Role of benthic indicators in regulating human activities at sea

Rees, H.L.; Boyd, S.E.; Schratzberger, Michaela; Murray, Lindsay

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2006.04.002

Cited by 21 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…They are also often highly biodiverse, and in the deep‐sea, may be relatively pristine compared to other marine habitats more directly impacted by human activities (Jackson et al., ; Lotze et al., ; Ramirez‐Llodra et al., ). As such, they may be indicators of anthropogenic change in deep‐sea habitats (Rees, Boyd, Schratzberger, & Murray, ), whether that be by global‐scale climate change or ocean acidification (Birchenough et al., ; Mora et al., ; Sweetman et al., ; Yasuhara, Cronin, deMenocal, Okahashi, & Linsley, ), or by local seafloor mineral extraction (Halfar & Fujita, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, they may be indicators of anthropogenic change in deep-sea habitats (Rees, Boyd, Schratzberger, & Murray, 2006), whether that be by global-scale climate change or ocean acidification (Birchenough et al, 2015;Mora et al, 2013;Sweetman et al, 2017;Yasuhara, Cronin, deMenocal, Okahashi, & Linsley, 2008), or by local seafloor mineral extraction (Halfar & Fujita, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Big in the benthos: Future change of seafloor community biomass in a global, body size‐resolved model

Yool

Martin

Anderson

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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Deep-water benthic communities in the ocean are almost wholly dependent on near-surface pelagic ecosystems for their supply of energy and material resources. Primary production in sunlit surface waters is channelled through complex food webs that extensively recycle organic material, but lose a fraction as particulate organic carbon (POC) that sinks into the ocean interior. This exported production is further rarefied by microbial breakdown in the abyssal ocean, but a residual ultimately drives diverse assemblages of seafloor heterotrophs. Advances have led to an understanding of the importance of size (body mass) in structuring these communities. Here we force a size-resolved benthic biomass model, BORIS, using seafloor POC flux from a coupled ocean-biogeochemistry model, NEMO-MEDUSA, to investigate global patterns in benthic biomass. BORIS resolves 16 size classes of metazoans, successively doubling in mass from approximately 1 μg to 28 mg. Simulations find a wide range of seasonal responses to differing patterns of POC forcing, with both a decline in seasonal variability, and an increase in peak lag times with increasing body size. However, the dominant factor for modelled benthic communities is the integrated magnitude of POC reaching the seafloor rather than its seasonal pattern. Scenarios of POC forcing under climate change and ocean acidification are then applied to investigate how benthic communities may change under different future conditions. Against a backdrop of falling surface primary production (-6.1%), and driven by changes in pelagic remineralization with depth, results show that while benthic communities in shallow seas generally show higher biomass in a warmed world (+3.2%), deep-sea communities experience a substantial decline (-32%) under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario. Our results underscore the importance for benthic ecology of reducing uncertainty in the magnitude and seasonality of seafloor POC fluxes, as well as the importance of studying a broader range of seafloor environments for future model development.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Big in the benthos: Future change of seafloor community biomass in a global, body size‐resolved model

Yool

Martin

Anderson

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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“…While there are many qualities of a good indicator (e.g., see reviews by Cairns et al, 1993;Fisher et al, 2001;European Environment Agency, 2005;Magni et al, 2005a;Rees et al, 2006;UNESCO, 2006;ICES, 2008), 65 a particularly important feature is the presence of a strong stressor-response relationship with quantifiable thresholds to allow one to convey the current status of condition relative to some optimal environmental quality target either to maintain (if the system is already in a healthy state) or to achieve (if the system is disturbed and in need of restoration). As an example, abiotic environmental attributes, such as measures of organic enrichment or chemical contamination and 70 toxicity in sediments, might be the stressor component while measures of key biological attributes, such as benthic species richness, abundance, or biomass would represent response variables.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal-sediment relationships: Evaluating the ‘Pearson–Rosenberg paradigm’ in Mediterranean coastal lagoons

Magni

Tagliapietra

Lardicci

et al. 2009

Marine Pollution Bulletin

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In the present study, we investigated the applicability of the Pearson-Rosenberg (P-R) conceptual model describing a generalized pattern of response of benthic communities in relation to organic 25 enrichment to a specific typology of marine systems, i.e. coastal lagoons. The study was performed with independent matching data on the structure of macrobenthic communities and total organic carbon (TOC) content of sediments obtained from 349 stations representing three of the most ecologically and economically relevant coastal lagoons in the Mediterranean Sea, i.e. the lagoons of Cabras, Orbetello, and Venice (Italy). Consistent with P-R model predictions, we 30 found two different peaks in benthic diversity and abundance at low (> 2.5-5 mg g -1 ) and high (> 25-30 mg g -1 ) TOC ranges, respectively. We identified TOC thresholds indicating that risks of reduced benthic diversity from organic loading and other associated stressors in sediments should be relatively low at TOC values < about 10 mg g -1 , high at TOC values > about 28 mg g -1 , andintermediate at values in-between. Predictive ability within these ranges was high based on 35 results of re-sampling simulation. Our results validate and support a prior independent study that identified similar TOC thresholds for assessing risks of benthic impacts in samples from seven coastal regions of the world. While not a measure of causality, it is anticipated that these TOC thresholds should serve as a general screening-level indicator for evaluating the likelihood of reduced sediment quality and associated bioeffects in such eutrophic systems of the 40 Mediterranean Sea, which also are exposed to a variety of stressors from multiple human uses.

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“…Bianchi et al, 2003;Sagert et al, 2005;Devlin et al, 2007;Pachés et al, 2011;Pereira Coutinho et al, 2012) and other WFD biological quality elements (e.g. Borja et al, 2003;Muniz et al, 2005;Rees et al, 2006;Dauvin, 2007;Blanchet et al, 2008;Pergent-Martini et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal waters environmental monitoring supported by river basin pluviometry and offshore wave data

Abramic

Martínez-Alzamora

Rams

et al. 2015

Marine Pollution Bulletin

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Role of benthic indicators in regulating human activities at sea

Cited by 21 publications

References 28 publications

Big in the benthos: Future change of seafloor community biomass in a global, body size‐resolved model

Big in the benthos: Future change of seafloor community biomass in a global, body size‐resolved model

Animal-sediment relationships: Evaluating the ‘Pearson–Rosenberg paradigm’ in Mediterranean coastal lagoons

Coastal waters environmental monitoring supported by river basin pluviometry and offshore wave data

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