scholarly journals The influence of environmental setting on the community ecology of Ediacaran organisms

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 20190109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily G. Mitchell ◽  
Nikolai Bobkov ◽  
Natalia Bykova ◽  
Alavya Dhungana ◽  
Anton V. Kolesnikov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Community Ecology ◽  
Shallow Water ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Bedding Plane ◽  
Depositional Environments ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Environmental Setting ◽  
Benthic Environment ◽  
Broad Scale

The broad-scale environment plays a substantial role in shaping modern marine ecosystems, but the degree to which palaeocommunities were influenced by their environment is unclear. To investigate how broad-scale environment influenced the community ecology of early animal ecosystems, we employed spatial point process analyses (SPPA) to examine the community structure of seven late Ediacaran (558–550 Ma) bedding-plane assemblages drawn from a range of environmental settings and global localities. The studied palaeocommunities exhibit marked differences in the response of their component taxa to sub-metre-scale habitat heterogeneities on the seafloor. Shallow-marine (nearshore) palaeocommunities were heavily influenced by local habitat heterogeneities, in contrast to their deeper-water counterparts. The local patchiness within shallow-water communities may have been further accentuated by the presence of grazers and detritivores, whose behaviours potentially initiated a propagation of increasing habitat heterogeneity of benthic communities from shallow to deep-marine depositional environments. Higher species richness in shallow-water Ediacaran assemblages compared to deep-water counterparts across the studied time-interval could have been driven by this environmental patchiness, because habitat heterogeneities increase species richness in modern marine environments. Our results provide quantitative support for the ‘Savannah’ hypothesis for early animal diversification—whereby Ediacaran diversification was driven by patchiness in the local benthic environment.

scholarly journals The influence of environmental setting on the community ecology of Ediacaran organisms

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily G. Mitchell ◽  
Nikolai Bobkov ◽  
Natalia Bykova ◽  
Alavya Dhungana ◽  
Anton Kolesnikov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Ecology ◽  
Shallow Water ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Bedding Plane ◽  
Depositional Environments ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Benthic Environment ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Broad Scale

AbstractThe broad-scale environment plays a substantial role in shaping modern marine ecosystems, but the degree to which palaeocommunities were influenced by their environment is unclear. To investigate how broad-scale environment influenced the community ecology of early animal ecosystems we employed spatial point process analyses to examine the community structure of seven bedding-plane assemblages of late Ediacaran age (558–550 Ma), drawn from a range of environmental settings and global localities. The studied palaeocommunities exhibit marked differences in the response of their component taxa to sub-metre-scale habitat heterogeneities on the seafloor. Shallow-marine palaeocommunities were heavily influenced by local habitat heterogeneities, in contrast to their deep-water counterparts. Lower species richness in deep-water Ediacaran assemblages compared to shallow-water counterparts across the studied time-interval could have been driven by this environmental patchiness, because habitat heterogeneities correspond to higher diversity in modern marine environments. The presence of grazers and detritivores within shallow-water communities may have promoted local patchiness, potentially initiating a chain of increasing heterogeneity of benthic communities from shallow to deep-marine depositional environments. Our results provide quantitative support for the “Savannah” hypothesis for early animal diversification – whereby Ediacaran diversification was driven by patchiness in the local benthic environment.Author ContributionsE. Mitchell conceived this paper and wrote the first draft. N. Bobkov, A. Kolesnikov, N. Sozonov and D. Grazhdankin collected the data for DS surface. N. Bobkov and N. Sozonov performed the analyses on DS surface. N. Bykova, S. Xiao, and D. Grazhdankin collected the data for WS, KH1 and KH2 surfaces and E. Mitchell performed the analyses. A. Dhungana and A. Liu collected the data for FUN4 and FUN5 surfaces and A. Dhungana performed the analyses. T. Mustill and D. Grazhdankin collected the data for KS and T. Mustill and E. Mitchell performed the analyses. I. Hogarth developed the software for preliminary KS surface analyses. E. Mitchell, N. Bobkov, N. Bykova, A. Dhungana, A. Kolesnikov, A. Liu, S. Xiao and D. Grazhdankin discussed the results and prepared the manuscript.

A new tool to detect exposure surfaces in shallow water carbonate depositional environments

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Mindszenty ◽  
J. Ferenc Deák ◽  
Mária Fölvári
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
Depositional Environments ◽  
Water Carbonate ◽  
Shallow Water Carbonate

scholarly journals Temperature and Prey Species Richness Drive the Broad-Scale Distribution of a Generalist Predator

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Danai-Eleni Michailidou ◽  
Maria Lazarina ◽  
Stefanos P. Sgardelis
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Species Distribution ◽  
Prey Species ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Generalist Predator ◽  
Distributional Patterns ◽  
The Future ◽  
Grass Snake ◽  
Broad Scale

The ongoing climate change and the unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss render the need to accurately project future species distributional patterns more critical than ever. Mounting evidence suggests that not only abiotic factors, but also biotic interactions drive broad-scale distributional patterns. Here, we explored the effect of predator-prey interaction on the predator distribution, using as target species the widespread and generalist grass snake (Natrix natrix). We used ensemble Species Distribution Modeling (SDM) to build a model only with abiotic variables (abiotic model) and a biotic one including prey species richness. Then we projected the future grass snake distribution using a modest emission scenario assuming an unhindered and no dispersal scenario. The two models performed equally well, with temperature and prey species richness emerging as the top drivers of species distribution in the abiotic and biotic models, respectively. In the future, a severe range contraction is anticipated in the case of no dispersal, a likely possibility as reptiles are poor dispersers. If the species can disperse freely, an improbable scenario due to habitat loss and fragmentation, it will lose part of its contemporary distribution, but it will expand northwards.

scholarly journals Modeling broad-scale patterns of avian species richness across the Midwestern United States with measures of satellite image texture

2012 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 140-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick D. Culbert ◽  
Volker C. Radeloff ◽  
Véronique St-Louis ◽  
Curtis H. Flather ◽  
Chadwick D. Rittenhouse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Satellite Image ◽  
Avian Species ◽  
Image Texture ◽  
Midwestern United States ◽  
Broad Scale

scholarly journals Late Cenozoic turnover in the Caribbean reef coral fauna

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 43-43
Author(s):  
Ann F. Budd ◽  
Thomas A. Stemann ◽  
Kenneth G. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
Reef Coral ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Late Pliocene ◽  
Early Pliocene ◽  
Coral Fauna ◽  
Caribbean Reef ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Faunal Distribution

Study of the stratigraphic ranges of reef coral species in scattered sequences (Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Florida) suggests that a major episode of faunal turnover occurred in the Caribbean region between early Pliocene and mid Pleistocene time. In a data set composed of all reef corals except the families Mussidae and Oculinidae and the genera Cladocora and Madracis, approximately 90% of the Mio-Pliocene fauna, composed of as many as 65–70 species, became extinct during this time interval. Ten of 27 genera became extinct. Despite the high numbers of extinctions, the total number of species in the Caribbean reef coral fauna dropped only slightly over the time interval, due to similar numbers of originations and extinctions in the fauna. With one possible exception, new species arose in surviving genera, and no new genera formed.Although similar numbers of species became extinct within early Pliocene, late Pliocene, and early Pleistocene time units, shallow water communities experienced higher numbers of extinctions during the late Miocene and early Pliocene. Deeper water communities experienced higher numbers of extinctions during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene. Species surviving the turnover episode occur in deeper water communities and belong predominantly to the family Agariciidae. Nearshore grass flat communities contain the highest number of early extinctions. No difference in extinction patterns could be detected between taxa which reproduce primarily by fragmentation and those that reproduce primarily by larval recruitment. Although originations appear evenly distributed among community types, a large number occur in Florida along the northern margin of faunal distribution.The increased extinctions in shallow water communities and increased originations in the north suggest that turnover occurred primarily in response to change in abiotic factors such as temperature and siltation, and not in response to species-area effects associated with sea level change.

scholarly journals Benthic communities of shallow-water reefs of Abrolhos, Brazil

1997 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Villaça ◽  
Fábio B. Pitombo
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
Coral Species ◽  
Coral Cover ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Algal Species ◽  
Percentage Cover ◽  
High Productivity ◽  
Fringing Reefs ◽  
Cover Ratio ◽  
Line Transects

The benthic communities of fringing and mushroom-shaped shallow-water reefs of the Abrolhos region (southern coast of Bahia) were surveyed. Line transects were used to estimate coral and algal percentage cover. Mussismilia braziliensis is the most conspicuous coral species in the majority of the communities surveyed, but turf algal make up the dominant cover in all but one studied reef. In general, communities on mushroom-shaped reefs have higher diversity and higher coral cover than on fringing reefs. For both reef morphologies, the coral to alga cover ratio does. not show marked differences between annual surveys, despite the high productivity characteristic of the dominant algal species.

scholarly journals Predicting the effects of area closures and fishing effort restrictions on the production, biomass, and species richness of benthic invertebrate communities

2006 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 822-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.G. Hiddink ◽  
T. Hutton ◽  
S. Jennings ◽  
M.J. Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Fishery Management ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Fishing Effort ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Effort Reduction ◽  
Positive Effect

AbstractTo effectively implement an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF), managers need to consider the effects of management actions on the fishery and the ecosystem. Methods for assessing the effects on target stocks are generally well developed, but methods for assessing the effects on other components and attributes of the ecosystem are not. Area closures and effort controls are widely used fishery management tools that affect the distribution of fishing effort and may therefore have consequences for a range of species and habitats. An approach is developed to predict the effects of area closures and effort control on the biomass, production, and species richness of benthic communities in the North Sea. The redistribution of beam trawling effort as a result of management action was modelled with a random utility model, assuming that fishers selected fishing grounds on the basis of their knowledge of past catch rates. The effects of trawling on benthic invertebrates were predicted using a size-based model that accounted for differences in habitat among fishing grounds. Our simulations demonstrated that closures of different sizes and in different locations could have positive or negative effects on benthic communities. These predicted effects resulted from the trade-off between recovery in the closed areas and additional trawling effects in the open areas that arose from displaced fishing activity. In the absence of effort controls, closure of lightly fished areas had the strongest positive effect on benthic communities. Effort reduction also had a positive effect. Therefore, area closures in lightly fished areas, coupled with effort reduction, are expected to minimize the effects of fishing on benthic communities. As it was not possible to access full international data for the North Sea beam trawl fleet, the results of the analyses are illustrative rather than complete. Nevertheless, what is demonstrated is an effective approach for assessing the environmental consequences of fishery management action that can be used to inform management decision-making as part of an EAF.

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