scholarly journals Novel ecosystems in urbanized areas under multiple stressors: Using ecological history to detect and understand ecological processes of an engineered ecosystem (lake Markermeer)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.C. van Riel ◽  
◽  
J.A. Vonk ◽  
R. Noordhuis ◽  
P.F.M. Verdonschot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Novel Ecosystems ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Ecological History ◽  
Urbanized Areas

scholarly journals Contested novel ecosystems: Socio-ecological processes and evidence from Italy

2021 ◽  
pp. 100658
Author(s):  
Giovanni Trentanovi ◽  
Andrea Zinzani ◽  
Roberta Bartoletti ◽  
Federico Montanari
Keyword(s):  
Novel Ecosystems ◽  
Ecological Processes

scholarly journals Island Biodiversity in the Anthropocene

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C. Russell ◽  
Christoph Kueffer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Novel Ecosystems ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Habitat Transformation ◽  
Human Contact ◽  
Island Biodiversity ◽  
New Strategies

Biodiversity on marine islands is characterized by unique biogeographic, phylogenetic and functional characteristics. Islands hold a disproportionate amount of the world's biodiversity, and they have also experienced a disproportionate loss of it. Following human contact, island biodiversity has sustained negative human impacts increasing in rate and magnitude as islands transitioned from primary through secondary to tertiary economies. On islands, habitat transformation and invasive non-native species have historically been the major threats to biodiversity, and although these threats will continue in new forms, new impacts such as human-induced climate change and sea-level rise are emerging. Island biodiversity is changing with some species going extinct, others changing in abundance, non-native species becoming a part of many ecosystems, and humans shaping many ecological processes. Islands thus are microcosms for the emerging biodiversity and socioecological landscapes of the Anthropocene. Islands will require new strategies for the protection and restoration of their biodiversity, including maintaining biological and cultural heritage through regenerative practices, mainstreaming biodiversity in cultural and production landscapes, and engaging with the reality of novel ecosystems.

Spontaneous dynamics and wild design in green roofs

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 23-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy T. Lundholm
Keyword(s):  
Green Roofs ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Novel Ecosystems ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Ecological Understanding ◽  
Structure Changes ◽  
Constructed Ecosystems ◽  
Spontaneous Dynamics

Green roofs and other constructed environments represent novel ecosystems, yet have potential to contribute to biodiversity conservation goals. Constructed ecosystems are intentionally managed to produce specific services, and thus could be viewed as highly artificial or controlled. Yet all constructed ecosystems exhibit spontaneous dynamics, as community structure changes due to internal or external ecological processes. While all green roofs have some element of design and human control over ecological trajectories, the level of ongoing management can vary greatly. I discuss “wildness” as a characteristic of green roofs in response to their spontaneous dynamics after initial setup, and their potential to provide ecosystem services related to human psychological well-being, aesthetics and habitat for biodiversity. This approach suggests new design possibilities in interaction with spontaneous ecosystem dynamics and highlights a need for greater ecological understanding of green roof systems.

scholarly journals Effects of Petroleum By-Products and Dispersants on Ecosystems

Oceanography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-163
Author(s):  
Kenneth Halanych ◽  
◽  
Cameron Ainsworth ◽  
Erik Cordes ◽  
Richard Dodge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Cascading Effects ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
By Products

Gulf of Mexico (GOM) ecosystems are interconnected by numerous physical and biological processes. After the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster, these ecological processes facilitated dispersal of oil-spill toxicants or were damaged and broken. A considerable portion of post-DWH research focused on higher levels of biological organization (i.e., populations, communities, and ecosystems) spanning at least four environments (onshore, coastal, open ocean, and deep benthos). Damage wrought by the oil spill and mitigation efforts varied considerably across ecosystems. Whereas all systems show prolonged impacts because of cascading effects that impacted functional connections within and between communities, deep-sea and mesopelagic environments were particularly hard hit and have shown less resilience than shallow environments. In some environments, such as marshes or the deep-sea benthos, products from the spill are still biologically accessible. Some shallow ecosystems show signs of recovery, and populations of some species show resilience; however, a return to a “pre-spill” state is questionable. Importantly, habitats in which large amounts of energy flow through the ecosystem (marshes, coastal regions) recovered more quickly than low energy habitats (deep-sea benthos). Functional interactions between Gulf of Mexico systems are more complex and widespread than generally recognized. Moreover, ecosystems in the Gulf are subject to multiple stressors that can combine to impart greater, and less predictable, impacts. To help mitigate the effects of future insults, we identified four salient areas of research that should be addressed for each of the major environments within the GOM: establishing monitoring systems; quantifying coupling between GOM ecosystems; developing criteria for assessing the “vulnerability” and “resilience” of species, communities, and ecosystems; and developing holistic predictive modeling.

Ecological Restoration in the Light of Ecological History

Science ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 325 (5940) ◽  
pp. 567-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen T. Jackson ◽  
Richard J. Hobbs
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Novel Ecosystems ◽  
History Plays ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Ecological History ◽  
Restoration Targets

Ecological history plays many roles in ecological restoration, most notably as a tool to identify and characterize appropriate targets for restoration efforts. However, ecological history also reveals deep human imprints on many ecological systems and indicates that secular climate change has kept many targets moving at centennial to millennial time scales. Past and ongoing environmental changes ensure that many historical restoration targets will be unsustainable in the coming decades. Ecological restoration efforts should aim to conserve and restore historical ecosystems where viable, while simultaneously preparing to design or steer emerging novel ecosystems to ensure maintenance of ecological goods and services.

scholarly journals Evaluating biological significance of chemical exposure to fish using a bioenergetics-based stressor-response model

1999 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 823-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W Beyers ◽  
James A Rice ◽  
William H Clements
Keyword(s):  
Largemouth Bass ◽  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Micropterus Salmoides ◽  
Biological Significance ◽  
Chemical Exposure ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Response Model ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Contaminant Exposure ◽  
Exposure Response

We demonstrate how contaminant exposure-response relationships can be integrated with a bioenergetics model to estimate the biological significance of sublethal exposure under fluctuating environmental conditions. The integrated bioenergetics-based stressor-response model (SRM) was evaluated by comparing observed and predicted growth of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) exposed to several dieldrin concentrations and by conducting sensitivity analyses. Predictions of the SRM suggest that energetic effects of exposure of largemouth bass to ambient concentrations of dieldrin in lakes at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge are not biologically significant because the amount of energy lost by resident fish is small compared with variation in food consumption. Furthermore, influence of dieldrin exposure is small compared with the effects of a natural stressor like water temperature. The SRM provides a general framework for integrating laboratory-derived exposure-response relationships with ecological processes to determine the biological significance of multiple stressors in a natural environment. Comparisons of relative effects of anthropogenic and natural stressors can be used to assess potential costs and benefits of alternative ecosystem management strategies.

Expanding Nature Conservation

2018 ◽  
pp. 249-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.R. Shankar Raman
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Anthropogenic Impact ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Ecological History ◽  
As Species ◽  
Effective Conservation

Conservation in developing countries like India increasingly involves approaches transcending boundaries that have traditionally constrained nature conservation. As species range and ecological processes play out over large areas, including outside protected reserves and in human-use areas, conservationists increasingly integrate their efforts across wider landscapes involving human communities and newer constituencies. The recognition that few, if any, natural areas remain pristine or completely uninfluenced by humans, emerging from studies of deep ecological history and global changes, stimulates a recasting of nature conservation. Ecological field research that has revealed gradations of human influence on biological diversity, ranging from destruction and degradation to recovery and restoration, indicates effective conservation requires areas of low anthropogenic impact to be retained in the wider landscape. At the same time, restoration and rewilding efforts that use ecological history as a guide to enhance ecological and cultural potential of a landscape demonstrate positive roles for humans in conservation.

scholarly journals Functional spatial contextualisation of the effects of multiple stressors in marine bivalves

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Giacoletti ◽  
Gianluca Sarà
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Trophic Conditions ◽  
Remarkable Effect ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Multiple Stressor ◽  
Mechanistic Approach ◽  
Effects Of Ph ◽  
Change Context

Abstract. Many recent studies have revealed that the majority of environmental stressors experienced by marine organisms (ocean acidification, global warming, hypoxia etc.) occur at the same time and place, and that their interaction may complexly affect a number of ecological processes. Here, we experimentally investigated the effects of pH and hypoxia on the functional and behavioural traits of the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, we then simulated the potential effects on growth and reproduction dynamics trough a Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) model under a multiple stressor scenario. Our simulations showed that hypercapnia had a remarkable effect by reducing the maximal habitat size and reproductive output differentially as a function of the trophic conditions, where modelling was spatially contextualized. This study showed the major threat represented by the hypercapnia and hypoxia phenomena for the growth, reproduction and fitness of mussels under the current climate change context, and that a mechanistic approach based on DEB modelling can illustrate complex and site-specific effects of environmental change, producing that kind of information useful for management purposes, at larger temporal and spatial scales.

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