Early naturalists suggested that predation intensity increases toward the tropics, affecting fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes by latitude, but empirical support is still limited. Several studies have measured consumption rates across latitude at large scales, with variable results. Moreover, how predation affects prey community composition at such geographic scales remains unknown. Using standardized experiments that spanned 115° of latitude, at 36 nearshore sites along both coasts of the Americas, we found that marine predators have both higher consumption rates and consistently stronger impacts on biomass and species composition of marine invertebrate communities in warmer tropical waters, likely owing to fish predators. Our results provide robust support for a temperature-dependent gradient in interaction strength and have potential implications for how marine ecosystems will respond to ocean warming.

A good understanding of the mechanisms and magnitude of the impact of invasive alien species on ecosystem services and biodiversity is a prerequisite for the efficient prioritisation of actions to prevent new invasions or for developing mitigation measures. In this review, we identified alien marine species that have a high impact on ecosystem services and biodiversity in European seas, classified the mechanisms of impact, commented on the methods applied for assessing the impact and the related inferential strength, and reported on gaps in available information. Furthermore, we have proposed an updated inventory of 87 marine species in Europe, representing 13 phyla, which have a documented high impact on ecosystem services or biodiversity.Food provision was the ecosystem service that was impacted by the greatest number of alien species (in terms of both positive and negative impacts). Following food provision, the ecosystem services that were negatively affected by the highest number of alien species were ocean nourishment, recreation and tourism, and lifecycle maintenance, while the ecosystem services that were most often positively impacted were cognitive benefits, water purification, and climate regulation. In many cases, marine aliens were found to impact keystone/protected species and habitats. Thirty percent of the assessed species had an impact on entire ecosystem processes or wider ecosystem functioning, more often in a negative fashion. Forty-nine of the assessed species were reported as being ecosystem engineers, which fundamentally modify, create, or define habitats by altering their physical or chemical properties.The positive impacts of alien species are probably underestimated, as there is often a perception bias against alien species. Among the species herein assessed as high-impact species, 17 had only negative and 7 only positive impacts; for the majority (63 species), both negative and positive impacts were reported; the overall balance was often unknown. Although there is no doubt that invasive species have modified marine ecosystems, evidence for most of the reported impacts is weak, as it is based on expert judgement or dubious correlations, while only 13% of the reported impacts were inferred via manipulative or natural experiments. A need for stronger inference is evident, to improve our knowledge base of marine biological invasions and better inform environmental managers.

Long-term measurements are imperative to detect, understand, and predict changes in coastal biological communities, but can be both costly and difficult to implement. Here, we compare measurement methods used to document community structure and assess changes in marine systems, and explore potential applications in citizen science. The use of photographs for species identifications and monitoring has become a popular and useful data collection tool, but its use requires evaluation of its effectiveness in comparison to data collected from live examinations. We used settlement panels in San Francisco Bay, a well-studied and vital coastal ecosystem, to compare standardized measures of the invertebrate fouling community through examination of live organisms in the field and via photographs. Overall, our study found that live measurements were more accurate and better represented these marine communities, having higher richness, and diversity measurements than photographic measurements. However, photographic analyses accurately captured the relative abundances of some species and functional groups. We suggest that highly recognizable target taxa or broad scale comparisons of functional group composition are easily tracked through photographs and offer the best potential for research conducted by citizen scientists.

Citizen science is an important and useful approach to research that broadens public science engagement and expands the scale at which science can be conducted. Monitoring for marine non-native species has been repeatedly identified as a venue for citizen scientists to make substantial contributions. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of identifications made by volunteers of marine invertebrates on the project Invader ID, hosted on the online citizen science portal Zooniverse. We tested the efficiency and accuracy of invertebrate identifications made through consensus, where more than one volunteer must agree on a final identification before it is added to the database. Using the Matthew’s Correlation Coefficient, we found that four volunteers in consensus balanced efficiency and accuracy when compared to gold standard scientist identifications. Common, large taxa were identified most accurately; Branching Bryozoa identifications made by four volunteers were 85% accurate, Solitary Tunicates 91% accurate, and Colonial Tunicates 64%. In community-based comparisons, the identity of the taxonomist (volunteer or scientist) had a small impact on overall community composition, while site and salinity gradients had a strong impact on composition. We suggest that citizen science monitoring programs focused on highly recognizable taxonomic groups, or on a few species within those groups that can provide crucial information for managers aiming to quickly identify new invasions. Moreover, long-term assessments of composition could be successfully monitored by volunteers from photographs, helping to bolster understanding of ongoing impacts of invasive species or climate change.