Interannual changes in seagrass (<i>Posidonia oceanica</i>) growth and environmental change in the Spanish Mediterranean littoral zone

Marbà, Núria; Duarte, Carlos M.

doi:10.4319/lo.1997.42.5.0800

Cited by 94 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…Although incidences of high short-term rainfall and flooding have commonly resulted in detrimen- CSIRO 2007, Suppiah et al 2007 tal effects on seagrass meadows (Campbell & McKenzie 2004, Cardoso et al 2008, terrestrial water flows are important in supplying nutrients into coastal seagrass meadows (Short 1987, Udy et al 1999. Therefore, these findings are similar to those for temperate seagrasses (Marba & Duarte 1997) and suggest that the periods of drought that were experienced between 2002 and 2006, when the Norman River almost completely stopped flowing, may have been detrimental by not supplying sufficient nutrients to seagrass meadows. Alternative explanations for the positive effect of river flow could also relate to the effect of salinity on the germination of seeds (Orth et al 2000).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Resale or Republication Not Permitted Without Written Consenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Long-term studies directly measuring seagrass changes and how they are correlated with climate are rare. Such studies are restricted to the Mediterranean Sea and coastal areas of Florida (Marba & Duarte 1997, Tomasko et al 2005; no similar studies have been reported for the tropical Indo-Pacific region.Throughout the Indo-Pacific region, turbid estuarine and coastal environments commonly contain abundant and productive intertidal seagrass meadows dominated by the small colonising floral species of Halodule uninervis (Forssk.) Aschers., 1882 and Halophila ovalis (R.Br.)…”

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confidence: 99%

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Long-term climate-associated dynamics of a tropical seagrass meadow: implications for the future

Rasheed¹,

Unsworth²

2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

105

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The long-term changes of tropical intertidal seagrass, mainly Halodule uninervis and Halophila ovalis meadows and their relationship to climate are poorly documented. Developing a greater understanding of the effects of climate on seagrass meadows is critical for estimating the effects of future climate change scenarios. Here we document the temporal dynamics of coastal intertidal seagrass in tropical northeast Australia over 16 yr of detailed monitoring. This study is the first to directly relate such change to long-term climate variability in the Indo-Pacific region and southern hemisphere. Regression modelling was used to relate seagrass biomass and meadow area measurements to climate data. The aboveground biomass and area of the meadow were correlated with the interacting factors of air temperature, precipitation, daytime tidal exposure and freshwater runoff from nearby rivers. Elevated temperature and reduced flow from rivers were significantly correlated (R 2 = 0.6, p < 0.001) with periods of lower seagrass biomass. Results of this study have important implications for the long-term viability of seagrasses with regard to climate change scenarios. Modelling of our findings indicates that future higher temperatures could be detrimental to Indo-Pacific intertidal, coastal and estuarine seagrass meadows.KEY WORDS: Climate change · Global warming · Halophila ovalis · Halodule uninervis · Temperature · Rainfall · Indo-Pacific · Queensland · Australia Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 422: [93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103] 2011 been lost at an unprecedented rate from a variety of anthropogenic influences (Waycott et al. 2009). Predictions of the influence of climate change scenarios on seagrass (Short & Neckles 1999, Harley et al. 2006, Poloczanska et al. 2007, Waycott et al. 2007) are largely based on incidences of seagrass loss associated with extreme weather (Cardoso et al. 2008, Micheli et al. 2008 as reported in short-term experimental studies (Campbell et al. 2006). Long-term studies directly measuring seagrass changes and how they are correlated with climate are rare. Such studies are restricted to the Mediterranean Sea and coastal areas of Florida (Marba & Duarte 1997, Tomasko et al. 2005; no similar studies have been reported for the tropical Indo-Pacific region.Throughout the Indo-Pacific region, turbid estuarine and coastal environments commonly contain abundant and productive intertidal seagrass meadows dominated by the small colonising floral species of Halodule uninervis (Forssk.) Aschers., 1882 and Halophila ovalis (R.Br.) J. D. Hooker, 1858, Coles et al. 2003. Such meadows are often spatially expansive , Coles et al. 2003 and are particularly important food sources for dugong Dugong dugong and green turtles Chelonia mydas (Bjorndal 1985, Preen & Marsh 1995. The intertidal and coastal location of these meadows makes them susceptible to large climatic events, such as flooding , Campbell & McKenzie 2004, drought...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Resale or Republication Not Permitted Without Written Consenmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Long-term climate-associated dynamics of a tropical seagrass meadow: implications for the future

Rasheed¹,

Unsworth²

2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

105

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“…metoffice.gov.uk; Scientific Electronic Library Online of the National Commission of Scientific and Technological Research of Chile, scielo.cl; Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, www.nmnh.si.edu; and Ministry of Culture of China, www. chinaculture.org) and published and unpublished records of sea surface temperature at the region where marine populations grew (29)(30)(31), respectively (SI Table 2). …”

Section: Materials and Methods Data Compilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Allometric scaling of plant life history

Marbà

Duarte

Agustı́

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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136

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Plant mortality and birth rates are critical components of plant life history affecting the stability of plant populations and the ecosystems they form. Although allometric theory predicts that both plant birth and mortality rates should be size-dependent, this prediction has not yet been tested across plants ranging the full size spectrum. Here we show that both population mortality and population birth rates scale as the ؊ 1 ⁄4 power and plant lifespan as the 1 ⁄4 power of plant mass across plant species spanning from the tiniest phototrophs to the largest trees. Whereas the controls on plant lifespans are as yet poorly understood, our findings suggest that plant mortality rates have evolved to match population birth rates, thereby helping to maintain plant communities in equilibrium and optimizing plant life histories.birth ͉ lifespan ͉ mortality ͉ phototrophic organisms ͉ population growth P lant mortality, the negative loss term in the demographic balance of the populations, has received far less attention than the positive components of plant population dynamics, such as reproductive effort (1, 2). Yet, plant mortality is essential to maintain population turnover and the associated carbon cycling (3). Whereas animal life history has been shown to be closely scaled to body size (4-7), the possible size scaling of plant birth and mortality rates has not yet been tested, despite evidence of a strong size dependence of a range of plant functional traits such as carbon turnover, production, growth, metabolism, and reproduction (2, 8-11).Plant lifespan varies broadly across phototrophs, from hours in the smallest phytoplankton cells (12) to centuries in large trees (13). These differences suggest a possible size dependence of plant life history, which has been postulated on the basis of theoretical analyses of the optimal plant life history, which predicts plant lifespan (E) to be scaled to the 1 ⁄4 power of individual plant mass (M) (1). This prediction, which is consistent with expectations from the metabolic theory of metabolism predicting specific organismal rates to scale as the Ϫ 1 ⁄4 power of size (5)(6)(7)(8)14) and with the 1 ⁄4 power scaling of animal lifespan with body size (4), remains, however, untested. We tested this prediction by examining the scaling of plant birth and mortality rates, lifespan, and population growth with plant mass on the basis of a compilation of published reports yielding 293 and 728 estimates of plant birth and mortality rates, respectively, across the broadest possible range of phototrophic organisms, which span Ϸ6 orders of magnitude in mortality and birth rates, and Ϸ21 orders of magnitude in mass [ Table 1 and supporting information (SI) Tables 2 and 3]. Results and DiscussionPlant mortality, D (dϪ1), was strongly, inversely related to plant mass (grams, dry weight), with mortality rates scaled, as predicted, as the Ϫ 1 ⁄4 power of plant mass (Fig. 1). The slope of this relationship is, however, slightly, but significantly, lower than the expected value of Ϫ 1 ⁄4 (slope...

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“…For instance, similar rates of warming have been reported in the Mediterranean, with comparable impacts on populations of Posidonia oceanica (between 1967 andMarbà and Duarte 1997;Jordà, Marbà, and Duarte 2012). Olsen et al (2012) documented the impacts of warming from 25°C to 32°C on Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa from the Mediterranean Sea, reporting reduced rates of growth, leaf formation, and leaf biomass per shoot.…”

Section: A Warming Estuarymentioning

confidence: 78%

Twenty-first century climate change and submerged aquatic vegetation in a temperate estuary: the case of Chesapeake Bay

Arnold

Zimmerman

Engelhardt

et al. 2017

Ecosyst Health Sustain

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Introduction: The Chesapeake Bay was once renowned for expansive meadows of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). However, only 10% of the original meadows survive. Future restoration efforts will be complicated by accelerating climate change, including physiological stressors such as a predicted mean temperature increase of 2-6°C and a 50-160% increase in CO 2 concentrations. Outcomes: As the Chesapeake Bay begins to exhibit characteristics of a subtropical estuary, summer heat waves will become more frequent and severe. Warming alone would eventually eliminate eelgrass (Zostera marina) from the region. It will favor native heat-tolerant species such as widgeon grass (Ruppia maritima) while facilitating colonization by non-native seagrasses (e.g., Halodule spp.). Intensifying human activity will also fuel coastal zone acidification and the resulting high CO 2 /low pH conditions may benefit SAV via a "CO 2 fertilization effect." Discussion: Acidification is known to offset the effects of thermal stress and may have similar effects in estuaries, assuming water clarity is sufficient to support CO 2 -stimulated photosynthesis and plants are not overgrown by epiphytes. However, coastal zone acidification is variable, driven mostly by local biological processes that may or may not always counterbalance the effects of regional warming. This precarious equipoise between two forcesthermal stress and acidification -will be critically important because it may ultimately determine the fate of cool-water plants such as Zostera marina in the Chesapeake Bay. Conclusion: The combined impacts of warming, coastal zone acidification, water clarity, and overgrowth of competing algae will determine the fate of SAV communities in rapidly changing temperate estuaries.

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Interannual changes in seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) growth and environmental change in the Spanish Mediterranean littoral zone

Cited by 94 publications

References 18 publications

Long-term climate-associated dynamics of a tropical seagrass meadow: implications for the future

Long-term climate-associated dynamics of a tropical seagrass meadow: implications for the future

Allometric scaling of plant life history

Twenty-first century climate change and submerged aquatic vegetation in a temperate estuary: the case of Chesapeake Bay

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