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123 results for “benthic community”
Biological and biogeochemical responses of benthic communities to marine heatwaves - BioHeat
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Data from: Scale‐dependent spatial patterns in benthic communities around a tropical island seascape
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Data from: Community size and disturbance history jointly explain the interplay between stochastic and deterministic community variation in benthic invertebrates
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Data from: High rates of carbon and dinitrogen fixation suggest a critical role of benthic pioneer communities in the energy and nutrient dynamics of coral reefs
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Benthic invertebrates in the Wadden Sea form a stable community characterized by facilitating relationships
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Data from: Drivers of coastal benthic communities in a complex environmental setting
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Benthic bacterial communities are shaped by browning in boreal headwater streams
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Data from: Bivalves from the Changhsingian (Upper Permian) Bellerophon Formation of the Dolomites (Italy): ancestors of the Lower Triassic post extinction benthic communities
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Light and temperature drive the distribution of mesophotic benthic communities in the Central Indian Ocean
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Data from: Surrogate taxa and fossils as reliable proxies of spatial biodiversity patterns in marine benthic communities
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Data from: Jeju Island: a sentinel for tracking ocean warming impacts on high-latitude benthic communities
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Data from: Upgrades of coastal protection infrastructure affect benthic communities
<ol> <li>Sea level rise, storm surges, aging and wear are forcing upgrades to breakwaters and seawalls to protect coastal areas from erosion and inundation. Such upgrades involve the introduction of new material which may consequently act as an ecological disturbance that can alter established marine communities and ecosystem function. Mitigating ecological impacts requires an understanding of how species assemblages are affected by such works.</li> <li>Here, we use the major upgrade of a regularly wave-overtopped breakwater as a case study to evaluate the impacts of upgrades to hard coastal protection structure on benthic rocky reef communities. An asymmetrical Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) experimental design was used to test interactive effects of the infrastructure upgrades on benthic communities.</li> <li>While benthic assemblages were not significantly different from controls prior to the upgrade, improving the defensive capacity of the breakwater significantly changed community structure. Notably, most taxonomic groups showed higher cover at the control sites than at the impacted site post-upgrade, with articulated calcareous algae (e.g. <i>Corallina officinalis</i> and <i>Amphiroa anceps</i>) showing an opposite trend.</li> <li> <i>Synthesis and applications</i>: Ecological implications and structural limitations make regular upgrading of existing infrastructure unsuitable as a long-term management strategy. More sustainable alternatives need to be considered, such as decommissioning of structures and retreat from flood-prone areas. This transition, however, will take time and requires a change of mindset and policies. Where upgrades are urgent, eco-engineering techniques can mitigate impacts to habitats and associated taxa.</li> </ol>
Marine biomonitoring with eDNA: can metabarcoding of water samples cut it as a tool for surveying benthic communities?
<p>In the marine realm, biomonitoring using eDNA of benthic communities requires destructive direct sampling or the setting-up of settlement structures. Comparatively much less effort is required to sample the water column, which can be accessed remotely. In this study we assess the feasibility of obtaining information from the eukaryotic benthic communities by sampling the adjacent water layer. We studied two different rocky-substrate benthic communities with a technique based on quadrat sampling. We also took replicate water samples at distances from a few centimetres to 20 m from the benthic habitat. Using as marker a fragment of the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene with universal primers, we obtained a total of 3,543 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) from the samples. The structure obtained in the two environments was markedly different, with Metazoa, Archaeplastida Rhodophyta and Stramenopiles being the most diverse group in benthic samples, and HacrobiaAlveolata, Metazoa and Alveolata Rhizaria in the water. Only 265 MOTUs (7.5%) were shared between benthos and water samples, and of these 180 MOTUs (5.1%) were identified as benthic MOTUs that left their DNA in the water. Most of them were found immediately adjacent to the benthos, and their number decreased and The distribution of these benthic shared MOTUs showed a decrease both in number of MOTUs and in number of reads as we moved apart from the benthic habitat. It was concluded that water eDNA, even in the close vicinity of the benthos, was a poor proxy for the analysis of benthic structure, and that direct sampling methods are required for monitoring these complex benthic communities via metabarcoding.</p>
Spatial scaling properties of coral reef benthic communities
<p>The spatial structure of ecological communities on tropical coral reefs across seascapes and geographies have historically been poorly understood. Here we addressed this for the first time using spatially expansive and thematically resolved benthic community data collected around five uninhabited central Pacific oceanic islands, spanning 6° latitude and 17° longitude. Using towed-diver digital image surveys over ~140 linear km of shallow (8 – 20 m depth) tropical reef, we highlight the autocorrelated nature of coral reef seascapes. Benthic functional groups and hard coral morphologies displayed significant spatial clustering (positive autocorrelation) up to kilometre-scales around all islands, in some instances dominating entire sections of coastline. The scale and strength of these autocorrelation patterns showed differences across geographies, but patterns were more similar between islands in closer proximity and of a similar size. For example, crustose coralline algae (CCA) were clustered up to scales of 0.3 km at neighbouring Howland and Baker Islands and macroalgae were spatially clustered at scales up to ~3 km at both neighbouring Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll. Of all the functional groups, macroalgae had the highest levels of spatial clustering across geographies at the finest resolution of our data (100 m). There were several cases where the upper scale at which benthic community members showed evidence of spatial clustering correlated highly with the upper scales at which concurrent gradients in physical environmental drivers were spatially clustered. These correlations were stronger for surface wave energy than subsurface temperature (regardless of benthic group) and turf algae and CCA had the closest alignments in scale with wave energy across functional groups and geographies. Our findings suggest such physical drivers not only limit or promote the abundance of various benthic competitors on coral reefs, but also play a key role in governing their spatial scaling properties across seascapes.</p>
Data from: Indirect effects of predators control herbivore richness and abundance in a benthic eelgrass (Zostera marina) mesograzer community
1. Herbivore communities can be sensitive to changes in predator pressure (top-down effects) and resource availability (bottom-up effects) in a wide range of systems. However, it remains unclear whether such top-down and bottom-up effects reflect direct impacts of predators and/or resources on herbivores, or are indirect, reflecting altered interactions among herbivore species. 2. We quantified direct and indirect effects of bottom-up and top-down processes on an eelgrass (Zostera marina) herbivore assemblage. In a field experiment, we factorially manipulated water column nutrients (with Osmocote™ slow-release fertilizer) and predation pressure (with predator exclusion cages) and measured the effects on herbivore abundance, richness and beta diversity. We examined likely mechanisms of community responses by statistically exploring the response of individual herbivore species to trophic manipulations. 3. Predators increased herbivore richness and total abundance, in both cases through indirect shifts in community composition. Increases in richness occurred through predator suppression of common gammarid amphipod species (Monocorophium acherusicum and Photis brevipes), permitting the inclusion of rarer gammarid species (Aoroides columbiae and Pontogeneia rostrata). Increased total herbivore abundance reflected increased abundance of a caprellid amphipod species (Caprella sp.), concurrent with declines in the abundance of other common species. Furthermore, predators decreased beta diversity by decreasing variability in Caprella sp. abundance among habitat patches. 4. Osmocote™ fertilization increased nutrient concentrations locally, but nutrients dissipated to background levels within 3 m of the fertilizer. Nutrient addition weakly affected the herbivore assemblage, not affecting richness and increasing total abundance by increasing one herbivore species (Caprella sp.). Nutrient addition did not affect beta diversity. 5. We demonstrated that assemblage-level effects of trophic manipulations on community structure are the result of distinct and often indirect responses of herbivore species. These results underscore the importance of understanding herbivore–herbivore interactions in a system commonly subjected to both eutrophication and overfishing.
Data from: Maintained functional diversity in benthic communities in spite of diverging functional identities
Ecological studies based on time-series often investigate community changes centered on species abundance or biomass but rarely expose the consequential functional aspects underlying such changes. Functional diversity measures have proven to be more accurate predictors for ecosystem functioning than traditional taxonomic approaches and hence gained much attention. There are only limited studies available that analyse the functional implications behind decadal changes of entire communities. We studied zoobenthic communities of two habitats, sheltered and exposed, of a coastal system subject to contrasting changes in community composition over the past four decades. Besides eutrophication and climate-related impacts, the system has been invaded by a non-native polycheate Marenzelleria spp., adding altered functional properties to the communities. The functional dispersion (FDis) metric was used as a measure for comparing the functional diversity of the contrasting habitats, with special focus on the role of Marenzelleria for the entire communities. We highlight changes in the functional identity of the communities, expressed as community-weighted means of trait expression (CWM), using multivariate techniques, and investigate the relationship between taxonomic and functional changes. Despite contrasting community developments in the two habitats, with characteristics traditionally suggesting different environmental quality, we found that the FDis in both habitats remained similar and increased with the introduction of Marenzelleria. Although showing maintained functional diversity across time and space, the functional identity (CWM) of communities changed irrespective of taxonomical differences. Examples include inter alia alterations in palatability proxies, feeding position and sediment transportation types, indicating changed functionality of zoobenthos in coastal systems. We show, when focussing on qualitative functional changes of communities, it is important to evaluate the underlying functional identity, and not only rely on measures of the diversity of functions per se, as the quality indication of expressed functional traits can be concealed when using multi-functionality approaches.
Data from: An in situ approach for measuring biogeochemical fluxes in structurally complex benthic communities
1. The exchange of energy and nutrients are integral components of ecological functions of benthic shallow-water ecosystems and are directly dependent on in situ environmental conditions. Traditional laboratory experiments cannot account for the multidimensionality of interacting processes when assessing metabolic rates and biogeochemical fluxes of structurally complex benthic communities. Current in situ chamber systems are expensive, limited in their functionality, and the deployment is often restricted to planar habitats (e.g., sediments or seagrass meadows) only. 2. To overcome these constraints, we describe a protocol to build and use non-invasive, cost-effective, and easy to handle in situ incubation chambers that provide reproducible measurements of biogeochemical processes in simple and structurally complex benthic shallow-water communities. Photogrammetry tools account for the structural complexity of benthic communities, enabling to calculate accurate community fluxes. We tested the performance of the system in laboratory assays and various benthic habitats (i.e., algae growing on rock, coral assemblages, sediments, and seagrass meadows). In addition, we estimated community budgets of photosynthesis and respiration by corals, rock with algae, and carbonate sediments, which were subsequently compared to budgets extrapolated from conventional ex situ single-organism incubations. 3. The tests highlight the transparency (> 90% light transmission) of the chambers and minimal water exchange with the surrounding medium on most substrates. Linear dissolved oxygen fluxes in dependence to incubation time showed sufficient mixing of the water by circulation pumps and no organismal stress response. The comparison to single-organism incubations showed that ex situ measurements might overestimate community-wide net primary production and underestimate respiration and gross photosynthesis by 20 – 90%. 4. The proposed protocol overcomes the paucity of observational and manipulative studies that can be performed in in situ native habitats, thus producing widely-applicable and realistic assessments on the community level. Importantly, the tool provides a standardized approach to compare community functions across a wide range of benthic habitats. We identify multiple experimental strategies, including the manipulation of stressors/factors, and discuss how the method may be implemented in a variety of aquatic studies.
Data from: Benthic community history in the Changjiang (Yangtze River) mega delta: Damming, urbanization, and environmental control
Coastal environment of the Changjiang delta has been influenced by recent anthropogenic activities such as dam constructions, and increased sewage and fertilizer inputs. Previous work examined compositional shift of marine plankton to assess ecological impacts of these activities on marine ecosystems in the Changjiang discharge area. Here we used benthic marine ostracodes collected in the Changjiang Estuary and its adjacent East China Sea in the 1980s and the 2010s, respectively, to investigate temporal changes of the benthic community and the controlling factors of the benthic fauna. Our results revealed more shoreward distribution of some well-known off-shore ostracode species in the 2010s compared to the 1980s, and relatively more important role of environmental processes (e.g. bottom water temperature, bottom water salinity and the eutrophic conditions of surface water) than spatial processes (e.g. the flow of ocean currents) in structuring ostracode compositions. The temporal changes of ostracode community were likely attributed to the combined effects of reduced seasonal water and sediment discharge, and eutrophic conditions of the Changjiang due to numerous dam constructions along the Changjiang and population expansion in the Changjiang basin. Results of redundancy analysis and variation partitioning suggested that ocean currents facilitated environmental filtering of ostracode species such that they could disperse to preferred environmental conditions. These findings highlighted the potential uses of marine microfossils to better understand ecological impacts on benthic ecosystem in vulnerable Asian mega deltas and provided insights into the integration of metacommunity concepts in disentangling dynamics of marine benthic communities.
Data from: Drivers of temporal beta diversity of a benthic community in a seasonally hypoxic ocean fjord
Global expansion of oxygen deficient (hypoxia) waters will have detrimental effects on marine life in the Northeast Pacific Ocean (NEP) where some of the largest proportional losses in aerobic habitat are predicted to occur. However, few studies have accounted for the high environmental variability in this region while including natural community-assembly dynamics. Here, we present results from a 14-month deployment of a benthic camera platform tethered to the VENUS cabled observatory in the seasonally hypoxic Saanich Inlet. Our time series continuously-recorded, natural cycles of deoxygenation and reoxygenation that allowed us to test whether a community from the NEP showed hysteresis in its recovery compared to hypoxia-induced decline and to address the processes driving temporal beta diversity under variable states of hypoxia. Using high-frequency ecological time series we reveal (1) differences in the response and recovery of the epibenthic community are rate-limited by recovery of the sessile species assemblage, (2) both environmental and biological processes influence community assembly patterns at multiple time-scales, and (3) interspecific processes can drive temporal beta diversity in seasonal hypoxia. Ultimately, our results illustrate how different time scale dependent drivers can influence the response and recovery of a marine habitat under increasing stress from environmental change.
Data from: Combining fish and benthic communities into multiple regimes reveals complex reef dynamics
Coral reefs worldwide face an uncertain future with many reefs reported to transition from being dominated by corals to macroalgae. However, given the complexity and diversity of the ecosystem, research on how regimes vary spatially and temporally is needed. Reef regimes are most often characterised by their benthic components; however, complex dynamics are associated with losses and gains in both fish and benthic assemblages. To capture this complexity, we synthesised 3,345 surveys from Hawai'i to define reef regimes in terms of both fish and benthic assemblages. Model-based clustering revealed five distinct regimes that varied ecologically, and were spatially heterogeneous by island, depth and exposure. We identified a regime characteristic of a degraded state with low coral cover and fish biomass, one that had low coral but high fish biomass, as well as three other regimes that varied significantly in their ecology but were previously considered a single coral dominated regime. Analyses of time series data reflected complex system dynamics, with multiple transitions among regimes that were a function of both local and global stressors. Coupling fish and benthic communities into reef regimes to capture complex dynamics holds promise for monitoring reef change and guiding ecosystem-based management of coral reefs.
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Allen Brain Atlas
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
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OpenNeuro
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