Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

How Community Participation In Water And Sanitation Interventions Impacts Human Health, Wash Infrastructure And Service Longevity In Low-Income And Middle-Income Countries: A Realist Review, Sarah Nelson, Dorothy Drabarek, Aaron Jenkins, Joel Negin, Seye Abimbola

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Objective:

To understand how, and under what circumstances community participation in water and sanitation interventions impacts the availability of safe water and sanitation, a change in health status or behaviour and the longevity of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) resources and services.

Design:

Realist review.

Data sources:

PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases were used to identify papers from low-income and middle-income countries from 2010 to 2020.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies:

Criteria were developed for papers to be included. The contribution of each paper was assessed based on its relevance and rigour (eg, can it contribute to context, …

An Enabling Environment For Asset Management Through Public Policy: The Benefits Of Standardization And Application To The Water Sector, Tiffany Batac, Kerry Brown, Rita Salgado Brito, Iain Cranston, Tetsuya Mizutani

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Water services—including urban water supply, wastewater, and stormwater services—are essential to society and critical for protecting human health and the well-being of communities. Goal 6 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognizes this importance and aims to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Despite progress, the UN reports billions of people still lack water and sanitation services. Many governments around the world face the challenge of balancing between investment in new assets, programs, and services and providing the required funding for repair and replacement of existing water assets. This paper argues infrastructure …

Duty To Address Climate Change Litigation Risks For Australian Energy Companies—Policy And Governance Issues, Prafula Pearce

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy requires cooperation from all, including corporations, shareholders, and institutional investors. The purpose of this paper is to explore climate change litigation risks for Australian energy companies and investors from a policy and governance perspective. Companies are increasingly reporting their climate policies to satisfy their shareholders and investor demands. In addition, the government and judiciary are making laws and decisions to support the Paris Agreement. This paper explores whether company directors can and, in some cases, should be considering the impact of climate change litigation risks on their business, or else risk breaching …

Breeding And Feeding Habitat Selection By An Island Endemic Bird May Increase Its Vulnerability To Climate Change, Paul M. Radley, Eddie J. B. Van Etten, David Blake, Robert A. Davis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Characterizing patterns of habitat use is an important first step for effective conservation planning. Species restricted to low-lying islands are at greatest risk from climate change-related sea level rise, and requirements for breeding and foraging habitat may determine their risk from tidal inundation. The endangered Micronesian Scrubfowl (Megapodius laperouse senex) is a model species for understanding these impacts. This species faces the cumulative challenges of tourist visitation, invasive species, and rising sea levels, yet little is understood about its habitat use in the Rock Islands Southern Lagoon Conservation Area (RISL) of Palau. We studied the habitat requirements of this mound-nesting …

Thirty Critical Research Needs For Managing An Ecologically And Culturally Unique Remote Marine Environment: The Kimberley Region Of Western Australia, C. Cvitanovic, M. Mackay, R. Kelly, S. K. Wilson, K. Waples, K. L. Nash, E. I. Van Putten, S. Field, T. Botterill-James, B. J. Austin, L. E. Beckley, F. Boschetti, M. Depczynski, R. J. Dobbs, R. D. Evans, M. Feng, R. K. Goater, A. R. Halford, A. Kendrick, G. A. Kendrick, G. D. B. Lincoln, L. J. Ludgerus, R. J. Lowe, Kathryn Mcmahon, J. K. Munro, S. J. Newman, C. Nutt, L. Pearson, M. J. O'Leary, Z. T. Richards, W. D. Robbins, D. I. Rogers, Chandra P. Salgado Kent, V. Schoepf, M. J. Travers, M. Thums, A. D. Tucker, J. N. Underwood, S. Whiting, D. Matthews, Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The Kimberley marine environment in Western Australia is widely recognised for its outstanding natural features, vast and remote sea and landscapes, and Indigenous cultural significance. To ensure that adequate baseline information is available to understand, monitor and manage this remote and relatively understudied region, scientific exploration was undertaken between 2012 and 2018 as part of the Kimberley Marine Research Program (KMRP). Whilst this program generated significant amounts of new knowledge about the region, important research gaps remain, that if answered, should improve the capacity of managers to conserve the region's values more effectively. Here, we apply established participatory horizon scanning …

Reflecting On, And Revising, International Best Practice Principles For Eia Follow-Up, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Jos Arts, Alan Bond, Jenny Pope, Francois Retief

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Follow-up is a vital component of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), being essential for understanding assessment outcomes. Long-standing international best practice principles for EIA follow-up are reviewed, and revisions proposed, based on workshops with academics and practitioners, literature review and self-reflection. The proposed revision of EIA follow-up principles will feature an introduction with a simple definition and explanation of objectives for follow-up, and 15 principles. The revised principles address: objective; context; early establishment; project life-cycle; transparency; accessibility; accountability; performance criteria provision; enforcement; learning; adaptive environmental management; flexible or adaptive approach; tiering; cumulative effects and overall performance evaluation. Through publishing this proposal, …

Covid-19 And Preparing Planetary Health For Future Ecological Crises: Hopes From Glycomics For Vaccine Innovation, Xueqing Wang, Zhaohua Zhong, Wei Wang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A key lesson emerging from COVID-19 is that pandemic proofing planetary health against future ecological crises calls for systems science and preventive medicine innovations. With greater proximity of the human and animal natural habitats in the 21st century, it is also noteworthy that zoonotic infections such as COVID-19 that jump from animals to humans are increasingly plausible in the coming decades. In this context, glycomics technologies and the third alphabet of life, the sugar code, offer veritable prospects to move omics systems science from discovery to diverse applications of relevance to global public health and preventive medicine. In this expert …

What A Load Of Rubbish! The Efficacy Of Theory Of Planned Behaviour And Norm Activation Model In Predicting Visitors’ Binning Behaviour In National Parks, Kourosh Esfandiar, Ross Dowling, Joanna Pearce, Edmund Goh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 The Authors A specific concern for many park managers is the generation of waste by visitors. One way to combat this issue in national parks is to encourage visitors to put their litter in a bin. This study investigates binning behaviour, as a type of pro-environmental behaviour, of visitors to Yanchep National Park, Australia. Using structural equation modelling, this study tested an integrated structural model combining the theory of planned behaviour and the norm-activation model with data from 219 visitors to this park. The study tried to move away from measuring visitors' pro-environmental intention and instead gathered data …

Taking An Environmental Ethics Perspective To Understand What We Should Expect From Eia In Terms Of Biodiversity Protection, Alan Bond, Jenny Pope, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Francois Retief

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. As a globally mandated decision-support tool, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has the potential to contribute to the protection of biodiversity, which is increasingly under threat because of human activities. Concern over its ability to do this, however, has led to the addition of trade-off rules, Ecosystem Services Assessment (ESA), and biodiversity offsets. But given that EIA is set in a political decision-making context, what is reasonable to expect of EIA? In this paper we seek to explore what level of biodiversity protection we can expect EIA to support (and therefore whether these additions are worthwhile). Our …

Fire In Semi-Arid Shrublands And Woodlands: Spatial And Temporal Patterns In An Australian Landscape, Eddie Van Etten, Robert A. Davis, Tim S. Doherty

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Semi-arid landscapes are of interest to fire ecologists because they are generally located in the climatic transition zone between arid lands (where fires tend to be rare due to lack of fuel, but are enhanced following large rainfall episodes) and more mesic regions (where fire activity tends to be enhanced following severe rainfall deficits). Here we report on the characteristics of the contemporary fire regimes operating in a semi-arid region of inland south-western Australia with rainfall averaging around 300 mm per annum. To characterize fire regimes, we analyzed a geodatabase of fire scars (1960–2018) to derive fire preferences for each …

Prediction Of Mean Wave Overtopping At Simple Sloped Breakwaters Using Kernel-Based Methods, Shabnam Hosseinzadeh, Amir Etemad-Shahidi, Ali Koosheh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The accurate prediction of the mean wave overtopping rate at breakwaters is vital for a safe design. Hence, providing a robust tool as a preliminary estimator can be useful for practitioners. Recently, soft computing tools such as artificial neural networks (ANN) have been developed as alternatives to traditional overtopping formulae. The goal of this paper is to assess the capabilities of two kernel-based methods, namely Gaussian process regression (GPR) and support vector regression for the prediction of mean wave overtopping rate at sloped breakwaters. An extensive dataset taken from the EurOtop database, including rubble mound structures with permeable core, straight …

The Role Of Aerodynamic Resistance In Thermal Remote Sensing-Based Evapotranspiration Models, Ivonne Trebs, Kaniska Mallick, Nishan Bhattarai, Mauro Sulis, Jamie Cleverly, William Woodgate, Richard Silberstein, Nina Hinko-Najera, Jason Beringer, Wayne S. Meyer, Zhongbo Su, Gilles Boulet

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Aerodynamic resistance (hereafter ra) is a preeminent variable in evapotranspiration (ET) modelling. The accurate quantification of ra plays a pivotal role in determining the performance and consistency of thermal remote sensing-based surface energy balance (SEB) models for estimating ET at local to regional scales. Atmospheric stability links ra with land surface temperature (LST) and the representation of their interactions in the SEB models determines the accuracy of ET estimates. The present study investigates the influence of ra and its relation to LST uncertainties on the performance of three structurally different SEB models. It used data from nine Australian OzFlux eddy …

Population-Specific Resilience Of Halophila Ovalis Seagrass Habitat To Unseasonal Rainfall, An Extreme Climate Event In Estuaries, Chanelle L. Webster, Kieryn L. Kilminster, Marta Sánchez Alarcón, Katherine Bennett, Simone Strydom, Sian Mcnamara, Paul S. Lavery, Kathryn M. Mcmahon

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

1. Extreme climate events are predicted to alter estuarine salinity gradients exposing habitat-forming species to more frequent salinity variations. The intensity and duration of these variations, rather than the mean salinity values ecosystems are exposed to, may be more important in influencing resilience but requires further investigation.
2. Precipitation, including the frequency, intensity and timing of occurrence, is shifting due to climate change. A global analysis on the timing of rainfall in estuarine catchments was conducted. In 80% of the case studies, the maximum daily rainfall occurred in the dry season at least once over the 40-year period and could be classified …

Evidence Of Large Increases In Sedimentation Rates Due To Fish Trawling In Submarine Canyons Of The Gulf Of Palermo (Sw Mediterranean), Sarah Paradis, Claudio Lo Iacono, Pere Masqué, Pere Puig, Albert Palanques, Tommaso Russo, The Island Cruise Tem

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Bottom trawling in submarine canyons can affect their natural sedimentation rates, but studies addressing this issue are still scarce. In the Gulf of Palermo (SW Mediterranean), bottom trawling occurs on the slope around Oreto, Arenella and Eleuterio canyons. Analyses of excess 210Pb concentrations and grain size fractions in sediment cores from their canyon axes revealed that sedimentation rates and silt contents increased in all canyons in the 1980s, due to the expansion of more powerful trawlers ( > 500 HP) to deeper fishing grounds. In Eleuterio and Arenella canyons, sedimentation rates increased by an order of magnitude (0.1-1.4 cm·yr-1), whereas they …

Modelling Climatic And Temporal Influences On Boating Traffic With Relevance To Digital Camera Monitoring Of Recreational Fisheries, Ebenezer Afrifa-Yamoah, Stephen M. Taylor, Ute A. Mueller

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Digital camera monitoring data on recreational boating traffic are often manually interpreted and the reading cost can be expensive. Typically, these data are used along with other periodic survey information and camera data between these surveys may not be read, creating gaps in the time series. We predicted recreational boating traffic during these ‘gap’ periods using historical camera data and covariates to complete the time series data. Predictive models were built in a Bayesian regression modelling framework to determine the daily distribution of recreational boating traffic at two ramps in Western Australia based on climatic variables (temperature, humidity, wind speed, …

Climate Change, Activism, And Supporting The Mental Health Of Children And Young People: Perspectives From Western Australia, Naomi J. Godden, Brad M. Farrant, Jaime Yallup Farrant, Emma Heyink, Eva Carot Collins, Bella Burgemeister, Mena Tabeshfar, Jason Barrow, Mara West, Jasmine Kieft, Mason Rothwell, Zoe Leviston, Susan Bailey, Mindy Blaise, Trudi Cooper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The climate crisis has detrimental impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Psychological effects include feelings of fear, overwhelm, worry, distress, hopelessness and anger; PTSD; depression; anxiety; phobias; panic disorder; sleep disturbances; attachment disorders; learning difficulties; substance abuse; shock and trauma symptoms; adjustment problems; behavioural problems; and, suicidal thinking. First Nations' children and young people are particularly at risk due to loss of place, identity, culture, land and customs informed by kinship relationships with the Earth; while sustainable land use practices and connection to Country and community can enhance climate resilience. In Western Australia (WA), …

Delamination-And Electromigration-Related Failures In Solar Panels—A Review, Abdulwahab A. Q. Hasan, Ammar Ahmed Alkahtani, Seyed Ahmad Shahahmadi, Mohammad N. E. Alam, Mohammad Aminul Islam, Nowshad Amin

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The reliability of photovoltaic (PV) modules operating under various weather conditions attracts the manufacturer’s concern since several studies reveal a degradation rate higher than 0.8% per year for the silicon-based technology and reached up to 2.76% per year in a harsh climate. The lifetime of the PV modules is decreased because of numerous degradation modes. Electromigration and delamination are two failure modes that play a significant role in PV modules’ output power losses. The correlations of these two phenomena are not sufficiently explained and understood like other failures such as corrosion and potential-induced degradation. Therefore, in this review, we attempt …

A Temporal Record Of Microplastic Pollution In Mediterranean Seagrass Soils, Martin Dahl, Sanne Bergman, Mats Björk, Elena Diaz-Almela, Maria Granberg, Martin Gullström, Carmen Leiva-Dueñas, Kerstin Magnusson, Candela Marco-Méndez, Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal, Miguel Ángel Mateo

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 Elsevier Ltd Plastic pollution is emerging as a potential threat to the marine environment. In the current study, we selected seagrass meadows, known to efficiently trap organic and inorganic particles, to investigate the concentrations and dynamics of microplastics in their soil. We assessed microplastic contamination and accumulation in 210Pb dated soil cores collected in Posidonia oceanica meadows at three locations along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, with two sites located in the Almería region (Agua Amarga and Roquetas) and one at Cabrera Island (Santa Maria). Almería is known for its intense agricultural industry with 30 000 ha of plastic-covered …

Sustainability In Construction Projects: A Systematic Literature Review, Reza Kiani Mavi, Denise Gengatharen, Neda Kiani Mavi, Richard Hughes, Alistair J. Campbell, Ross Yates

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper aims to identify the major research concepts studied in the literature of sustainability in construction projects. Two bibliometric analysis tools—(a) BibExcel and (b) Gephi, were used to analyze the bibliometrics indices of papers and visualize their interrelations as a network, respectively. Therefore, a research focus parallelship network (RFPN) analysis and keyword co-occurrence network (KCON) analysis were performed to uncover the primary research themes. The RFPN analysis clustered the studies into three major categories of evaluating sustainability, project management for sustainability, and drivers of sustainable construction. The KCON analysis revealed that while each paper had a different focus, the …

Led Illumination Spectrum Manipulation For Increasing The Yield Of Sweet Basil (Ocimum Basilicum L.), Md Momtazur Rahman, Mikhail Vasiliev, Kamal Alameh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Manipulation of the LED illumination spectrum can enhance plant growth rate and development in grow tents. We report on the identification of the illumination spectrum required to significantly enhance the growth rate of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) plants in grow tent environments by controlling the LED wavebands illuminating the plants. Since the optimal illumination spectrum depends on the plant type, this work focuses on identifying the illumination spectrum that achieves significant basil biomass improvement compared to improvements reported in prior studies. To be able to optimize the illumination spectrum, several …

Dynamics And Fate Of Blue Carbon In A Mangrove–Seagrass Seascape: Influence Of Landscape Configuration And Land-Use Change, Maria E. Asplund, Martin Dahl, Rashid O. Ismail, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Diana Deyanova, João N. Franco, Linus Hammar, Arielle I. Hoamby, Hans W. Linderholm, Liberatus D. Lyimo, Diana Perry, Lina M. Rasmusson, Samantha N. Ridgway, Gloria Salgado Gispert, Stéphanie D’Agata, Leah Glass, Jamal Angelot Mahafina, Volanirina Ramahery, Pere Masque, Mats Björk, Martin Gullström

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Context: Seagrass meadows act as efficient natural carbon sinks by sequestering atmospheric CO and through trapping of allochthonous organic material, thereby preserving organic carbon (C ) in their sediments. Less understood is the influence of landscape configuration and transformation (land-use change) on carbon sequestration dynamics in coastal seascapes across the land–sea interface. Objectives: We explored the influence of landscape configuration and degradation of adjacent mangroves on the dynamics and fate of C in seagrass habitats. Methods: Through predictive modelling, we assessed sedimentary C content, stocks and source composition in multiple seascapes (km-wide buffer zones) dominated by different seagrass communities in …

Recovery Agenda For Sustainable Development Post Covid-19 At The Country Level: Developing A Fuzzy Action Priority Surface, Meisam Ranjbari, Zahra S. Esfandabadi, Simone D. Scagnelli, Peer O. Siebers, Francesco Quatraro

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

As a response to the urgent call for recovery actions against the COVID-19 crisis, this research aims to identify action priority areas post COVID-19 toward achieving the targets of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development launched by the United Nations (UN). This paper applies a mixed-method approach to map the post-COVID-19 SDGs targets on a fuzzy action priority surface at the country level in Iran, as a developing country, by taking the following four main steps: (1) using a modified Delphi method to make a list of the SDGs targets influenced by COVID-19; (2) …

The Renaissance Of Odum's Outwelling Hypothesis In 'Blue Carbon' Science, Isaac R. Santos, David J. Burdige, Tim C. Jennerjahn, Steven Bouillon, Alex Cabral, Oscar Serrano, Thomas Wernberg, Karen Filbee-Dexter, Julia A. Guimond, Joseph J. Tamborski

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The term ‘Blue Carbon’ was coined about a decade ago to highlight the important carbon sequestration capacity of coastal vegetated ecosystems. The term has paved the way for the development of programs and policies that preserve and restore these threatened coastal ecosystems for climate change mitigation. Blue carbon research has focused on quantifying carbon stocks and burial rates in sediments or accumulating as biomass. This focus on habitat-bound carbon led us to losing sight of the mobile blue carbon fraction. Oceans, the largest active reservoir of carbon, have become somewhat of a blind spot. Multiple recent investigations have revealed high …

Factors Determining Seagrass Blue Carbon Across Bioregions And Geomorphologies, Ines Mazarrasa, Paul Lavery, Carlos M. Duarte, Anna Lafratta, Catherine E. Lovelock, Peter I. Macreadie, Jimena Samper-Villarreal, Cristian Salinas, Christian J. Sanders, Stacey Trevathan-Tackett, Mary Young, Andy Steven, Oscar Serrano

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Seagrass meadows rank among the most significant organic carbon (C_org) sinks on earth. We examined the variability in seagrass soil C_org stocks and composition across Australia and identified the main drivers of variability, applying a spatially hierarchical approach that incorporates bioregions and geomorphic settings. Top 30 cm soil C_org stocks were similar across bioregions and geomorphic settings (min-max: 20–26 Mg C_org ha⁻¹), but meadows formed by large species (i.e., Amphibolis spp. and Posidonia spp.) showed higher stocks (24–29 Mg C_org ha⁻¹) than those formed by smaller species (e.g., Halodule, Halophila, …

Aquatic Ecosystems Of The Anthropocene: Limnology And Microbial Ecology Of Mine Pit Lakes, Melanie L. Blanchette, Mark A. Lund

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Mine pit lakes (‘pit lakes’) are new aquatic ecosystems of the Anthropocene. Potentially hundreds of meters deep, these lakes are prominent in the landscape and in the public consciousness. However, the ecology of pit lakes is underrepresented in the literature. The broad goal of this research was to determine the environmental drivers of pelagic microbe assemblages in Australian coal pit lakes. The overall experimental design was four lakes sampled three times, top and bottom, in 2019. Instrument chains were installed in lakes and measurements of in situ water quality and water samples for metals, metalloids, nutrients and microbe assemblage were …

Soil Carbon Stocks Vary Across Geomorphic Settings In Australian Temperate Tidal Marsh Ecosystems, Connor Gorham, Paul Lavery, Jeffrey J. Kelleway, Cristian Salinas, Oscar Serrano

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Tidal marshes rank among the ecosystems with the highest capacity to sequester and store organic carbon (C_org) on earth. To inform conservation of coastal vegetated ecosystems for climate change mitigation, this study investigated the factors driving variability in carbon storage. We estimated soil C_org stocks in tidal marshes across temperate Western Australia and assessed differences among geomorphic settings (marine and fluvial deltas, and mid-estuary) and vegetation type (Sarcocornia quinqueflora and Juncus kraussii) linked to soil biogeochemistry. Soil C_org stocks within fluvial and mid-estuary settings were significantly higher (209 ± 14 and 211 ± 20 …

Genetic And Ecological Consequences Of Recent Habitat Fragmentation In A Narrow Endemic Plant Species Within An Urban Context, Nicola Delnevo, Andrea Piotti, Michele Carbognani, Eddie J. Van Etten, William D. Stock, David L. Field, Margaret Byrne

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Understanding the timescales that shape spatial genetic structure is pivotal to ascertain the impact of habitat fragmentation on the genetic diversity and reproductive viability of long-lived plant populations. Combining genetic and ecological information with current and past fragmentation conditions allows the identification of the main drivers important in shaping population structure and declines in reproduction, which is crucial for informing conservation strategies. Using historic aerial photographs, we defined the past fragmentation conditions for the shrub Conospermum undulatum, a species now completely embedded in an urban area. We explored the impact of current and past conditions on its genetic layout …

Accessing The Effect Of Renewables On The Wholesale Power Market, Mohammad Nure Alam

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021, Econjournals. All rights reserved. The purpose of this paper is to examine how rising wind energy generation (in MWh) impact the wholesale power market’s volatility (in SEK) across four bidding regions in Sweden. Prior investigations show that though the increase in electricity production from wind energy lowers the average day-ahead electricity wholesale prices, however, uncertainty and volatility of market price could rise due to wind energy’s intermittent nature. This study results show that Swedish power market experiences higher price volatility in long-run frequency when the generation of wind electricity increases. The reason for this high and volatile electricity …

Detecting Sex-Related Changes To The Metabolome Of A Critically Endangered Freshwater Crayfish During The Mating Season, Emily Lette, Quinton Burnham, Nathan Lawler, Pierre Horwitz, Mary C. Boyce, David I. Broadhurst, Rodney Duffy, Annette Koenders

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Captive breeding is a vital tool in the conservation of highly endangered species, as it is for the Margaret River hairy marron, Cherax tenuimanus, from the south west of Australia. A close relative, Cherax cainii, has almost completely displaced C. tenuimanus in the wild and is a successful aquaculture species, whereas C. tenuimanus has performed poorly in captivity. We used untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to obtain metabolomic profiles of female and male C. tenuimanus held in controlled aquarium conditions during their reproductive period. Using repeated haemolymph sampling we tracked the metabolomic profiles of animals just prior to and …

Kelp-Associated Microbes Facilitate Spatial Subsidy In A Detrital-Based Food Web In A Shoreline Ecosystem, Charu Lata Singh, Megan J. Huggett, Paul S. Lavery, Christin Säwström, Glenn A. Hyndes

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Microbes are ubiquitous but our knowledge of their effects on consumers is limited in benthic marine systems. Shorelines often form hotspots of microbial and detritivore activity due to the large amounts of detrital macrophytes that are exported from other coastal ecosystems, such as kelp forests, and accumulate in these systems. Shoreline ecosystems therefore provide a useful model system to examine microbial-detritivore interactions. We experimentally test whether bacteria in the biofilm of kelp provide a bottom-up influence on growth and reproductive output of detritivores in shorelines where detrital kelp accumulates, by manipulating the bacterial abundances on kelp (Ecklonia radiata). The growth …