Why compare marine ecosystems?

Abstract Murawski, S. A., Steele, J. H., Taylor, P., Fogarty, M. J., Sissenwine, M. P., Ford, M., and Suchman, C. 2010. Why compare marine ecosystems? – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 1–9. Effective marine ecosystem-based management (EBM) requires understanding the key processes and relationships controlling the aspects of biodiversity, productivity, and resilience to perturbations. Unfortunately, the scales, complexity, and non-linear dynamics that characterize marine ecosystems often confound managing for these properties. Nevertheless, scientifically derived decision-support tools (DSTs) are needed to account for impacts resulting from a variety of simultaneous human activities. Three possible methodologies for revealing mechanisms necessary to develop DSTs for EBM are: (i) controlled experimentation, (ii) iterative programmes of observation and modelling (“learning by doing”), and (iii) comparative ecosystem analysis. We have seen that controlled experiments are limited in capturing the complexity necessary to develop models of marine ecosystem dynamics with sufficient realism at appropriate scales. Iterative programmes of observation, model building, and assessment are useful for specific ecosystem issues but rarely lead to generally transferable products. Comparative ecosystem analyses may be the most effective, building on the first two by inferring ecosystem processes based on comparisons and contrasts of ecosystem response to human-induced factors. We propose a hierarchical system of ecosystem comparisons to include within-ecosystem comparisons (utilizing temporal and spatial changes in relation to human activities), within-ecosystem-type comparisons (e.g. coral reefs, temperate continental shelves, upwelling areas), and cross-ecosystem-type comparisons (e.g. coral reefs vs. boreal, terrestrial vs. marine ecosystems). Such a hierarchical comparative approach should lead to better understanding of the processes controlling biodiversity, productivity, and the resilience of marine ecosystems. In turn, better understanding of these processes will lead to the development of increasingly general laws, hypotheses, functional forms, governing equations, and broad interpretations of ecosystem responses to human activities, ultimately improving DSTs in support of EBM.

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Shelf ecosystem response to the Eocene-Oligocene Transition

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-1053 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Laura Cotton ◽

David Evans ◽

Daniela Schmidt

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Environmental Change ◽

Trace Element ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Open Ocean ◽

Ecosystem Dynamics ◽

Ecosystem Response ◽

Holistic View ◽

Shallow Marine

The Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) is one of the most dramatic climate shifts of the Cenozoic with severe consequences for reef ecosystems. The onset of continental Antarctic glaciation is associated with widespread environmental change, resulting in a global peak in biotic turnover. Whilst numerous studies of the biotic response to the changes at the EOT have been carried out, most high-resolution studies consist of open ocean records of marine plankton and predominantly single groups of organisms. However, this is not representative of the ocean system as a whole and does not provide a holistic view of mechanism of restructuring of the marine ecosystems. The shelf seas and reefs are some of the most diverse and fundamentally important ecosystems of the oceans. Long-term diversity loss across the EOT has been shown in several macrofossil studies, but mainly at low resolution, and recovery is not well understood.&#160; Many shelf species are ecosystem engineers whose loss and recovery have profound implications for the entire ecosystem. Understanding these interactions will provide insights into shallow marine ecosystems and their response to major climate perturbations.The Tanzanian Drilling Project EOT record (TDP 11, 12, 17) is recognised globally for its completeness and exceptionally preserved calcareous microfossils. It is most importantly, though, a rare record of both shallow water organisms and open ocean plankton. The latter are fundamentally important for reconstructions of the environment and a globally calibrated timescale. Here we draw together a unique dataset of high-resolution mollusc, Dasycladaceae, bryozoan, larger benthic foraminifers, coral, smaller benthic foraminifera, trace element and isotope records from the EOT. The response and recovery of these species is compared with known, modern physiology of each group to provide a complete picture of the shallow marine ecosystem response.Following rapid extinctions within the larger foraminifera during the transition, molluscs, Dasycladaceae and bryozoans all show increases in abundance, indicating a major shift in shelf ecosystem composition. These assemblage changes are coincident with a period of more positive values in d13C of both benthic and planktonic foraminifera and changes in trace element values. Comparison with the open ocean record of planktonic foraminiferal, pteropod, and nannofossils confirm these assemblage changes are a biological, rather than sedimentological response and additionally support a that a transition to more eutrophic conditions took place.&#160;an environmental framework of traditional and novel geochemistry, indicate that increased nutrient fluxes played a pivotal role in restructuring shelf ecosystem dynamics and therefore offers new insight into mechanisms of reorganisation under ecosystem loss and environmental change.

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Using indicators for evaluating, comparing, and communicating the ecological status of exploited marine ecosystems. 2. Setting the scene

ICES Journal of Marine Science ◽

10.1093/icesjms/fsp294 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 67 (4) ◽

pp. 692-716 ◽

Cited By ~ 127

Author(s):

Yunne-Jai Shin ◽

Lynne J. Shannon ◽

Alida Bundy ◽

Marta Coll ◽

Kerim Aydin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Group ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Ecological Status ◽

Ecological Indicators ◽

Ecosystem Approach ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Insufficient Data ◽

Ecosystem Drivers ◽

Selection Of

Abstract Shin, Y-J., Shannon, L. J., Bundy, A., Coll, M., Aydin, K., Bez, N., Blanchard, J. L., Borges, M. F., Diallo, I., Diaz, E., Heymans, J. J., Hill, L., Johannesen, E., Jouffre, D., Kifani, S., Labrosse, P., Link, J. S., Mackinson, S., Masski, H., Möllmann, C., Neira, S., Ojaveer, H., ould Mohammed Abdallahi, K., Perry, I., Thiao, D., Yemane, D., and Cury, P. M. 2010. Using indicators for evaluating, comparing, and communicating the ecological status of exploited marine ecosystems. 2. Setting the scene. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 692–716. Background is provided to the selection of ecological indicators by the IndiSeas Working Group, and the methodology adopted for analysis and comparison of indicators across exploited marine ecosystems is documented. The selected indicators are presented, how they are calculated is explained, and the philosophy behind the comparative approach is given. The combination of selected indicators is intended to reflect different dynamics, tracking processes that display differential responses to fishing, and is meant to provide a complementary means of assessing marine ecosystem trends and states. IndiSeas relied on inputs and insights provided by the local experts from participating ecosystems, helping to understand state and trend indicators and to disentangle the effect of other potential ecosystem drivers, such as climate variability. This project showed that the use of simple and available indicators under an ecosystem approach can achieve a real, wide-reaching evaluation of marine ecosystem status caused by fishing. This is important because the socio-economics of areas where fishing activities develop differs significantly around the globe, and in many countries, insufficient data are available for complex and exhaustive analyses.

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Tourism Impact on Marine Ecosystems in the North of Red Sea

Journal of Sustainable Development ◽

10.5539/jsd.v13n1p10 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 10

Author(s):

Abderrahim Lakhouit

Keyword(s):

Coral Reefs ◽

Red Sea ◽

Human Activities ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Tourism Impact ◽

The North ◽

Algae Blooms ◽

Marine Habitats ◽

The Impact ◽

Northern Red Sea

The unique marine environment of the northern Red Sea region is among the richest and most productive marine ecosystems in the world. The sea is populated with extensive algae blooms and at least five types of coral reefs. However, the region’s tourism sector is largely dependent on the surrounding environment, including the coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to human activities. A large tourist project (Neom) is scheduled to be installed in the northern Red Sea, further increasing tourist activities in the area and leading to human intrusion into crucial but fragile marine habitats such as seagrass beds, coral reefs and mangrove stands. The present study investigates how human activities are currently affecting Red Sea ecosystems. Field visits were done in order to investigate and to study human activities impact on marine ecosystems in the north of Red Sea. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first of its kind to evaluate the impact of tourism on marine ecosystems in Saudi Arabia’s northern Red Sea coast.

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Coral reef baselines: how much macroalgae is natural?

10.7287/peerj.preprints.19v1 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

John F Bruno ◽

William F Precht ◽

Peter S Vroom ◽

Richard B. Aronson

Keyword(s):

Coral Reef ◽

Coral Reefs ◽

Human Activities ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

The Other ◽

Baseline Condition ◽

Natural State ◽

Resource Managers ◽

Macroalgal Biomass ◽

Effective Conservation

Identifying the baseline or natural state of an ecosystem is a critical step in effective conservation and restoration. Like most marine ecosystems, coral reefs are being degraded by human activities: corals and fish have declined in abundance and seaweeds, or macroalgae, have become more prevalent. The challenge for resource managers is to reverse these trends, but by how much? Based on surveys of Caribbean reefs in the 1970s, most reef scientists believe that the average cover of seaweed was very low in the natural state. On the other hand, evidence from remote Pacific reefs, ecological theory, and impacts of over-harvesting in other systems all suggest that, historically, macroalgal biomass may have been higher than assumed. Uncertainties about the natural state of coral reefs illustrate the difficulty of determining the baseline condition of even well-studied systems.

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Comparative analysis of European wide marine ecosystem shifts: a large-scale approach for developing the basis for ecosystem-based management

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2010.1213 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 484-486 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Christian Möllmann ◽

Alessandra Conversi ◽

Martin Edwards

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Regime Shifts ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

The Black Sea ◽

Ecosystem Structure ◽

Ecosystem Based Management ◽

The North

Abrupt and rapid ecosystem shifts (where major reorganizations of food-web and community structures occur), commonly termed regime shifts, are changes between contrasting and persisting states of ecosystem structure and function. These shifts have been increasingly reported for exploited marine ecosystems around the world from the North Pacific to the North Atlantic. Understanding the drivers and mechanisms leading to marine ecosystem shifts is crucial in developing adaptive management strategies to achieve sustainable exploitation of marine ecosystems. An international workshop on a comparative approach to analysing these marine ecosystem shifts was held at Hamburg University, Institute for Hydrobiology and Fisheries Science, Germany on 1–3 November 2010. Twenty-seven scientists from 14 countries attended the meeting, representing specialists from seven marine regions, including the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Barents Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Bay of Biscay and the Scotian Shelf off the Canadian East coast. The goal of the workshop was to conduct the first large-scale comparison of marine ecosystem regime shifts across multiple regional areas, in order to support the development of ecosystem-based management strategies.

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Influencia humana en las fluctuaciones poblacionales de erizos de mar

Revista de Biología Tropical ◽

10.15517/rbt.v65i1-1.31663 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 65 (1-1) ◽

pp. 23 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

José Carlos Hernández

Keyword(s):

Global Warming ◽

Coral Reefs ◽

Sea Urchin ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Mass Mortality ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Co2 Uptake ◽

Tropical Areas ◽

The Impact

Echinoids play an important role in marine ecosystems structuring. Often, their population density experience markedly fluctuations that promote a state shift in the ecosystems they inhabit. Population increments of some sea urchins may cause catastrophic changes in temperate areas of the planet by decimating the erect macroalgae cover. These population increments results in unproductive and very stable assemblages, known as “blanquizales” (ericeras/moradales), or sea urchin barren ground. Macroalgae are the main ecosystem engineers in temperate areas and generate a suitable nursery and feeding habitat for fishes. These algae stands are also important zones for biofiltration of coastal waters and CO2 uptake. The main consequence of vegetated biomass lost is a trophic disequilibrium that generates important economic losses for artisanal fisheries and tourism. In tropical areas, sea urchin’s outbreaks can cause bioerosion in coral reefs. However, the most important event to highlight was the mass mortality occurred in the Caribbean during the 80’s. This event favored the development of algae communities that suffocated the coral reef ecosystem. Therefore, both in temperate and tropical areas of the planet, these boom-bust echinoids generate undesired ecosystems states. Very recently, various global scale collaborative papers have highlighted a clear anthropogenic cue. Human activity though overfishing or favoring global warming, weakens marine ecosystem resilience and promote these catastrophic ecosystem shifts. To mitigate the effects of these population changes different management strategies have been used. For instance, in temperate areas, sea urchin reduction actions (manually or by using quick lime), sea urchin harvesting or the implementation of marine reserves have been used, with contrasting results. In Caribbean coral reefs affected by urchin mass mortality, some sea urchin juvenile’s reintroduction plans have been used but with very low effectiveness. The more feasible ecosystem scale strategy due to its preventive nature, seems to be the implementation of protected areas. However, the impact of global warming will exceed our capacity to manage marine ecosystems locally and will required more efficient global actions to prevent undesired sea urchin fluctuations. Rev. Biol. Trop. 65(Suppl. 1): S23-S34. Epub 2017 November 01.

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The challenges of detecting and attributing ocean acidification impacts on marine ecosystems

ICES Journal of Marine Science ◽

10.1093/icesjms/fsaa094 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Steve S Doo ◽

Andrea Kealoha ◽

Andreas Andersson ◽

Anne L Cohen ◽

Tacey L Hicks ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ocean Acidification ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Population Level ◽

Marine Species ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Marine Organisms ◽

Comparative Approach ◽

Natural Environments

Abstract A substantial body of research now exists demonstrating sensitivities of marine organisms to ocean acidification (OA) in laboratory settings. However, corresponding in situ observations of marine species or ecosystem changes that can be unequivocally attributed to anthropogenic OA are limited. Challenges remain in detecting and attributing OA effects in nature, in part because multiple environmental changes are co-occurring with OA, all of which have the potential to influence marine ecosystem responses. Furthermore, the change in ocean pH since the industrial revolution is small relative to the natural variability within many systems, making it difficult to detect, and in some cases, has yet to cross physiological thresholds. The small number of studies that clearly document OA impacts in nature cannot be interpreted as a lack of larger-scale attributable impacts at the present time or in the future but highlights the need for innovative research approaches and analyses. We summarize the general findings in four relatively well-studied marine groups (seagrasses, pteropods, oysters, and coral reefs) and integrate overarching themes to highlight the challenges involved in detecting and attributing the effects of OA in natural environments. We then discuss four potential strategies to better evaluate and attribute OA impacts on species and ecosystems. First, we highlight the need for work quantifying the anthropogenic input of CO2 in coastal and open-ocean waters to understand how this increase in CO2 interacts with other physical and chemical factors to drive organismal conditions. Second, understanding OA-induced changes in population-level demography, potentially increased sensitivities in certain life stages, and how these effects scale to ecosystem-level processes (e.g. community metabolism) will improve our ability to attribute impacts to OA among co-varying parameters. Third, there is a great need to understand the potential modulation of OA impacts through the interplay of ecology and evolution (eco–evo dynamics). Lastly, further research efforts designed to detect, quantify, and project the effects of OA on marine organisms and ecosystems utilizing a comparative approach with long-term data sets will also provide critical information for informing the management of marine ecosystems.

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Coral reef baselines: how much macroalgae is natural?

10.7287/peerj.preprints.19 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

John F Bruno ◽

William F Precht ◽

Peter S Vroom ◽

Richard B. Aronson

Keyword(s):

Coral Reef ◽

Coral Reefs ◽

Human Activities ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

The Other ◽

Baseline Condition ◽

Natural State ◽

Resource Managers ◽

Macroalgal Biomass ◽

Effective Conservation

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Seafloor Heterogeneity: Artificial Structures and Marine Ecosystem Dynamics

10.3389/978-2-88963-848-2 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Ecosystem Dynamics ◽

Artificial Structures ◽

Marine Ecosystem Dynamics

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The Mauritius Oil Spill: What’s Next?

Pollutants ◽

10.3390/pollutants1010003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 18-28

Author(s):

Davide Seveso ◽

Yohan Didier Louis ◽

Simone Montano ◽

Paolo Galli ◽

Francesco Saliu

Keyword(s):

Indian Ocean ◽

Coral Reefs ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Local Population ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Mangrove Forests ◽

Biological Impact ◽

Marine Oil ◽

Restoration Techniques

In light of the recent marine oil spill that occurred off the coast of Mauritius (Indian Ocean), we comment here the incident, the containment method used by the local population, the biological impact of oil spill on two sensitive tropical marine ecosystems (coral reefs and mangrove forests), and we suggest monitoring and restoration techniques of the impacted ecosystems based on recent research advancements.

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