There have been increasing attempts to reverse habitat degradation through active restoration, but few large-scale successes are reported to guide these efforts. Here, we report outcomes from a unique and very successful seagrass restoration project: Since 1999, over 70 million seeds of a marine angiosperm, eelgrass (Zostera marina), have been broadcast into mid-western Atlantic coastal lagoons, leading to recovery of 3612 ha of seagrass. Well-developed meadows now foster productive and diverse animal communities, sequester substantial stocks of carbon and nitrogen, and have prompted a parallel restoration for bay scallops (Argopecten irradians). Restored ecosystem services are approaching historic levels, but we also note that managers value services differently today than they did nine decades ago, emphasizing regulating in addition to provisioning services. Thus, this study serves as a blueprint for restoring and maintaining healthy ecosystems to safeguard multiple benefits, including co-benefits that may emerge as management priorities over time.
The expression of individual behaviour as a function of environmental variation(behavioural plasticity) is recognized as a means for animals to modify their phenotypes in response to changing conditions. Plasticity has been studied extensively in recent years, leading to an accumulation of evidence for behavioural plasticity within natural populations.2. Despite the recent attention given to studying individual variation in behavioural plasticity, there is still a lack of consensus regarding its causes and constraints.One pressing question related to this is whether individual plasticity carries over across temporal and environmental gradients. That is, are some individuals more plastic (responsive) than others in general?3. Here, we examined the influence of temporal and environmental gradients on individual behavioural responses in a marine gastropod, Littoraria irrorata. We measured individual boldness repeatedly over time and in response to tidal cycle (high vs. low, an index of risk) and daily temperature fluctuations (known to affect metabolism), in a controlled field experiment. 4. On average, boldness increased from high to low tide and with increasing temperature but decreased marginally over time. Individuals also differed in their responses to variation in tide and temperature, but not over time. Those which were relatively bold at high tide (when predation risk is greater) were similarly bold at low tide, whereas shy individuals became much more "bold" at low tide. Most notably, individuals that were more responsive to tide (and thus risk) were also more responsive to temperature changes, indicating that plasticity was correlated across contexts (r = 0.57) and that bolder individuals were least plastic overall. 5.This study provides a rare and possibly first example of consistency of individual behavioural plasticity across contexts, suggesting underlying physiology as a common mechanism, and raises the possibility of correlational selection on plasticity. K E Y W O R D S animal personality, behavioural plasticity, boldness, linear mixed model, Littoraria irrorata, reaction norm, state-behaviour feedback 512 |
Microzooplankton mediate a critical juncture of autotrophic and heterotrophic microbial production in the water column. Taxonomic and ecological work on this group has been substantial, yet few reports exist for the offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). This report focuses on protists in the phylum Ciliophora collected at stations spanning the continental shelf in the northeastern GOM. We hypothesized that patterns of spatial distribution across the region would be west–east along the coast, rather than north–south coastal to offshore, reflecting major freshwater sources. Samples were obtained by 10 µm plankton net for microscopy and by filtration of seawater for DNA extraction and ciliate-specific clone sequencing. Microscopy and molecular analysis recovered 46 and 156 taxa, respectively. Some visually identified taxa were missing from the sequence analysis and sequences from unknown species dominated molecular results. Differences were apparent with both dominant and rare taxa between February and July sampling and across a trophic gradient from coastal influenced stations to those more representative of the offshore environment. This report provides new data on ciliate microzooplankton richness and distribution in the GOM and adds to our understanding of microzooplankton diversity in the ocean.
There is a dog eared and worn paperback on my shelf entitled "Ecology of Protozoa," acquired during graduate school in 1987. It has been a steady source in support of teaching and research over the years, so it was a pleasant surprise to see an update being published .The book presents an introduction to important concepts in the microbial ecology of free-living phagotrophic protists and provides a guide into the primary literature. This is a challenging task given an evolutionary history of eukaryotic unicellular that dwarfs the differences between multicellular plants, animals, and fungi. There is no other single source for the subject matter covered by this work.The second edition is an enhanced version of the first. The table of contents has been only slightly rearranged, and the new edition follows the scope of the original. Updated content is accompanied by new color and black and white photomicrographs and graphics. The first half of the book focuses on autecology and provides examples of the physiology and environmental parameters for protists at organismal and population scales. The second half covers synecology in a series of habitat-oriented chapters at community and ecosystem levels.An all-inclusive reference list is impossible in an overview such as this, and there is selectivity in the literature
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