A Story of Coral Reefs, Nemo, and Fisheries: On Biodiversity Loss and Mass Extinction

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
S. Niggol Seo
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Biodiversity Loss

scholarly journals Zoantharia (Cnidaria: Hexacorallia) of the Dutch Caribbean and One New Species of Parazoanthus

Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
Javier Montenegro ◽  
Bert W. Hoeksema ◽  
Maria E. A. Santos ◽  
Hiroki Kise ◽  
James Davis Reimer
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressure ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Species List ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Dutch Caribbean ◽  
One New Species

Species of the anthozoan order Zoantharia (=Zoanthidea) are common components of subtropical and tropical shallow water coral reefs. Despite a long history of research on their species diversity in the Caribbean, many regions within this sea remain underexamined. One such region is the Dutch Caribbean, including the islands of St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Saba, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, as well as the Saba Bank, for which no definitive species list exists. Here, combining examinations of specimens housed in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center collection with new specimens and records from field expeditions, we provide a list of zoantharian species found within the Dutch Caribbean. Our results demonstrate the presence at least 16 described species, including the newly described Parazoanthus atlanticus, and the additional potential presence of up to four undescribed species. These records of new and undescribed species demonstrate that although the zoantharian research history of the Caribbean is long, further discoveries remain to be found. In light of biodiversity loss and increasing anthropogenic pressure on declining coral reefs, documenting the diversity of zoantharians and other coral reef species to provide baseline data takes on a new urgency.

scholarly journals Ecological Networks and Fluvial Corridors in Calabria (Southern Italy)

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (12) ◽  
pp. 1296-1297
Author(s):  
Nicola Cantasano
Keyword(s):  
Human Disturbance ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Ecological Networks ◽  
Terrestrial Biosphere ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
Anthropic Pressure

The anthropic pressure on natural systems is the main cause for the present process of biodiversity loss in terrestrial biosphere [1]. Really, the human disturbance on Earth affects the 74.1% of terrestrial and marine habitats, including 22.4% completely modified, 51.7% partially disturbed and just the 25.9% in natural and pristine conditions [2]. At the beginning of third millenium, in the middle of a post-industrial era, named “Anthropocene” [3], mankind is causing the greatest mass extinction of wildlife in terrestrial biosphere [4-6].

scholarly journals Sustainable human behaviours for combating sixth mass extinction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatik Baran Mandal
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
The People ◽  
Sixth Mass Extinction ◽  
The Commons

Background extinction is a natural phenomenon. Anthropogenic biodiversity loss has been addressed from the various view points. The debate is continuing to identify the root cause of the anthropogenic mass extinction, also called the sixth extinction. The present communication discusses various anthropogenic drivers of the biodiversity loss and explains the ongoing sixth mass extinction using Garrett Hardin's “the tragedy of the commons”. Such explanations provide options for policy makers and for us to save the precious biodiversity of our planet. It has been demonstrated that presently we share about one third of the Net Primary Productivity which must be reduced through reducing our food consumption and by reducing our utilization of energy. Promotion of sustainable human behaviours to ameliorate the problem of anthropogenic extinction or the sixth extinction has been discussed in the light of recent findings from neurobiology and molecular biology. Biodiversity conservation through providing benefit to the people may be effective conservation strategies which would save the interest of human civilizations as well as other life forms on the earth.

scholarly journals Spreadsheets to expedite taxonomic publications by automatic generation of morphological descriptions and specimen lists

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4624 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-150
Author(s):  
IVAN L. F. MAGALHAES
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Automatic Generation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Taxonomic Descriptions ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event

It is now generally accepted that we are going through a major mass extinction event that is causing biodiversity loss at alarming rates (Barnosky et al. 2011). We also know that many species remain to be formally described (e.g. Huber 2014), and concerns have been raised as to whether we will be able to document these before they go extinct (Costello et al. 2013). On one hand, the number of recognized species increases exponentially (e.g. Agnarsson et al. 2013; Sangster & Luksenburg 2015). On the other, taxonomic descriptions are becoming more complete and detailed, which is necessarily more time-consuming, leading to an overall decline in the number of species described per taxonomist (Sangster & Luksenburg 2015). In this scenario, any method or protocol that increases efficiency in taxonomic descriptions is welcome. 

Coral reef fishes reveal strong divergence in the prevalence of traits along the global diversity gradient

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1961) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Parravicini ◽  
M. G. Bender ◽  
S. Villéger ◽  
F. Leprieur ◽  
L. Pellissier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Species Distribution Models ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Taxonomic Structure ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
Diversity Gradient ◽  
And Shifts

Coral reefs are experiencing declines due to climate change and local human impacts. While at a local scale these impacts induce biodiversity loss and shifts in community structure, previous biogeographical analyses recorded consistent taxonomic structure of fish communities across global coral reefs. This suggests that regional communities represent a random subset of the global species and traits pool, whatever their species richness. Using distributional data on 3586 fish species and latest advances in species distribution models, we show marked gradients in the prevalence of size classes and diet categories across the biodiversity gradient. This divergence in trait structure is best explained by reef isolation during past unfavourable climatic conditions, with large and piscivore fishes better represented in isolated areas. These results suggest the risk of a global community re-organization if the ongoing climate-induced reef fragmentation is not halted.

Planetary Disasters: Wildness and the Perennial Struggle for Control

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Paul Wapner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Ongoing Relationship

This Forum article explains how many of today’s calamities—specifically, climate change, biodiversity loss, and COVID-19—are the result of humanity’s ongoing relationship to wildness. For millennia, humans have pushed unpredictability and discomfort out of their immediate surroundings in search of security and convenience. They have been remarkably successful. Today, many people, but especially the affluent, rarely encounter wild animals, suffer exposure to the elements, or even have to tolerate the capriciousness of other people. But wildness is akin to energy: it cannot be created or destroyed. As people craft havens of stability, they do not eradicate wildness but shove it into the lives of the less fortunate and onto the global level. These days, marginalized people face profound vulnerability, and key biophysical and social systems on Earth are spiraling out of control. This article demonstrates the dynamics of global wildness. It shows how trying to banish wildness from one’s surroundings leads directly to climate change, mass extinction, and COVID-19. It ends by advancing a strategy of rewilding as a way to address these challenges. It suggests that opening to greater uncertainty and a modicum of discomfort—both individually and collectively—can relieve some of the pressure generating global wildness and offer an ethically appropriate orientation for this moment of planetary intensification.

scholarly journals Persistent ecological shifts in marine molluscan assemblages across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (23) ◽  
pp. 7207-7212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Aberhan ◽  
Wolfgang Kiessling
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Feeding Mode ◽  
Geological Past ◽  
Irreversible Effects ◽  
Ecological Shifts ◽  
Modes Of Life ◽  
And Function

Contemporary biodiversity loss and population declines threaten to push the biosphere toward a tipping point with irreversible effects on ecosystem composition and function. As a potential example of a global-scale regime shift in the geological past, we assessed ecological changes across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction based on molluscan assemblages at four well-studied sites. By contrasting preextinction and postextinction rank abundance and numerical abundance in 19 molluscan modes of life—each defined as a unique combination of mobility level, feeding mode, and position relative to the substrate—we find distinct shifts in ecospace utilization, which significantly exceed predictions from null models. The magnitude of change in functional traits relative to normal temporal fluctuations at far-flung sites indicates that molluscan assemblages shifted to differently structured systems and faunal response was global. The strengths of temporal ecological shifts, however, are mostly within the range of preextinction site-to-site variability, demonstrating that local ecological turnover was similar to geographic variation over a broad latitudinal range. In conjunction with varied site-specific temporal patterns of individual modes of life, these spatial and temporal heterogeneities argue against a concerted phase shift of molluscan assemblages from one well-defined regime to another. At a broader ecological level, by contrast, congruent tendencies emerge and suggest deterministic processes. These patterns comprise the well-known increase of deposit-feeding mollusks in postextinction assemblages and increases in predators and predator-resistant modes of life, i.e., those characterized by elevated mobility and infaunal life habits.

Modern Coral Reefs Under Global Change: New Opportunities to Understand Carbonate Depositional Hiatuses

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 121-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Hallock
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Paleoenvironmental Changes ◽  
Carbonate Sedimentation ◽  
Depositional Systems ◽  
Geologic Record ◽  
Extinction Events ◽  
Mass Extinction Events

As shallow-water reefs decline worldwide, opportunities abound for researchers to expand understanding of carbonate depositional systems. Recognizing the myriad of paradoxes associated with reefs and carbonate research hopefully can stimulate new questions that will assist researchers in understanding paleoenvironmental changes and mass extinction events. Two often counter-intuitive concepts are discussed, first that coral reefs thrive in clear, nutrient-poor waters, except when they don't; and second, that aragonite is energetically efficient for reef-builders to precipitate in tropical waters, except when it isn't. Coordinated studies of carbonate geochemistry with photozoan physiology and calcification will contribute to understanding carbonate sedimentation under environmental change, both in the future and in the geologic record.

scholarly journals Strong ‘functional’ divergence of tropical reef fish assemblages along the global diversity gradient

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
V Parravicini ◽  
MG Bender ◽  
S Villéger ◽  
F Leprieur ◽  
L Pellissier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Fish Assemblages ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Functional Divergence ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Taxonomic Structure ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
Diversity Gradient

AbstractCoral reefs are experiencing declines due to climate change and local human impacts. While at local scale biodiversity loss induces shifts in community structure, previous biogeographical analyses recorded consistent taxonomic structure of fish communities across global coral reefs. This suggest that regional communities represent a random subset of the global species and traits pool, whatever their species richness. Using distributional data on 3,586 fish species and latest advances in species distribution models we show that the global distribution of reef fishes is influenced by two major traits (body size and diet) and produces a strong divergence in the trait structure of assemblages across the biodiversity gradient. This divergence is best explained by the isolation of reefs during past unfavorable climatic conditions and highlights the risk of a global community re-organization if the ongoing climate-induced reef fragmentation is not halted.

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