Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology | Open Access Articles

Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas Have Higher Biodiversity Via Increased Evenness, Not Abundance, Shane A. Blowes, Jonathan M. Chase, Antonio Di Franco, Ori Frid, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Paolo Guidetti, Tiffany M. Knight, Felix May, Daniel J. Mcglinn, Fiorenza Micheli, Enric Sala, Jonathan Belmaker

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Journal of Applied Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. Protected areas are central to biodiversity conservation. For marine fish, marine protected areas (MPAs) often harbour more individuals, especially of species targeted by fisheries. But precise pathways of biodiversity change remain unclear. For example, how local-scale responses combine to affect regional biodiversity, important for managing spatial networks of MPAs, is not well known. Protection potentially influences three components of fish assemblages that determine how species accumulate with sampling effort and spatial scale: the total number of individuals, the relative abundance of species and …

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Optimizing Wetland Restoration To Improve Water Quality At A Regional Scale, Nitin K. Singh, Jesse D. Gourevitch, Beverley C. Wemple, Keri B. Watson, Donna M. Rizzo, Stephen Polasky, Taylor H. Ricketts

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Excessive phosphorus (P) export to aquatic ecosystems can lead to impaired water quality. There is a growing interest among watershed managers in using restored wetlands to retain P from agricultural landscapes and improve water quality. We develop a novel framework for prioritizing wetland restoration at a regional scale. The framework uses an ecosystem service model and an optimization algorithm that maximizes P reduction for given levels of restoration cost. Applying our framework in the Lake Champlain Basin, we find that wetland restoration can reduce P export by 2.6% for a budget of $50 M and …

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Deliberation And The Promise Of A Deeply Democratic Sustainability Transition, Michael B. Wironen, Robert V. Bartlett, Jon D. Erickson

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Ecological economics arose as a normative transdiscipline aiming to generate knowledge and tools to help transition the economy toward a scale which is sustainable within the bounds of the earth system. Yet it remains unclear in practice how to legitimize its explicitly normative agenda. One potential means for legitimation can be found in deliberative social and political theory. We review how deliberative theory has informed ecological economics, pointing to three uses: first, to support valuation of non-market goods and services; second, to inform environmental decision-making more broadly; third, to ground alternative theories of development and wellbeing. We argue that deliberation …

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From The Anthropocene To Mutual Thriving: An Agenda For Higher Education In The Ecozoic, Ivan Vargas Roncancio, Leah Temper, Joshua Sterlin, Nina L. Smolyar, Shaun Sellers, Maya Moore, Rigo Melgar-Melgar

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Higher education in the global North, and exported elsewhere, is complicit in driving the planet's socio-ecological crises by teaching how to most effectively marginalize and plunder Earth and human communities. As students and activists within the academic system, we take a firm stand to arrest this cycle, and to redirect education toward teaching how to create conditions for all life to thrive. In this paper, we articulate a research and education agenda for co-constructing knowledge and wisdom, and propose shifts in the 'ologies from the current, destructive modes to intended regenerative counterparts. We offer to shift from an ontology of …

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Similarity Of Introduced Plant Species To Native Ones Facilitates Naturalization, But Differences Enhance Invasion Success, Jan Divíšek, Milan Chytrý, Brian Beckage, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Zdeňka Lososová, Petr Pyšek, David M. Richardson, Jane Molofsky

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

The search for traits associated with plant invasiveness has yielded contradictory results, in part because most previous studies have failed to recognize that different traits are important at different stages along the introduction–naturalization–invasion continuum. Here we show that across six different habitat types in temperate Central Europe, naturalized non-invasive species are functionally similar to native species occurring in the same habitat type, but invasive species are different as they occupy the edge of the plant functional trait space represented in each habitat. This pattern was driven mainly by the greater average height of invasive species. These results suggest that the …

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Econullnetr: An R Package Using Null Models To Analyse The Structure Of Ecological Networks And Identify Resource Selection, Ian P. Vaughan, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Jane Memmott, Caitlin E. Pearson, Guy Woodward, William O.C. Symondson

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Network analysis is increasingly widespread in ecology, with frequent questions asking which nodes (typically species) interact with one another and how strong are the interactions. Null models are a way of addressing these questions, helping to distinguish patterns driven by neutral mechanisms or sampling effects (e.g. relative abundance of different taxa, sampling completeness) from deterministic biological mechanisms (e.g. resource selection and avoidance), but few “off the shelf” tools are available. We present econullnetr, an r package combining null modelling and plotting functions for networks, with data-export tools to facilitate its use alongside existing network analysis packages. It models resource choices …

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Ecological Network Metrics: Opportunities For Synthesis, Matthew K. Lau, Stuart R. Borrett, Benjamin Baiser, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Aaron M. Ellison

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Network ecology provides a systems basis for approaching ecological questions, such as factors that influence biological diversity, the role of particular species or particular traits in structuring ecosystems, and long-term ecological dynamics (e.g., stability). Whereas the introduction of network theory has enabled ecologists to quantify not only the degree, but also the architecture of ecological complexity, these advances have come at the cost of introducing new challenges, including new theoretical concepts and metrics, and increased data complexity and computational intensity. Synthesizing recent developments in the network ecology literature, we point to several potential solutions to these issues: integrating network metrics …

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Pleistocene Relative Sea Levels In The Chesapeake Bay Region And Their Implications For The Next Century, Benjamin D. Dejong, Paul R. Bierman, Wayne L. Newell, Tammy M. Rittenour, Shannon A. Mahan, Greg Balco, Dylan H. Rood

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Today, relative sea-level rise (3.4 mm/yr) is faster in the Chesapeake Bay region than any other location on the Atlantic coast of North America, and twice the global average eustatic rate (1.7 mm/yr). Dated interglacial deposits suggest that relative sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay region deviate from global trends over a range of timescales. Glacio-isostatic adjustment of the land surface from loading and unloading of continental ice is likely responsible for these deviations, but our understanding of the scale and timeframe over which isostatic response operates in this region remains incomplete because dated sea-level proxies are mostly limited to …

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Quantifying Temporal Change In Biodiversity: Challenges And Opportunities, Maria Dornelas, Anne E. Magurran, Stephen T. Buckland, Anne Chao, Robin L. Chazdon, Robert K. Colwell, Tom Curtis, Kevin J. Gaston, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Matthew A. Kosnik, Brian Mcgill, Jenny L. Mccune, Hélène Morlon, Peter J. Mumby, Lise Øvreås, Angelika Studeny, Mark Vellend

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Growing concern about biodiversity loss underscores the need to quantify and understand temporal change. Here, we review the opportunities presented by biodiversity time series, and address three related issues: (i) recognizing the characteristics of temporal data; (ii) selecting appropriate statistical procedures for analysing temporal data; and (iii) inferring and forecasting biodiversity change. With regard to the first issue, we draw attention to defining characteristics of biodiversity time series-lack of physical boundaries, unidimensionality, autocorrelation and directionality-that inform the choice of analytic methods. Second, we explore methods of quantifying change in biodiversity at different timescales, noting that autocorrelation can be viewed as …

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Randomization Tests For Quantifying Species Importance To Ecosystem Function, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Werner Ulrich, Fernando T. Maestre

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

1. Quantifying the contribution of different species to ecosystem function is an important challenge. We introduce simple randomization tests (and software) for quantifying the average effect of species on ecosystem variables measured in multiple plots with and without the presence of a particular species. These randomization tests formalize the analysis of uncontrolled 'natural experiments' and quantify species effects in standardized deviation units. 2.We tested the method with data on ecosystem function in biological soil crust assemblages of lichens in semi-arid gypsum outcrops in central Spain. In sixty-three 50cm×50cm sample plots, we measured the presence and percentage cover of 17 species …

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Heating Up The Forest: Open-Top Chamber Warming Manipulation Of Arthropod Communities At Harvard And Duke Forests, Shannon L. Pelini, Francis P. Bowles, Aaron M. Ellison, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Nathan J. Sanders, Robert R. Dunn

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

1.Recent observations indicate that climatic change is altering biodiversity, and models suggest that the consequences of climate change will differ across latitude. However, long-term experimental field manipulations that directly test the predictions about organisms' responses to climate change across latitude are lacking. Such experiments could provide a more mechanistic understanding of the consequences of climate change on ecological communities and subsequent changes in ecosystem processes, facilitating better predictions of the effects of future climate change. 2.This field experiment uses octagonal, 5-m-diameter (c.22m 3) open-top chambers to simulate warming at northern (Harvard Forest, Massachusetts) and southern (Duke Forest, North Carolina) hardwood …

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Full-Text Articles in Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology

Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas Have Higher Biodiversity Via Increased Evenness, Not Abundance, Shane A. Blowes, Jonathan M. Chase, Antonio Di Franco, Ori Frid, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Paolo Guidetti, Tiffany M. Knight, Felix May, Daniel J. Mcglinn, Fiorenza Micheli, Enric Sala, Jonathan Belmaker

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Optimizing Wetland Restoration To Improve Water Quality At A Regional Scale, Nitin K. Singh, Jesse D. Gourevitch, Beverley C. Wemple, Keri B. Watson, Donna M. Rizzo, Stephen Polasky, Taylor H. Ricketts

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Deliberation And The Promise Of A Deeply Democratic Sustainability Transition, Michael B. Wironen, Robert V. Bartlett, Jon D. Erickson

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

From The Anthropocene To Mutual Thriving: An Agenda For Higher Education In The Ecozoic, Ivan Vargas Roncancio, Leah Temper, Joshua Sterlin, Nina L. Smolyar, Shaun Sellers, Maya Moore, Rigo Melgar-Melgar

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Similarity Of Introduced Plant Species To Native Ones Facilitates Naturalization, But Differences Enhance Invasion Success, Jan Divíšek, Milan Chytrý, Brian Beckage, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Zdeňka Lososová, Petr Pyšek, David M. Richardson, Jane Molofsky

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Econullnetr: An R Package Using Null Models To Analyse The Structure Of Ecological Networks And Identify Resource Selection, Ian P. Vaughan, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Jane Memmott, Caitlin E. Pearson, Guy Woodward, William O.C. Symondson

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Ecological Network Metrics: Opportunities For Synthesis, Matthew K. Lau, Stuart R. Borrett, Benjamin Baiser, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Aaron M. Ellison

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Pleistocene Relative Sea Levels In The Chesapeake Bay Region And Their Implications For The Next Century, Benjamin D. Dejong, Paul R. Bierman, Wayne L. Newell, Tammy M. Rittenour, Shannon A. Mahan, Greg Balco, Dylan H. Rood

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Randomization Tests For Quantifying Species Importance To Ecosystem Function, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Werner Ulrich, Fernando T. Maestre

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Heating Up The Forest: Open-Top Chamber Warming Manipulation Of Arthropod Communities At Harvard And Duke Forests, Shannon L. Pelini, Francis P. Bowles, Aaron M. Ellison, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Nathan J. Sanders, Robert R. Dunn

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications