scholarly journals Spatially Variable Effects of Artificially-Created Physical Complexity on Subtidal Benthos

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn A. O’Shaughnessy ◽  
Shimrit Perkol-Finkel ◽  
Elisabeth M. A. Strain ◽  
Melanie J. Bishop ◽  
Stephen J. Hawkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Subtidal Zone ◽  
Taxon Richness ◽  
Biological Complexity ◽  
Tel Aviv ◽  
Functional Richness ◽  
Physical Complexity

In response to the environmental damage caused by urbanization, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are being implemented to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem processes with mutual benefits for society and nature. Although the field of NbS is flourishing, experiments in different geographic locations and environmental contexts have produced variable results, with knowledge particularly lacking for the subtidal zone. This study tested the effects of physical complexity on colonizing communities in subtidal habitats in two urban locations: (1) Plymouth, United Kingdom (northeast Atlantic) and (2) Tel Aviv, Israel (eastern Mediterranean) for 15- and 12-months, respectively. At each location, physical complexity was manipulated using experimental tiles that were either flat or had 2.5 or 5.0 cm ridges. In Plymouth, biological complexity was also manipulated through seeding tiles with habitat-forming mussels. The effects of the manipulations on taxon and functional richness, and community composition were assessed at both locations, and in Plymouth the survival and size of seeded mussels and abundance and size of recruited mussels were also assessed. Effects of physical complexity differed between locations. Physical complexity did not influence richness or community composition in Plymouth, while in Tel Aviv, there were effects of complexity on community composition. In Plymouth, effects of biological complexity were found with mussel seeding reducing taxon richness, supporting larger recruited mussels, and influencing community composition. Our results suggest that outcomes of NbS experiments are context-dependent and highlight the risk of extrapolating the findings outside of the context in which they were tested.

scholarly journals Mucormycosis in the Eastern Mediterranean: a seasonal disease

2005 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. AL-AJAM ◽  
A. R. BIZRI ◽  
J. MOKHBAT ◽  
J. WEEDON ◽  
L. LUTWICK
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Variation ◽  
Fungal Infection ◽  
Pulmonary Infection ◽  
Pattern Analysis ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Seasonal Pattern ◽  
Atmospheric Concentration ◽  
Tel Aviv ◽  
Significant Seasonal Variation ◽  
Immunocompromised Hosts

Mucormycosis is a fairly rare fungal infection caused by ubiquitous fungi of the order Mucorales and primarily affects immunocompromised hosts. A series of 16 cases of invasive mucormycosis admitted to three referral centres in Beirut, Lebanon between 1981 and 1999 is described. It includes 12 patients with rhinocerebral, three with cutaneous, and one with pulmonary infection. Onset of symptoms occurred in the summer and autumn in 15 out of 16 patients, showing a statistically significant seasonal variation (P=0·007) A recent report of 19 patients from Tel Aviv describes a strikingly similar seasonal pattern. Studies on atmospheric concentration of Mucorales spores in the Eastern Mediterranean are lacking. Weather pattern analysis in Beirut revealed clustering of onset of invasive mucormycosis at the end of a dry, warm period, which begins around May and ends in October. Mucormycosis incidence appears to be seasonal in the Eastern Mediterranean.

scholarly journals Spatial and Annual Variation in Microbial Abundance, Community Composition, and Diversity Associated With Alpine Surface Snow

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Fillinger ◽  
Kerstin Hürkamp ◽  
Christine Stumpp ◽  
Nina Weber ◽  
Dominik Forster ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Microbial Community Composition ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Community Diversity ◽  
Taxon Richness ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Prokaryotic Cell ◽  
Surface Snow

Understanding microbial community dynamics in the alpine cryosphere is an important step toward assessing climate change impacts on these fragile ecosystems and meltwater-fed environments downstream. In this study, we analyzed microbial community composition, variation in community alpha and beta diversity, and the number of prokaryotic cells and virus-like particles (VLP) in seasonal snowpack from two consecutive years at three high altitude mountain summits along a longitudinal transect across the European Alps. Numbers of prokaryotic cells and VLP both ranged around 104 and 105 per mL of snow meltwater on average, with variation generally within one order of magnitude between sites and years. VLP-to-prokaryotic cell ratios spanned two orders of magnitude, with median values close to 1, and little variation between sites and years in the majority of cases. Estimates of microbial community alpha diversity inferred from Hill numbers revealed low contributions of common and abundant microbial taxa to the total taxon richness, and thus low community evenness. Similar to prokaryotic cell and VLP numbers, differences in alpha diversity between years and sites were generally relatively modest. In contrast, community composition displayed strong variation between sites and especially between years. Analyses of taxonomic and phylogenetic community composition showed that differences between sites within years were mainly characterized by changes in abundances of microbial taxa from similar phylogenetic clades, whereas shifts between years were due to significant phylogenetic turnover. Our findings on the spatiotemporal dynamics and magnitude of variation of microbial abundances, community diversity, and composition in surface snow may help define baseline levels to assess future impacts of climate change on the alpine cryosphere.

scholarly journals Differential arthropod responses to warming are altering the structure of Arctic communities

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 171503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Koltz ◽  
Niels M. Schmidt ◽  
Toke T. Høye
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Freeze Thaw ◽  
Compositional Changes ◽  
Arctic Communities

The Arctic is experiencing some of the fastest rates of warming on the planet. Although many studies have documented responses to such warming by individual species, the idiosyncratic nature of these findings has prevented us from extrapolating them to community-level predictions. Here, we leverage the availability of a long-term dataset from Zackenberg, Greenland (593 700 specimens collected between 1996 and 2014), to investigate how climate parameters influence the abundance of different arthropod groups and overall community composition. We find that variation in mean seasonal temperatures, winter duration and winter freeze–thaw events is correlated with taxon-specific and habitat-dependent changes in arthropod abundances. In addition, we find that arthropod communities have exhibited compositional changes consistent with the expected effects of recent shifts towards warmer active seasons and fewer freeze–thaw events in NE Greenland. Changes in community composition are up to five times more extreme in drier than wet habitats, with herbivores and parasitoids generally increasing in abundance, while the opposite is true for surface detritivores. These results suggest that species interactions and food web dynamics are changing in the Arctic, with potential implications for key ecosystem processes such as decomposition, nutrient cycling and primary productivity.

Ultraphytoplankton community composition in Southwestern and Eastern Mediterranean Basin: Relationships to water mass properties and nutrients

2020 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 101875
Author(s):  
Yosra Khammeri ◽  
Amel Bellaaj-Zouari ◽  
Asma Hamza ◽  
Walid Medhioub ◽  
Emna Sahli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Water Mass ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Mass Properties ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Basin

Prey availability and community composition: Diet analysis of the black angler fish Lophius budegassa Spinola, 1807 in the south-eastern Mediterranean Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 100940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip J. Haubrock ◽  
Gianna Innocenti ◽  
Sarah Ashley Mueller ◽  
Shevy Bat-Sheva Rothman ◽  
Bella S. Galil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Diet Analysis ◽  
The South ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Sea ◽  
South Eastern

Consequences for ectomycorrhizal fungi of the selective loss or gain of pine across landscapes

Botany ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (12) ◽  
pp. 855-865 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justine Karst ◽  
Morgan J. Randall ◽  
Catherine A. Gehring
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Tree Mortality ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fungal Communities ◽  
Individual Tree ◽  
Disturbance Regimes ◽  
Fungal Abundance ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Shifts

Altered disturbance regimes and novel introductions are causing rapid shifts in the distribution of pines (Pinus L.). The functionally obligate symbiosis between pines and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi dictates that shifts in the distribution of one partner will affect the distribution of the other. In this review, we examine evidence for three hypotheses. (1) The loss of photosynthates through stress or tree mortality decreases the abundance of EM fungi and selects for less carbon-demanding species. (2) Pine introductions initiate establishment of novel EM fungal communities. (3) The extent of shifts in EM fungal abundance and community composition is mediated by surrounding vegetation. We find support for these hypotheses though changes in EM fungal abundance are variable and context-dependent. We posit that the consequences of shifts in EM fungal abundance and community composition extend beyond the individual tree to the landscape; these changes may affect population dynamics of both symbionts, ecosystem processes, and the conservation and evolution of fungi. In addition to conducting baseline surveys to assess the distribution of EM fungi, increasing our understanding of their function, morphology, propagation, and controls on host-specificity, and shifts would also assist in predicting the trajectory of ecosystems following the loss or gain of pine.

scholarly journals Discontinuity in the responses of ecosystem processes and multifunctionality to altered soil community composition

2014 ◽  
Vol 111 (40) ◽  
pp. 14478-14483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Bradford ◽  
Stephen A. Wood ◽  
Richard D. Bardgett ◽  
Helaina I. J. Black ◽  
Michael Bonkowski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
Soil Community

scholarly journals Rapid quantitative assessment of fish larvae community composition using metabarcoding

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances C. Ratcliffe ◽  
Tamsyn M. Uren Webster ◽  
Deiene Rodriguez-Barreto ◽  
Richard O’Rorke ◽  
Carlos Garcia de Leaniz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Early Life ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Fish Larvae ◽  
Morphological Identification ◽  
Taxon Richness ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Early Life Stages ◽  
Abundance Estimates ◽  
Family Level

AbstractClimate change stressors greatly impact the early life-stages of many organisms but their cryptic morphology often renders them difficult to monitor using morphological identification. High-throughput sequencing of DNA amplicons (metabarcoding) is potentially a rapid and cost-effective method to monitor early life-stages for management and environmental impact assessment purposes. Yet, there is conflicting information about the quantitative capability of metabarcoding. We compared metabarcoding with traditional morphological identification to evaluate taxonomic precision and reliability of abundance estimates, using 332 fish larvae from multinet hauls (0-50m depth) collected at 14 offshore sampling sites in the Irish and Celtic seas. To improve relative abundance estimates, the amount of tissue for each specimen was standardised and mitochondrial primers with conserved binding sites were used. Family level correction factors for amplification bias and back-calculations were applied to estimate numbers of individuals of a given taxon in a sample. Estimates from metabarcoding reads and morphological assessment were positively correlated for relative family abundances as well as taxon richness (Rs=0.81, P=0.007) and diversity (Rs=0.88, P=0.003). After applying family level correction, back-estimates of the number of individuals per family within a sample were accurate to ± 2 individuals. Spatial patterns of community composition did not differ significantly between metabarcoding and morphological assessments.Our results show that DNA metabarcoding of bulk tissue samples can be used to monitor changes in fish larvae abundance and community composition. This represents a feasible, efficient and faster alternative to morphological identification that can be applied to terrestrial and aquatic habitats.

scholarly journals Habitat Complexity Affects the Structure but Not the Diversity of Sessile Communities on Tropical Coastal Infrastructure

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Yin Chee ◽  
Jean Chai Yee ◽  
Chee Ban Cheah ◽  
Ally Jane Evans ◽  
Louise B. Firth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Complexity ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Biological Complexity ◽  
Biological Factors ◽  
Anthropogenic Stressors ◽  
Environmental Setting ◽  
Species Pools ◽  
Local Species ◽  
Sessile Organisms ◽  
Physical Complexity

Increasing human population, urbanisation, and climate change have resulted in the proliferation of hard coastal infrastructure such as seawalls and breakwaters. There is increasing impetus to create multifunctional coastal defence structures with the primary function of protecting people and property in addition to providing habitat for marine organisms through eco-engineering - a nature-based solutions approach. In this study, the independent and synergistic effects of physical complexity and seeding with native oysters in promoting diversity and abundances of sessile organisms were assessed at two locations on Penang Island, Malaysia. Concrete tiles with varying physical and biological complexity (flat, 2.5 cm ridges and crevices, and 5 cm ridges and crevices that were seeded or unseeded with oysters) were deployed and monitored over 12 months. The survival of the seeded oysters was not correlated with physical complexity. The addition of physical and biological complexity interacted to promote distinct community assemblages, but did not consistently increase the richness, diversity, or abundances of sessile organisms through time. These results indicate that complexity, whether physical or biological, is only one of many influences on biodiversity on coastal infrastructure. Eco-engineering interventions that have been reported to be effective in other regions may not work as effectively in others due to the highly dynamic conditions in coastal environment. Thus, it is important that other factors such as the local species pools, environmental setting (e.g., wave action), biological factors (e.g., predators), and anthropogenic stressors (e.g., pollution) should also be considered when designing habitat enhancements. Such factors acting individually or synergistically could potentially affect the outcomes of any planned eco-engineering interventions.

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