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Key Biogeochemical Factors Affecting Soil Carbon Storage In Posidonia Meadows, Oscar Serrano, Aurora M. Ricart, Paul S. Lavery, Miguel-Angel Mateo, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Pere Masque, Mohammad Rozaimi, Andy D. L. Steven, Carlos Duarte 2016 Edith Cowan University

Key Biogeochemical Factors Affecting Soil Carbon Storage In Posidonia Meadows, Oscar Serrano, Aurora M. Ricart, Paul S. Lavery, Miguel-Angel Mateo, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Pere Masque, Mohammad Rozaimi, Andy D. L. Steven, Carlos Duarte

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Biotic and abiotic factors influence the accumulation of organic carbon (Corg) in seagrass ecosystems.We surveyed Posidonia sinuosa meadows growing in different water depths to assess the variability in the sources, stocks and accumulation rates of Corg. We show that over the last 500 years, P. sinuosa meadows closer to the upper limit of distribution (at 2-4m depth) accumulated 3- to 4-fold higher Corg stocks (averaging 6.3 kgCorg m-2) at 3- to 4-fold higher rates (12.8 gCorg m-2 yr-1/ compared to meadows closer to the deep limits of distribution …


Coastal Connectivity And Spatial Subsidy From A Microbial Perspective, Christin Säwström, Glenn A. Hyndes, Bradley D. Eyre, Megan J. Huggett, Matthew W. Fraser, Paul S. Lavery, Paul G. Thomson, Flavia Tarquinio, P. D. Steinberg, Bonnie Laverock 2016 Edith Cowan University

Coastal Connectivity And Spatial Subsidy From A Microbial Perspective, Christin Säwström, Glenn A. Hyndes, Bradley D. Eyre, Megan J. Huggett, Matthew W. Fraser, Paul S. Lavery, Paul G. Thomson, Flavia Tarquinio, P. D. Steinberg, Bonnie Laverock

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The transfer of organic material from one coastal environment to another can increase production in recipient habitats in a process known as spatial subsidy. Microorganisms drive the generation, transformation, and uptake of organic material in shallow coastal environments, but their significance in connecting coastal habitats through spatial subsidies has received limited attention. We address this by presenting a conceptual model of coastal connectivity that focuses on the flow of microbially mediated organic material in key coastal habitats. Our model suggests that it is not the difference in generation rates of organic material between coastal habitats but the amount of organic …


Accelerating Tropicalization And The Transformation Of Temperate Seagrass Meadows, Glenn A. Hyndes, Kenneth L. Heck, Jnr, Adriana Verges, Euan S. Harvey, Gary A. Kendrick, Paul Lavery, Kathryn McMahon, Robert J. Orth, Alan Pearce, Mathew Vanderklift, Thomas Wernberg, Scott Whiting, Shaun Wilson 2016 Edith Cowan University

Accelerating Tropicalization And The Transformation Of Temperate Seagrass Meadows, Glenn A. Hyndes, Kenneth L. Heck, Jnr, Adriana Verges, Euan S. Harvey, Gary A. Kendrick, Paul Lavery, Kathryn Mcmahon, Robert J. Orth, Alan Pearce, Mathew Vanderklift, Thomas Wernberg, Scott Whiting, Shaun Wilson

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Climate-driven changes are altering production and functioning of biotic assemblages in terrestrial and aquatic environments. In temperate coastal waters, rising sea temperatures, warm water anomalies and poleward shifts in the distribution of tropical herbivores have had a detrimental effect on algal forests. We develop generalized scenarios of this form of tropicalization and its potential effects on the structure and functioning of globally significant and threatened seagrass ecosystems, through poleward shifts in tropical seagrasses and herbivores. Initially, we expect tropical herbivorous fishes to establish in temperate seagrass meadows, followed later by megafauna. Tropical seagrasses are likely to establish later, delayed by …


Permanent Slides For Morphological Studies Of Small Crustaceans: Serban's Method And Its Variation Applied On Bathynellacea (Malacostraca), Giulia Perina, Ana I. Camacho 2016 Edith Cowan University / Western Australian Museum

Permanent Slides For Morphological Studies Of Small Crustaceans: Serban's Method And Its Variation Applied On Bathynellacea (Malacostraca), Giulia Perina, Ana I. Camacho

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Morphological studies of small invertebrates often involve the preparation of slides to observe minute body parts under a compound microscope. Preparation should facilitate observation, through traditional optical microscopy, of small surface structures on different planes, like pores, spines and setae. Various methods and techniques, using different mounting media that specialists have adopted to observe and preserve small crustaceans, have their advantages and disadvantages.Within the order Bathynellacea, specimens in the family Bathynellidae are particularly challenging due to their small size (0.5 to 2.25 mm body length) and very delicate exoskeleton, which tends to be completely digested when using common clearing mounting …


Predicting Suitable Habitat Decline Of Midwestern United States Amphibians And Quantifying The Consequence Of Declines Using Pond-Breeding Salamanders, Brock Struecker 2016 Loyola University Chicago

Predicting Suitable Habitat Decline Of Midwestern United States Amphibians And Quantifying The Consequence Of Declines Using Pond-Breeding Salamanders, Brock Struecker

Master's Theses

With current declines of vertebrate taxa meeting or exceeding those of historic mass extinction events, there is a growing need to investigate the main drivers of declines. Amphibians are perhaps at greatest risk of global climate change and land-use changes than most other vertebrate classes and also have significant roles in ecosystem processes – combined, this creates a cause for concern. I designed a study that would investigate the effects of current and predicted climate change and land-use changes on amphibians using species distribution models and a field study to identify the potential consequences of amphibian species declines by investigating …


Aquatic Insect Community Structure And Secondary Production In Southcentral Alaska Streams With Contrasting Thermal And Hydrologic Regimes, Samantha D. Hertel 2016 Loyola University Chicago

Aquatic Insect Community Structure And Secondary Production In Southcentral Alaska Streams With Contrasting Thermal And Hydrologic Regimes, Samantha D. Hertel

Master's Theses

Streams along the Copper River Delta, southcentral Alaska, exhibit contrasting thermal and hydrologic variability associated with being primarily groundwater-fed (GWF) or surface water-fed (SWF). Groundwater-fed streams are predictable both thermally and hydrologically year round, whereas SWF streams are unpredictable and exhibit more variable thermal and hydrologic regimes. These differences may strongly influence aquatic insect community structure and secondary production. Four streams, two GWF and two SWF, were sampled twice monthly from late April 2013 through August 2013 and once seasonally in fall (September) and early winter (November). Aquatic insect community structure differed markedly in both hydrologic types. Taxa richness was …


Early Round Goby (Neogobius Melanostomus) Invasion Into Lake Michigan Tributaries And Competitive Interactions With Two Native Benthic Fishes., Margaret Ann Malone 2016 Loyola University Chicago

Early Round Goby (Neogobius Melanostomus) Invasion Into Lake Michigan Tributaries And Competitive Interactions With Two Native Benthic Fishes., Margaret Ann Malone

Master's Theses

The round goby is a prolific invasive species and is currently spreading into Great Lake tributary streams. There is a high potential for negative impacts on native benthic fishes in these stream habitats and the aim of this study is to assess the impacts of the round goby on two native darter species in particular (johnny darter and blackside darter). I review the history of round goby invasion in the Great Lakes and summarize hypotheses of the invasive characters of the round goby. Using game theory, I provide a G-function approach to understanding the outcomes of the round goby invasion …


Understanding Emotional Suffering, Barbara J. King 2016 College of William and Mary

Understanding Emotional Suffering, Barbara J. King

Animal Sentience

In responding to insightful commentaries from 7 scholars, for which I am grateful, I offer new thoughts on whether animals can conceptualize and express signs of grief. I also discuss why I included both weak and strong examples of animal mourning, and how this work may help us think about enhanced welfare for animals, including freedom from emotional suffering.


Pain In Parallel, Peter Godfrey-Smith 2016 CUNY Graduate Center & University of Sydney

Pain In Parallel, Peter Godfrey-Smith

Animal Sentience

Key's (2016) arguments against the view that fish feel pain can be shown to be fallacious by considering some damage-related behaviors in invertebrates. Pain may have different neural bases in different organisms, so the absence in fish of the cortical structures that might underlie pain in mammals does not settle the question of fish pain.


Cortex Necessary For Pain — But Not In Sense That Matters, Adam J. Shriver 2016 University of Pennsylvania

Cortex Necessary For Pain — But Not In Sense That Matters, Adam J. Shriver

Animal Sentience

Certain cortical regions are necessary for pain in humans in the sense that, at particular times, they play a direct role in pain. However, it is not true that they are necessary in the more important sense that pain is never possible in humans without them. There are additional details from human lesion studies concerning functional plasticity that undermine Key’s (2016) interpretation. Moreover, no one has yet identified any specific behaviors that mammalian cortical pain regions make possible that are absent in fish.


Falsifying The Null Hypothesis That “Fish Do Not Feel Pain", Brian Key 2016 WellBeing International

Falsifying The Null Hypothesis That “Fish Do Not Feel Pain", Brian Key

Animal Sentience

The reader of Animal Sentience may surmise that because the weight of the commentaries on my target article, “Why fish do not feel pain,” is leaning towards not supporting my argument, it follows that the premise "fish do not feel pain" is incorrect. However, science does not prevail by popular opinion. History is plagued with numerous (and often widely accepted) examples of biological phenomena being explained by mysterious forces. In the absence of a mechanistic understanding, the many different guises of vitalism (the principle that life involves a vital energy) are often invoked to explain the unknown. Spurious …


Ship-Induced Depression Wakes And Shoreline Erosion, Luca Zaggia, Giuliano Lorenzetti, Georgia Manfe, Gian Marco Scarpaf, K. E. Parnell, John Rapaglia, E. Molinaroli 2016 National Research Council of Italy

Ship-Induced Depression Wakes And Shoreline Erosion, Luca Zaggia, Giuliano Lorenzetti, Georgia Manfe, Gian Marco Scarpaf, K. E. Parnell, John Rapaglia, E. Molinaroli

Biology Faculty Publications

Shoreline retreat as an effect of ship wakes was studied in a navigation channel of the industrial port of Venice, Italy: the Malamocco -Marghera Channel. The investigation revealed unprecedented erosion rates, up to 4 m y , that determined a total loss of about 1.2 million of m of soil in the period 1970 -2015. This interaction between navigation and the channel margins must be considered in order to understand the past evolution of the central Venice Lagoon and for a sustainable management of the port traffic in the future sea -level rise scenario.


The Effects Of Tidal Forcing On Nutrient Fluxes In The Tidal, Freshwater James River Estuary, Va, Dana L. Devore 2016 Virginia Commonwealth University

The Effects Of Tidal Forcing On Nutrient Fluxes In The Tidal, Freshwater James River Estuary, Va, Dana L. Devore

Theses and Dissertations

A 12-month study (January to December 2015) focused on the effects of tidal forcing on nutrient fluxes in the tidal, freshwater segment of the James River Estuary (JRE). Discrete sampling of nutrient chemistry and continuous monitoring of tidal discharge were used to determine the volume and timing of the tides, and differences in nutrient concentrations between incoming and outgoing tides. The goal of this study was to improve understanding of tidal influence on nutrient fluxes and their role in nutrient transport to the lower estuary. Results suggested that differences in nutrient concentrations between incoming and outgoing tides were small throughout …


Forest Stand Structure And Primary Production In Relation To Ecosystem Development, Disturbance, And Canopy Composition, Cynthia M. Scheuermann 2016 Virginia Commonwealth University

Forest Stand Structure And Primary Production In Relation To Ecosystem Development, Disturbance, And Canopy Composition, Cynthia M. Scheuermann

Theses and Dissertations

Temperate forests are complex ecosystems that sequester carbon (C) in biomass. C storage is related to ecosystem-scale forest structure, changing over succession, disturbance, and with community composition. We quantified ecosystem biological and physical structure in two forest chronosequences varying in disturbance intensity, and three late successional functional types to examine how multiple structural expressions relate to ecosystem C cycling. We quantified C cycling as wood net primary production (NPP), ecosystem structure as Simpson’s Index, and physical structure as leaf quantity (LAI) and arrangement (rugosity), examining how wood NPP-structure relates to light distribution and use-efficiency. Relationships between structural attributes of biodiversity, …


Death In The Family, Maria Botero 2016 WellBeing International

Death In The Family, Maria Botero

Animal Sentience

Barbara King presents grief as the result of the capacity of human and non-human animals for social and affectionate bonds. This is a novel approach that provides a context for interpreting behavioral evidence of grief. The book also offers thought-provoking insights into the relationship between emotion and the expression of emotion. The most surprising element of King’s approach is that, throughout the book, her account of non-human animal grief forces us to reassess the way we treat them.


Considering Animals’ Feelings: Précis Of Sentience And Animal Welfare (Broom 2014), Donald M. Broom 2016 University of Cambridge

Considering Animals’ Feelings: Précis Of Sentience And Animal Welfare (Broom 2014), Donald M. Broom

Animal Sentience

The concept of sentience concerns the capacity to have feelings. There is evidence for sophisticated cognitive concepts and for both positive and negative feelings in a wide range of nonhuman animals. All vertebrates, including fish, as well as some molluscs and decapod crustaceans have pain systems. Most people today consider that their moral obligations extend to many animal species. Moral decisions about abortion, euthanasia, and the various ways we protect animals should take into account the research findings about sentience. In addition, all animal life should be respected and studies of the welfare of even the simplest invertebrate animals should …


Is Sentience Only A Nonessential Component Of Animal Welfare?, Ian J.H. Duncan 2016 [email protected]

Is Sentience Only A Nonessential Component Of Animal Welfare?, Ian J.H. Duncan

Animal Sentience

According to Broom (2014), animal welfare is a concept that can be applied to all animals, including single-celled organisms that are obviously not sentient. Such a stance makes it difficult to draw a connection between welfare and sentience, and that is the book’s downfall. Some excellent points are made about sentience and there are very good discussions on animal welfare. However, unless sentience is considered the essential component of welfare, any attempt to link the two phenomena will be unsuccessful — and that, indeed, is the case with this book.


Sentience And Animal Welfare: New Thoughts And Controversies, Donald M. Broom 2016 University of Cambridge

Sentience And Animal Welfare: New Thoughts And Controversies, Donald M. Broom

Animal Sentience

Sentience involves having some degree of awareness but awareness of self is not as complex as some people believe. Fully functioning vertebrate animals, and some invertebrates, are sentient but neither humans nor non-humans are sentient early in development or if brain-damaged. Feelings are valuable adaptive mechanisms and an important part of welfare but are not all of welfare so the term welfare refers to all animals, not just to sentient animals. We have much to learn about what non-human animals want from us, the functioning of the more complex aspects of their brains and of our brains and how we …


Determining The Effects Of Non-Native Brook Stickleback (Cualea Inconstans) On The Lentic Systems At Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, Cheney, Wa, Jenae N. Yri 2016 Eastern Washington University

Determining The Effects Of Non-Native Brook Stickleback (Cualea Inconstans) On The Lentic Systems At Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, Cheney, Wa, Jenae N. Yri

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"The introduction of non-native fishes can cause trophic cascades in freshwater habitats; these effects may be amplified in ephemeral/temporary habitats. Non-native brook stickleback fishes (Culaea inconstans) were first documented on the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (WA) in 1999 and are now present in many portions of the refuge. The consequences of their presence on the refuge's perennial/permanent and temporary habitats are poorly understood. Therefore, the purpose of my project was to determine if brook stickleback are affecting habitat characteristics that are important for waterfowl nesting success. From April-August 2015, I compared the macro invertebrate and macrophyte community characteristics, fingernail clam …


Why Fish Do Not Feel Pain, Brian Key 2016 The University of Queensland

Why Fish Do Not Feel Pain, Brian Key

Animal Sentience

Only humans can report feeling pain. In contrast, pain in animals is typically inferred on the basis of nonverbal behaviour. Unfortunately, these behavioural data can be problematic when the reliability and validity of the behavioural tests are questionable. The thesis proposed here is based on the bioengineering principle that structure determines function. Basic functional homologies can be mapped to structural homologies across a broad spectrum of vertebrate species. For example, olfaction depends on olfactory glomeruli in the olfactory bulbs of the forebrain, visual orientation responses depend on the laminated optic tectum in the midbrain, and locomotion depends on pattern generators …


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