Skeletal Growth of Aquatic Organisms: Biological Records of Environmental Change. Donald C. Rhoads , Richard A. Lutz , F. G. Stehli

1981 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-499
Author(s):  
Melbourne R. Carriker
1981 ◽  
Vol 89 (5) ◽  
pp. 661-661
Author(s):  
Thomas J. M. Schopf

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Govaert ◽  
Luis J. Gilarranz ◽  
Florian Altermatt

AbstractSpecies react to environmental change via plastic and evolutionary responses. While both of them determine species’ survival, most studies quantify these responses individually. As species occur in communities, competing species may further influence their respective response to environmental change. Yet, how environmental change and competing species combined shape plastic and genetic responses to environmental change remains unclear. Quantifying how competition alters plastic and genetic responses of species to environmental change requires a trait-based, community and evolutionary ecological approach. We exposed unicellular aquatic organisms to long-term selection of increasing salinity—representing a common and relevant environmental change. We assessed plastic and genetic contributions to phenotypic change in biomass, cell shape, and dispersal ability along increasing levels of salinity in the presence and absence of competition. Trait changes in response to salinity were mainly due to mean trait evolution, and differed whether species evolved in the presence or absence of competition. Our results show that species’ evolutionary and plastic responses to environmental change depended both on competition and the magnitude of environmental change, ultimately determining species persistence. Our results suggest that understanding plastic and genetic responses to environmental change within a community will improve predictions of species’ persistence to environmental change.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Killen ◽  
Emil Christensen ◽  
Daphne Cortese ◽  
Libor Zavorka ◽  
Lucy Cotgrove ◽  
...  

Interest in the measurement of metabolic rates is growing rapidly, due to the relevance of metabolism in understanding organismal physiology, behaviour, evolution, and responses to environmental change. The study of metabolism in aquatic organisms is experiencing an especially pronounced expansion, with more researchers utilizing intermittent-closed respirometry as a research tool than ever before. Despite this, there remain no published guidelines on the reporting of methodological details when using intermittent-closed respirometry. Using a survey of the existing literature, we show that this lack of recommendations has led to incomplete and inconsistent reporting of methods for intermittent-closed respirometry over the last several decades. We also provide the first guidelines for reporting such methods, in the form of a checklist of details that are the minimum required for the interpretation, evaluation, and replication of experiments using intermittent-closed respirometry. This should increase consistency of the reporting of methods for studies that use this research technique. With the steep increase in studies using intermittent-closed respirometry over the last several years, now is the ideal time to standardise the reporting of methods so that data can be properly assessed by other scientists and conservationists.


2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (NA) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Couillard ◽  
Robie W. Macdonald ◽  
Simon C. Courtenay ◽  
Vince P. Palace

As a consequence of human activity, the variability and range of environmental conditions is increasing. We review how the interactions between toxic chemicals and environmental change may affect exposure of aquatic organisms to stressful conditions and therefore alter the risk of deleterious impacts. Even in the absence of new inputs of contaminants, changing environmental conditions alters the transport, transformation and distribution of contaminants and their bioavailability. Conversely, some toxic chemicals modify the exposure of aquatic species to other stressors by affecting species distribution, behaviour or habitat. Across Canada there are a number of specific examples where interactions between contaminants and environmental change are probably harming aquatic species. In the Arctic, change in foraging brought on by change in ice regime, is a plausible mechanism to explain the marked recent increase in mercury concentrations in Beaufort Sea beluga whales. On the Pacific coast, chemical exposure by itself or in combination with other environmental factors, is a leading suspect for altered migration timing of some salmon stocks in the Fraser River leading to massive pre-spawning mortality. In the North Atlantic, short-term exposure of Atlantic salmon to endocrine-disrupting substances in their freshwater natal environments later leads to detectable effects at the time of their migration to saltwater. In Alberta, biotic and abiotic characteristics of the habitat dramatically affect exposure pathways and the risk of toxic effects of selenium in early life stages of trout. A better understanding of the interactions between toxic chemicals and environmental factors is a fundamental requirement for efficient management and protection of aquatic ecosystems.


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