scholarly journals Drill-Cored Artificial Rock Pools Can Promote Biodiversity and Enhance Community Structure on Coastal Rock Revetments at Reclaimed Coastlines of Penang, Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 194008292095191
Author(s):  
S. Y. Chee ◽  
J. L. S. Wee ◽  
C. Wong ◽  
J. C. Yee ◽  
Y. Yusup ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Coastal Development ◽  
Rock Pools ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Coastal Defence ◽  
Topographic Complexity ◽  
Granite Rock ◽  
Artificial Rock ◽  
Habitat Enhancement

Coastlines are drastically altered globally due to urbanisation and climate-related issues. As a response, communities build coastal defence structures to protect people and property. Although these infrastructures fulfil engineering demands of coastal defences, the trade-off to nature includes a decrease in biodiversity able to live on these structures because of the lack of topographic complexity. Several studies have tried to increase the surface complexity on coastal defence structures through eco-engineering habitat enhancements that mimic nature. However, few of these studies have been conducted in tropical regions where effects are more pronounce due to desiccation and extreme heat. In this study, water-retaining structures (in the form of rock-pools at depths 12 cm, and 5 cm) were drill-cored into coastal defence structures (i.e. granite rock revetments) on reclaimed coastlines in Penang Island, Malaysia. We found greater species richness and an increase in community structure in the drill-cored rock pools regardless of the depth of these artificial rock-pools. Positive habitat selection also occurred within micro-habitats of this scale. The drill-cored artificial rock pools in these tidal exposed revetments also provided niche-spaces for marine organisms found in low-tide or sub-tidal areas. These findings demonstrate the potential of this eco-engineered habitat enhancement as a means of promoting biodiversity on granite rock revetments, which can be applied either during design phase of a coastal development or retrospectively.

scholarly journals Drill-cored rock pools: an effective method of ecological enhancement on artificial structures

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ally J. Evans ◽  
Louise B. Firth ◽  
Stephen J. Hawkins ◽  
Elisabeth S. Morris ◽  
Harry Goudge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Rocky Shores ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Rock Pools ◽  
Artificial Rock ◽  
Natural Rock ◽  
Habitat Enhancement

Coastal defences are proliferating in response to anticipated climate change and there is increasing need for ecologically sensitive design in their construction. Typically, these structures support lower biodiversity than natural rocky shores. Although several studies have tested habitat enhancement interventions that incorporate novel water-retaining features into coastal defences, there remains a need for additional long-term, fully replicated trials to identify alternative cost-effective designs. We created artificial rock pools of two depths (12cm, 5cm) by drill-coring into a shore-parallel intertidal granite breakwater, to investigate their potential as an intervention for delivering ecological enhancement. After 18 months the artificial rock pools supported greater species richness than adjacent granite rock surfaces on the breakwater, and similar species richness to natural rock pools on nearby rocky shores. Community composition was, however, different between artificial and natural pools. The depth of artificial rock pools did not affect richness or community structure. Although the novel habitats did not support the same communities as natural rock pools, they clearly provided important habitat for several species that were otherwise absent at mid-shore height on the breakwater. These findings reveal the potential of drill-cored rock pools as an affordable and easily replicated means of enhancing biodiversity on a variety of coastal defence structures, both at the design stage and retrospectively.

scholarly journals Shelving the Coast With Vertipools: Retrofitting Artificial Rock Pools on Coastal Structures as Mitigation for Coastal Squeeze

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice E. Hall ◽  
Roger J. H. Herbert ◽  
J. Robert Britton ◽  
Ian M. Boyd ◽  
Nigel C. George
Keyword(s):  
Rock Pools ◽  
Coastal Structures ◽  
Artificial Rock ◽  
Coastal Squeeze

Marine Artificial Reef Research and Development: Integrating Fisheries Management Objectives

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Artificial Reef ◽  
Coastal Development ◽  
Coastal Resource Management ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Management Objectives ◽  
Coastal Resource ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Habitat Enhancement

<em>Abstract</em>.—Multiple coastal development activities coupled with unsustainable management have caused environmental degradation in the Santa Marta region of Colombia. To mitigate this impact, Ecopetrol entered into alliances with private and government institutions to initiate an integrative artificial reef project in Pozos Colorados Bay. To develop the project’s framework, it was necessary to (1) establish context and objectives, (2) design plans and reef construction, (3) strengthen a target social population, and (4) conduct pre- and postdeployment ecological assessments. The achievement of each objective was met with delays and constraints, mainly due to administrative issues and legal requirements. Nevertheless, interventions and interactions among representatives of the 10 institutions involved in the project, as well as the strong commitment of fishers from three organizations in all stages of the process, were indicators of project’s success. Together, these actions and contributions resulted in the deployment of the first six artificial reefs in a 137-ha area. Moreover, recorded changes in biological assemblages before and after reef deployment (richness: 3–37 species; abundance: 30.3–1,615.7 individuals), along with the presence of commercial, ecological, and endangered important species, support the concept of habitat enhancement procedures used here as a strategy for biodiversity conservation with potential for ecotourism activities. The utilization of this technology should be conducted in compliance with concerted schemes for coastal resource management and precautionary principles, directed towards the conformation of discrete marine reserves as future models of sustainable production in sensitive areas.

scholarly journals The interspecific growth–mortality trade-off is not a general framework for tropical forest community structure

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina E. Russo ◽  
Sean M. McMahon ◽  
Matteo Detto ◽  
Glenn Ledder ◽  
S. Joseph Wright ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Tropical Forest ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Forest Community ◽  
Trade Off

Community structure of reef fishes on a remote oceanic island (St Peter and St Paul’s Archipelago, equatorial Atlantic): the relative influence of abiotic and biotic variables

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osmar J. Luiz ◽  
Thiago C. Mendes ◽  
Diego R. Barneche ◽  
Carlos G. W. Ferreira ◽  
Ramon Noguchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Fish Community ◽  
Explanatory Variable ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Boosted Regression Trees ◽  
Fish Community Structure ◽  
Equatorial Atlantic ◽  
Topographic Complexity ◽  
Abiotic And Biotic Factors ◽  
Natural Laboratory

This study investigates the reef fish community structure of the world’s smallest remote tropical island, the St Peter and St Paul’s Archipelago, in the equatorial Atlantic. The interplay between isolation, high endemism and low species richness makes the St Peter and St Paul’s Archipelago ecologically simpler than larger and highly connected shelf reef systems, making it an important natural laboratory for ecology and biogeography, particularly with respect to the effects of abiotic and biotic factors, and the functional organisation of such a depauperate community. Boosted regression trees were used to associate density, biomass and diversity of reef fishes with six abiotic and biotic variables, considering the community both as a whole and segregated into seven trophic groups. Depth was the most important explanatory variable across all models, although the direction of its effect varied with the type of response variable. Fish density peaked at intermediate depths, whereas biomass and biodiversity were respectively positively and negatively correlated with depth. Topographic complexity and wave exposure were less important in explaining variance within the fish community than depth. No effects of the predictor biotic variables were detected. Finally, we notice that most functional groups are represented by very few species, highlighting potential vulnerability to disturbances.

Biodiversity in intertidal rock pools: Informing engineering criteria for artificial habitat enhancement in the built environment

2014 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 122-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise B. Firth ◽  
Meredith Schofield ◽  
Freya J. White ◽  
Martin W. Skov ◽  
Stephen J. Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Rock Pools ◽  
Artificial Habitat ◽  
Habitat Enhancement

scholarly journals Accuracy, limitations and cost-efficiency of eDNA-based community survey in tropical frogs

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miklós Bálint ◽  
Carsten Nowak ◽  
Orsolya Márton ◽  
Steffen U. Pauls ◽  
Claudia Wittwer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Cost Efficiency ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Data Interpretation ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Ecological Value ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
High Diversity

AbstractRapid environmental change in highly biodiverse tropical regions demands efficient biomonitoring programs. While existing metrics of species diversity and community composition rely on encounter-based survey data, eDNA recently emerged as alternative approach. Costs and ecological value of eDNA-based methods have rarely been evaluated in tropical regions, where high species richness is accompanied by high functional diversity (e.g. the use of different microhabitats by different species and life-stages). We first tested whether estimation of tropical frogs’ community structure derived from eDNA data is compatible with expert field assessments. Next we evaluated whether eDNA is a financially viable solution for biodiversity monitoring in tropical regions. We applied eDNA metabarcoding to investigate frog species occurrence in five ponds in the Chiquitano dry forest region in Bolivia and compared our data with a simultaneous visual and audio encounter survey (VAES). We found that taxon lists and community structure generated with eDNA and VAES correspond closely, and most deviations are attributable to different species’ life histories. Cost efficiency of eDNA surveys was mostly influenced by the richness of local fauna and the number of surveyed sites: VAES may be less costly in low-diversity regions, but eDNA quickly becomes more cost-efficient in high-diversity regions with many sites sampled. The results highlight that eDNA is suitable for large-scale biodiversity surveys in high-diversity areas if life history is considered, and certain precautions in sampling, genetic analyses and data interpretation are taken. We anticipate that spatially extensive, standardized eDNA biodiversity surveys will quickly emerge in the future.

scholarly journals Implications of the evolution of agriculture and resource foraging for the maintenance of species diversity and community structure

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurore Picot ◽  
Thibaud Monnin ◽  
Nicolas Loeuille
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Adaptive Dynamics ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractAgriculture - cultivation of plants, algae, fungi and animal herding - is found in numerous taxa such as humans, but also ants, beetles, fishes and even bacteria. Such niche construction behaviours have evolved independently from hunter/predation behaviours, though many species remain primarily predators. We here investigate when such a transition from predation/hunter behaviour to agriculture is favoured. In these systems where a consumer has a positive effect on its resource, we can expect an allocative cost of agriculture for the farmer, hence modifying the selective pressures acting upon it. The management of the resource may have a negative effect on its consumption: for instance, when the consumer defends the resource against other predators (exploitation cost). In other situations, the cost may occur on the foraging of alternative resources, for instance if the consumer spends more time nearby the farmed resource (opportunity cost). Here, we develop a simple three-species model constituted by a farmer species that consumes two resource species, one of them receiving an additional positive effect from the consumer. We consider two trade-off scenarios based on how the cost of agriculture is implemented, either as an exploitation cost or as an opportunity cost. We use an adaptive dynamics approach to study the conditions for the evolution of the investment into agriculture and specialization on the two resources, and consequences on the ecological dynamics of the community. Eco-evolutionary dynamics generate a feedback between the evolution of agriculture and specialization on the helped resource, that can lead to varying selected intensity of agriculture, from generalist strategies with no agriculture, to farmer phenotypes that are entirely specialized on the farmed resource, with possible coexistence between those two extreme strategies.

Implications of Foraging Behavior

Ecology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald C. Ydenberg
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Foraging Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Mate Selection ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Flexible Behavior ◽  
The 1960S

The scientific study of ecology began in the 20th century with ideas about population dynamics and trophic interactions in food webs. The study of animal behavior developed around mid-century. Borrowing ideas from the rapidly expanding field of economics, the notion that one could think of foragers as clever strategists with flexible behavior came along in the 1960s. In subsequent decades “optimal foraging” grew rapidly. Analogous lines of thinking for other behaviors such as mate selection, parental care, life histories, and social interactions merged to form behavioral ecology in the 1970s and 1980s. Foraging theorists originally aimed to apply their thinking to population and community ecology. Facing criticism from ecologists, many instead developed strong links with ethology, experimental psychology, and neurobiology. But in the last two decades a series of discoveries have helped move the study of foraging toward fulfilling its ambitions of explaining “higher order” ecological phenomena such as predator-prey relationships and community structure. These discoveries are the subject of this bibliography. The most basic insight came from another notion borrowed from economics: that of a trade-off. Given a trade-off, a behavior can do one of two things well, or both moderately well, but cannot maximize both things at once. For example, an animal can forage quickly, but it cannot watch for predators, mates, or competitors at the same time. The trade-off between foraging and predation risk became fundamental. As the 21st century arrived, ecologists began to realize that anti-predator behavior has effects on populations and communities at least as big and as important as those attributable to the prey killed by predators. These discoveries are currently spurring ecologists to develop new theoretical and empirical techniques to investigate the role of foraging behavior in population ecology and community structure.

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