Long-term functional changes in an estuarine fish assemblage

Baptista, Joana; Martinho, Filipe; Nyitrai, Daniel; Pardal, Miguel Ângelo; Dolbeth, Marina

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.06.025

Cited by 44 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Our results suggest that climate warming can profoundly alter functional structure in marine fish nurseries, which could have major implications for the stability of large marine ecosystems (LMEs) worldwide, as nurseries contribute to LME population maintenance (Baptista, Martinho, Nyitrai, Pardal, & Dolbeth, ; Beck et al, ; Liquete, Cid, Lanzanova, Grizzetti, & Reynaud, ; Seitz, Wennhage, Bergström, Lipcius, & Ysebaert, ). In the Bay of Somme, declines in commercially important species like plaice, sole, sprat, and herring likely had negative, reinforcing impacts on fish stocks in the EEC (Auber et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Functional reorganization of marine fish nurseries under climate warming

McLean

Mouillot

Goascoz

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

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While climate change is rapidly impacting marine species and ecosystems worldwide, the effects of climate warming on coastal fish nurseries have received little attention despite nurseries’ fundamental roles in recruitment and population replenishment. Here, we used a 26‐year time series (1987–2012) of fish monitoring in the Bay of Somme, a nursery in the Eastern English Channel (EEC), to examine the impacts of environmental and human drivers on the spatial and temporal dynamics of fish functional structure during a warming phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). We found that the nursery was initially dominated by fishes with r‐selected life‐history traits such as low trophic level, low age and size at maturity, and small offspring, which are highly sensitive to warming. The AMO, likely superimposed on climate change, induced rapid warming in the late 1990s (over 1°C from 1998 to 2003), leading to functional reorganization of fish communities, with a roughly 80% decline in overall fish abundance and increased dominance by K‐selected fishes. Additionally, historical overfishing likely rendered the bay more vulnerable to climatic changes due to increased dominance by fishing‐tolerant, yet climatically sensitive species. The drop in fish abundance not only altered fish functional structure within the Bay of Somme, but the EEC was likely impacted, as the EEC has been unable to recover from a regime shift in the late 1990s potentially, in part, due to failed replenishment from the bay. Given the collapse of r‐selected fishes, we discuss how the combination of climate cycles and global warming could threaten marine fish nurseries worldwide, as nurseries are often dominated by r‐selected species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Functional reorganization of marine fish nurseries under climate warming

McLean

Mouillot

Goascoz

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

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“…To our knowledge, this is the first study comparing long‐term trends and multi‐decadal dynamics in multiple dimensions of functional community change across trophic groups and areas. Previous trait‐based studies on long‐term functional community change have focused on single organism groups separately, either zoobenthos (Gogina, Darr, & Zettler, ; Neumann & Kröncke, ; Veríssimo et al, ; Weigel, Blenckner, & Bonsdorff, ) or fish (Baptista, Martinho, Nyjtrai, Pardal, & Dolbeth, ; Barcelo, Ciannelli, Olsen, Johannessen, & Knutsen, ; Dencker et al, ; Frelat et al, ), and particularly multi‐trait compositional changes on local scale (Clare, Robinson, & Frid, ; Frid & Caswell, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four decades of functional community change reveals gradual trends and low interlinkage across trophic groups in a large marine ecosystem

Törnroos

Pécuchet

Olsson

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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The rate at which biological diversity is altered on both land and in the sea, makes temporal community development a critical and fundamental part of understanding global change. With advancements in trait‐based approaches, the focus on the impact of temporal change has shifted towards its potential effects on the functioning of the ecosystems. Our mechanistic understanding of and ability to predict community change is still impeded by the lack of knowledge in long‐term functional dynamics that span several trophic levels. To address this, we assessed species richness and multiple dimensions of functional diversity and dynamics of two interacting key organism groups in the marine food web: fish and zoobenthos. We utilized unique time series‐data spanning four decades, from three environmentally distinct coastal areas in the Baltic Sea, and assembled trait information on six traits per organism group covering aspects of feeding, living habit, reproduction and life history. We identified gradual long‐term trends, rather than abrupt changes in functional diversity (trait richness, evenness, dispersion) trait turnover, and overall multi‐trait community composition. The linkage between fish and zoobenthic functional community change, in terms of correlation in long‐term trends, was weak, with timing of changes being area and trophic group specific. Developments of fish and zoobenthos traits, particularly size (increase in small size for both groups) and feeding habits (e.g. increase in generalist feeding for fish and scavenging or predation for zoobenthos), suggest changes in trophic pathways. We summarize our findings by highlighting three key aspects for understanding functional change across trophic groups: (a) decoupling of species from trait richness, (b) decoupling of richness from density and (c) determining of turnover and multi‐trait dynamics. We therefore argue for quantifying change in multiple functional measures to help assessments of biodiversity change move beyond taxonomy and single trophic groups.

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“…The persistent environmental fluctuations impose huge physiological constraints on organisms, hence, the number of species able to successfully establish is limited (Elliott & Quintino, 2007). Such environmental conditions should promote low functional diversity due to the convergence of species life-history traits and feeding habits essentially related to the primary source of food production (Baptista, Martinho, Nyitrai, Pardal, & Dolbeth, 2015;Elliott & Quintino, 2007;Teichert et al, 2017). On the other hand, the spatial heterogeneity in local conditions, including salinity, determines the species distribution along estuaries through environmental filtering processes (Attrill, 2002;Whitfield, Elliott, Basset, Blaber, & West, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental drivers of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity (alpha, beta and gamma components) in estuarine fish communities

Teichert

Lepage

Chevillot

et al. 2017

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim We applied a diversity partitioning approach to identify the influence of multiple environmental factors on taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of estuarine fish assemblages at different spatial scales. Our aim was to determine (1) how variation in γ‐diversity (estuary scale) is supported by changes in α‐ (local scale) and β‐components (dissimilarity between these two scales) for the three diversity facets and (2) how these diversity measures are related to biogeographic, hydroclimatic, marine, estuarine and land cover conditions. Location French estuaries, North East Atlantic. Taxon Fish communities. Methods Fish assemblages were sampled using standardized beam trawl surveys in 32 estuaries during spring and autumn (period 2005–2016). The Rao's quadratic entropy was used to decompose the γ‐diversity into α‐diversity and β‐diversity. For the three diversity facets, we used linear mixed models (LMMs) to determine the strength of the relationships between α‐, β‐ and γ‐diversities. Then, LMMs were applied to identify which environmental factors were the best predictors of diversity patterns. Results Variability in γ‐diversity is better explained by β‐diversity than by local (α‐) diversity for the three diversity facets. The relationship between γ‐ and α‐diversity revealed a saturation effect for both taxonomic and phylogenetic indices. The influence of the five categories of explanatory variables differed depending on the diversity facet and component. We found that marine conditions were the primary drivers of phylogenetic and functional α‐diversity, whereas β‐diversity was mainly influenced by estuarine characteristics. LMMs also evidenced a role of biogeographic, hydroclimatic and land cover conditions on β‐diversity. Main conclusions Our results support the statement that fish diversity is chiefly supported by changes in species composition along estuarine gradients, while functional dissimilarity is limited in space and time. Although diversity is influenced by numerous environmental factors, the ecological connection with the marine ecosystem appears as a key component to promote local diversity.

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Long-term functional changes in an estuarine fish assemblage

Cited by 44 publications

References 56 publications

Functional reorganization of marine fish nurseries under climate warming

Functional reorganization of marine fish nurseries under climate warming

Four decades of functional community change reveals gradual trends and low interlinkage across trophic groups in a large marine ecosystem

Environmental drivers of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity (alpha, beta and gamma components) in estuarine fish communities

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