The Ecology of Estuarine Wildlife

Greenberg, Russell

doi:10.1002/9781118412787.ch14

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 67 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Due to the large spatiotemporal variability in conditions and substrates, shallow estuaries are known to be of special ecological significance. Estuaries have high primary production, spawning zones for fish, foraging areas for birds, gradual water-land transitions, and have a unique salinity gradient from a polyhaline to mesohaline to freshwater tidal environment on the fluvialtidal transition, which, in turn, is important for certain fish species and leads to a rapid change in biodiversity of freshwater species and salinity-tolerant species (e.g., Whitfield et al, 2012;Greenberg, 2013;Telesh et al, 2013). Not surprisingly, estuaries show many interactions between hydromorphological processes and ecological processes that potentially change the landscape in morphology, sedimentology and spatial structure.…”

Section: Problem Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt Marsh and Tidal Flat Area Distributions Along Three Estuaries

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Estuarine landscapes form through interactions between fluvio-coastal processes and ecological processes within the boundaries imposed by hard substrate layers and man-made dikes and dams. As estuaries are ecologically valuable areas, monitoring and quantification of trends in habitats is needed for objective comparison and management. However, datasets of tidal flat and saltmarsh habitats along entire estuaries are scarce. The objective was to compare trends of biogeomorphological areas and habitat transitions along three estuaries in the Netherlands and assess whether these are generally comparable or mainly determined by system-specific histories. We present data for these estuaries obtained by automated classification of false-color aerial imagery. The automated method allows objective mapping of entire estuaries at unprecedented resolution. The estuaries are dominated by subtidal areas and tidal flats. The tidal flats have similar area along the estuaries while saltmarsh area decreases. Collective lengths of ecologically important transitions between saltmarsh, low-energy tidal flats and water differ more between the estuaries. These variations are due to presence of mid-channel bars and shore-connected embayments. Saltmarsh area is mainly determined by the different formation and embankment histories of the estuaries, embayments and side-branches. Much of the past saltmarsh flanking the estuaries was lost due to past land reclamation. In one system, ecologically important low-energy tidal flats are reduced by a sudden decrease of tidal amplitude, causing increase of subtidal area at the cost of intertidal area. Large areas of high-energy tidal flats in one estuary remain unexplained. The automated method can be applied in other estuaries, provided that high-quality areal imagery is available. Extensions of the data to other estuaries would allow for system-scale trend comparison between estuaries of ecologically relevant biogeomorphological characteristics.

show abstract

Section: Problem Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt Marsh and Tidal Flat Area Distributions Along Three Estuaries

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition to providing critical habitat, estuaries serve as vital nurseries for many marine species, and amphihaline and migratory species pass through them (Beck et al, 2001). Further, estuaries attract terrestrial animals for a variety of reasons, including the presence of food and drinking water (Greenberg, 2012), and are critical transition zones of water fluxes from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems (Wall et al, 2001). As a result of direct animal contact with water or indirectly through fluxes of water, terrestrial animal DNA can be transferred to water and the signal of their presence can potentially be recovered using eDNA (Harper et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity in a tropical estuary using environmental DNA

Martinezguerra

Marques

et al. 2021

Biotropica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Estuaries are characterized by a tidal regime and are strongly influenced by hydrodynamics and host diverse and highly dynamic habitats, from fresh, brackish, or saltwater to terrestrial, whose biodiversity is especially difficult to monitor. Here, we investigated the potential of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, with three primer sets targeting different regions of the mitochondrial DNA 12S ribosomal RNA gene, to detect vertebrate diversity in the estuary of the Don Diego River in Colombia.With eDNA, we detected not only aquatic organisms, including fishes, amphibians, and reptiles, but also a large diversity of terrestrial, arboreal, and flying vertebrates, including mammals and birds, living in the estuary surroundings. Further, the eDNA signal remained relatively localized along the watercourse. A transect from the deep outer section of the estuary, across the river mouth toward the inner section of the river, showed marked taxonomic turnover from typical marine to freshwater fishes, while eDNA of terrestrial and arboreal species was mainly found in the inner section of the estuary. Our results indicate that eDNA enables the detection of a large diversity of vertebrates and could become an important tool for biodiversity monitoring in estuaries, where water integrates information across the ecosystem.

show abstract

“…They provide ecosystem services that include water regulation, coastal protection, erosion control and sediment retention, carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, recreation, fisheries, and wildlife habitat (King and Lester 1995, Costanza et http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol20/iss1/art30/ al. 1997, Lougheed et al 2001, Zimmerman et al 2002, Kirwan and Murray 2008, Gedan et al 2011, Greenberg 2012, Findlay and Fischer 2013. For example, it has been estimated that each hectare of tidal marsh provides $8236 USD in coastal protection annually ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative decision-analytic framework to maximize resilience of tidal marshes to climate change

Thorne¹,

Mattsson²,

Takekawa³

et al. 2015

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. Decision makers that are responsible for stewardship of natural resources face many challenges, which are complicated by uncertainty about impacts from climate change, expanding human development, and intensifying land uses. A systematic process for evaluating the social and ecological risks, trade-offs, and cobenefits associated with future changes is critical to maximize resilience and conserve ecosystem services. This is particularly true in coastal areas where human populations and landscape conversion are increasing, and where intensifying storms and sea-level rise pose unprecedented threats to coastal ecosystems. We applied collaborative decision analysis with a diverse team of stakeholders who preserve, manage, or restore tidal marshes across the San Francisco Bay estuary, California, USA, as a case study. Specifically, we followed a structured decision-making approach, and we using expert judgment developed alternative management strategies to increase the capacity and adaptability to manage tidal marsh resilience while considering uncertainties through 2050. Because sea-level rise projections are relatively confident to 2050, we focused on uncertainties regarding intensity and frequency of storms and funding. Elicitation methods allowed us to make predictions in the absence of fully compatible models and to assess short-and long-term trade-offs. Specifically we addressed two questions. (1) Can collaborative decision analysis lead to consensus among a diverse set of decision makers responsible for environmental stewardship and faced with uncertainties about climate change, funding, and stakeholder values? (2) What is an optimal strategy for the conservation of tidal marshes, and what strategy is robust to the aforementioned uncertainties? We found that when taking this approach, consensus was reached among the stakeholders about the best management strategies to maintain tidal marsh integrity. A Bayesian decision network revealed that a strategy considering sea-level rise and storms explicitly in wetland restoration planning and designs was optimal, and it was robust to uncertainties about management effectiveness and budgets. We found that strategies that avoided explicitly accounting for future climate change had the lowest expected performance based on input from the team. Our decision-analytic framework is sufficiently general to offer an adaptable template, which can be modified for use in other areas that include a diverse and engaged stakeholder group.

show abstract

The Ecology of Estuarine Wildlife

Cited by 5 publications

References 67 publications

Salt Marsh and Tidal Flat Area Distributions Along Three Estuaries

Salt Marsh and Tidal Flat Area Distributions Along Three Estuaries

Detecting aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity in a tropical estuary using environmental DNA

Collaborative decision-analytic framework to maximize resilience of tidal marshes to climate change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About