitments. To better understand spatial and temporal variability in recruitment, fishery-independent time-series (1959-2013) of young-of-year (YOY) abundance indices from the Mid-Atlantic to Southern New England (SNE) were analysed using …
Progress And Challenges In Coupled Hydrodynamic-Ecological Estuarine Modeling, Nk Ganju, Mark Brush, B Rashleigh, Al Aretxabaleta, P Del Barrio, Js Grear, La Harris, Sj Lake, Et Al.
Progress And Challenges In Coupled Hydrodynamic-Ecological Estuarine Modeling, Nk Ganju, Mark Brush, B Rashleigh, Al Aretxabaleta, P Del Barrio, Js Grear, La Harris, Sj Lake, Et Al.
VIMS Articles
Numerical modeling has emerged over the last several decades as a widely accepted tool for investigations in environmental sciences. In estuarine research, hydrodynamic and ecological models have moved along parallel tracks with regard to complexity, refinement, computational power, and incorporation of uncertainty. Coupled hydrodynamic-ecological models have been used to assess ecosystem processes and interactions, simulate future scenarios, and evaluate remedial actions in response to eutrophication, habitat loss, and freshwater diversion. The need to couple hydrodynamic and ecological models to address research and management questions is clear because dynamic feedbacks between biotic and physical processes are critical interactions within ecosystems. In …
Fungal Denitrification: Bipolaris Sorokiniana Exclusively Denitrifies Inorganic Nitrogen In The Presence And Absence Of Oxygen, R Phillips, G Grelet, A Mcmillan, Bk Song, B Weir, Et Al.
Fungal Denitrification: Bipolaris Sorokiniana Exclusively Denitrifies Inorganic Nitrogen In The Presence And Absence Of Oxygen, R Phillips, G Grelet, A Mcmillan, Bk Song, B Weir, Et Al.
VIMS Articles
Fungi may play an important role in the production of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). Bipolaris sorokiniana is a ubiquitous saprobe found in soils worldwide, yet denitrification by this fungal strain has not previously been reported. We aimed to test if B. sorokiniana would produce N2O and CO2 in the presence of organic and inorganic forms of nitrogen (N) under microaerobic and anaerobic conditions. Nitrogen source (organic-N, inorganic-N, no-N control) significantly affected N2O and CO2 production both in the presence and absence of oxygen, which contrasts with bacterial denitrification. Inorganic N addition increased denitrification of N2O (from 0 to …
Upgrading Marine Ecosystem Restoration Using Ecological-Social Concepts, A Abelson, Bs Halpern, Dc Reed, R J. Orth, Ga Kendrick, Et Al
Upgrading Marine Ecosystem Restoration Using Ecological-Social Concepts, A Abelson, Bs Halpern, Dc Reed, R J. Orth, Ga Kendrick, Et Al
VIMS Articles
Conservation and environmental management are principal countermeasures to the degradation of marine ecosystems and their services. However, in many cases, current practices are insufficient to reverse ecosystem declines. We suggest that restoration ecology, the science underlying the concepts and tools needed to restore ecosystems, must be recognized as an integral element for marine conservation and environmental management. Marine restoration ecology is a young scientific discipline, often with gaps between its application and the supporting science. Bridging these gaps is essential to using restoration as an effective management tool and reversing the decline of marine ecosystems and their services. Ecological restoration …
Millennial-Scale Sustainability Of The Chesapeake Bay Native American Oyster Fishery, Tc Rick, La Reeder-Myers, Ca Hofman, D Breitburg, R Lockwood, G Henkes, M. L. Kellogg, D Lowery, M. Luckenbach, R. Mann, Mb Ogburn, M. Southworth, J Wah, J Wesson, Ah Hines
Millennial-Scale Sustainability Of The Chesapeake Bay Native American Oyster Fishery, Tc Rick, La Reeder-Myers, Ca Hofman, D Breitburg, R Lockwood, G Henkes, M. L. Kellogg, D Lowery, M. Luckenbach, R. Mann, Mb Ogburn, M. Southworth, J Wah, J Wesson, Ah Hines
VIMS Articles
Estuaries around the world are in a state of decline following decades or more of overfishing, pollution, and climate change. Oysters (Ostreidae), ecosystem engineers in many estuaries, influence water quality, construct habitat, and provide food for humans and wildlife. In North America's Chesapeake Bay, once-thriving eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) populations have declined dramatically, making their restoration and conservation extremely challenging. Here we present data on oyster size and human harvest from Chesapeake Bay archaeological sites spanning similar to 3,500 y of Native American, colonial, and historical occupation. We compare oysters from archaeological sites with Pleistocene oyster reefs that existed before …
Assessing Tidal Marsh Resilience To Sea-Level Rise At Broad Geographic Scales With Multi-Metric Indices, Kb Raposa, K Wasson, E Smith, Ja Crooks, P Delgado, Scott Lerberg, Et Al.
Assessing Tidal Marsh Resilience To Sea-Level Rise At Broad Geographic Scales With Multi-Metric Indices, Kb Raposa, K Wasson, E Smith, Ja Crooks, P Delgado, Scott Lerberg, Et Al.
VIMS Articles
Tidal marshes and the ecosystem services they provide may be at risk from sea-level rise (SLR). Tidal marsh resilience to SLR can vary due to differences in local rates of SLR, geomorphology, sediment availability and other factors. Understanding differences in resilience is critical to inform coastal management and policy, but comparing resilience across marshes is hindered by a lack of simple, effective analysis tools. Quantitative, multi-metric indices are widely employed to inform management of benthic aquatic ecosystems, but not coastal wetlands. Here, we develop and apply tidal marsh resilience to sea-level rise (MARS) indices incorporating ten metrics that contribute to …
Salp Contributions To Vertical Carbon Flux In The Sargasso Sea, Jp Stone, Deborah K. Steinberg
Salp Contributions To Vertical Carbon Flux In The Sargasso Sea, Jp Stone, Deborah K. Steinberg
VIMS Articles
We developed a one-dimensional model to estimate salp contributions to vertical carbon flux at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre for a 17-yr period (April 1994 to December 2011). We based the model parameters on published rates of salp physiology and experimentally determined sinking and decomposition rates of salp carcasses. Salp grazing was low during non-bloom conditions, but routinely exceeded 100% of chlorophyll standing stock and primary production during blooms. Fecal pellet production was the largest source of salp carbon flux (78% of total), followed by respiration below 200 m (19%), sinking of …