Abstracts

Climate Change

Impacts of Niche Breadth and Dispersal Ability on Macroevolutionary Patterns. 2016. Qiao, H., E.E. Saupe (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, eesaupe@gmail.com), J. Soberón, A.T. Peterson and C.E. Myers. The American Naturalist 188:149‒162. doi:10.1086/687201

Anthropogenic caused climate change is bringing with it a wide range of challenges and unknowns. One of the most hotly debated questions is how fast and how much will our climate change. We can only speculate on the biological and physical effects of increased temperatures, atmospheric gases, and water availability at this point, so how do conservationists and restorationists plan for climate adaptation or migration? Modelers have been running and fine-tuning simulations for decades to predict likely outcomes. In this simulation, Qiao and colleagues performed continental-scale thousand-year scenarios to assess the impact of climate change on species’ niche breadth and dispersal ability to understand how these characteristics shape biodiversity and species survival. Their simulations support the theory that niche breadth and dispersal ability drive species diversity and continue to do so in times of heightened climatic variability. It is the rate of change that matters. When change is slow, dispersal ability will drive speciation and extinction; however, when it is rapid, niche breadth will determine those trajectories. Planners can use these theories to aid in species conservation; in areas experiencing rapid change, intervention may be mandatory if we desire for those species or populations to persist.

Coastal & Marine Communities

Ecoengineering with Ecohydrology: Successes and Failures in Estuarine Restoration. 2016. Elliott, M. (Institute of Estuarine & Coastal Studies, University of Hull, UK, mike.elliott@hull.ac.uk), L. Mander, K. Mazik, C. Simenstad, F. Valesini, A. Whitfield and E. Wolanski. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 176:12–35. doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2016.04.003

Restoring ecosystem services and function can be accomplished through ecoengineering with two primary approaches: Type A, where physico-chemical characteristics of the environment are altered to orchestrate a subsequent “natural” change in biota; and Type B, where biota are directly engineered (e.g., seeding, transplanting, restocking, etc.). In complex estuarine ecosystems, eco-engineering is not enough and ecohydrology (the study of the link between water and ecosystem function) must also be used to achieve desired restoration outcomes. In this article, Elliot and colleagues review six case studies of estuarine restoration efforts that used ecoengineering and ecohydrology. Their analysis suggests that the largest pitfall is having insufficient knowledge of the system. Given the complex nature of aquatic ecosystems, feedback loops are very likely to occur (i.e., modifying the physical structure of the estuary will often change its dynamics and this in turn will reorganize the structure), therefore a comprehensive understanding of both physical and ecological dynamics (particularly the time scales at which processes occur), together with a clear restoration goal will be the key to improve the poor track record of estuarine restorations.

Top-Down Control as Important as Nutrient Enrichment for Eutrophication Effects in North Atlantic Coastal Ecosystems. 2016. Östman, Ö. (Institute of Coastal Research, Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Sweden, orjan.ostman@slu.se), J. Eklöf, B.K. Eriksson, J. Olsson, P.O. Moksnes and U. Bergström. Journal of Applied Ecology 53:1138–1147. doi:10.1111/1365-2664.12654

Seaweed and seagrass beds are important components of coastal ecosystems because they increase local diversity by supporting many other species which use them as habitat/refugia, nursery grounds or as a food source. Despite their importance, seagrass and seaweed beds are subjected to enormous anthropogenic pressures. Nutrient enrichment has subsequent algal blooms and overfishing of top-predators changes food web structure and can release mesopredator pressures. In this study, Östman and colleagues conducted meta-analyses and meta-regressions of the literature reporting top-down and bottom-up regulation experiments in coastal beds of common seagrass (Zostera marina) and seaweed (Fucus spp.) in the North Atlantic. They looked at effects of consumers (grazers, mesopredators, and piscivores) on trophic assemblages and compared those to fertilizer manipulations. They found that top-down control is present in all trophic levels and has similar effects on food web structure as nutrient enrichment. They suggest that...