The Experts below are selected from a list of 183 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Teresa Alcoverro - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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matrix composition and patch edges influence plant herbivore interactions in Marine Landscapes
Functional Ecology, 2014Co-Authors: Jordi F Pages, Alessandro Gera, Javier Romero, Teresa AlcoverroAbstract:Summary The functioning of ecosystems can be strongly driven by landscape attributes. Despite its importance, however, our understanding of how landscape influences ecosystem function derives mostly from species richness and abundance patterns, with few studies assessing how these relate to actual functional rates. We examined the influence of landscape attributes on the rates of herbivory in seagrass meadows, where herbivory has been identified as a key process structuring these relatively simple systems. The study was conducted in three representative Posidonia oceanica meadows. The principal herbivores in these meadows are the fish Sarpa salpa and the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, and we hypothesized that differences in their interaction with landscape attributes would significantly influence herbivory rates. We measured herbivore abundance, herbivory rates, primary production and plant quality (C:N) in seagrass patches embedded either in rock or in sand (matrix attribute), in patches either near or far from a rocky reef (distance attribute) and at the edges and interior of meadows. Our results show that matrix and meadow edges significantly affected the actual levels of herbivory. Herbivory rates were higher in seagrass patches embedded in a rocky matrix compared to those on sand, and herbivory at the centre of seagrass meadows was higher than at the edges. In contrast, patch distance to rocky reefs did not affect herbivory. Neither herbivore abundance nor food quality explained the patterns across different landscape attributes. This suggests that variation in herbivory across the landscape may be related much more to behavioural differences between species in their evaluation of risk, movement and food preference in relation to the landscape structure. Our results indicate that richness and abundance patterns may mask critical interactions between landscape attributes and species responses, which result in considerable heterogeneity in the way key functional processes like herbivory are distributed across the ecosystem mosaic.
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Matrix composition and patch edges influence plant–herbivore interactions in Marine Landscapes
Functional Ecology, 2014Co-Authors: Jordi F Pages, Alessandro Gera, Javier Romero, Teresa AlcoverroAbstract:Summary The functioning of ecosystems can be strongly driven by landscape attributes. Despite its importance, however, our understanding of how landscape influences ecosystem function derives mostly from species richness and abundance patterns, with few studies assessing how these relate to actual functional rates. We examined the influence of landscape attributes on the rates of herbivory in seagrass meadows, where herbivory has been identified as a key process structuring these relatively simple systems. The study was conducted in three representative Posidonia oceanica meadows. The principal herbivores in these meadows are the fish Sarpa salpa and the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, and we hypothesized that differences in their interaction with landscape attributes would significantly influence herbivory rates. We measured herbivore abundance, herbivory rates, primary production and plant quality (C:N) in seagrass patches embedded either in rock or in sand (matrix attribute), in patches either near or far from a rocky reef (distance attribute) and at the edges and interior of meadows. Our results show that matrix and meadow edges significantly affected the actual levels of herbivory. Herbivory rates were higher in seagrass patches embedded in a rocky matrix compared to those on sand, and herbivory at the centre of seagrass meadows was higher than at the edges. In contrast, patch distance to rocky reefs did not affect herbivory. Neither herbivore abundance nor food quality explained the patterns across different landscape attributes. This suggests that variation in herbivory across the landscape may be related much more to behavioural differences between species in their evaluation of risk, movement and food preference in relation to the landscape structure. Our results indicate that richness and abundance patterns may mask critical interactions between landscape attributes and species responses, which result in considerable heterogeneity in the way key functional processes like herbivory are distributed across the ecosystem mosaic.
Beatrice Crona - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Social Networks: Uncovering Social–Ecological (Mis)matches in Heterogeneous Marine Landscapes
Learning Landscape Ecology, 2017Co-Authors: Orjan Bodin, Beatrice CronaAbstract:Ecological and socioeconomic processes often operate over different spatial and temporal scales. This can lead to increased risks of resource misuse and overexploitation if management is not well aligned with ecological processes operating in the landscape. One important way to ensure better alignment of social and ecological processes is through improved communication among relevant stakeholders operating at different scales and/or localities. Thus, understanding the structure and function of social networks is an important aspect of disentangling outcomes where different stakeholders come together to deal with natural resource dilemmas (Hum Ecol 34:573–592, 2006; Ecol Soc 11:18, 2006; Glob Environ Chang 19:366–374, 2009; Social networks and natural resource management: uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance, Cambridge, 2011). For example, active successful networking of a few key actors at the onset of a resource management initiative was important for building trust and buy-in from local farmers (Hum Ecol 34:573–592, 2006; Ecol Soc 11:18, 2006). Elsewhere, external connections were key to why some rural communities were more successful in initiating economic development; a few key individuals with enough education and skills had contacts with donors and agencies outside the village. These ties to external actors with resources were crucial in differentiating successful outcomes in otherwise very similar-seeming rural Indian communities (Active social capital. Tracing the roots of development and democracy, New York, 2002). In resource-dependent communities, particularly in the developing world, a lack of formal institutions or enforcement of regulations often means that resource users resort to informal social networks for coordinating resource use. To understand if and how social networks influence resource management, it is important to analyze both the patterns of communication but also how these patterns relate to key ecological processes in the landscape.
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social networks uncovering social ecological mis matches in heterogeneous Marine Landscapes
2017Co-Authors: Orjan Bodin, Beatrice CronaAbstract:Ecological and socioeconomic processes often operate over different spatial and temporal scales. This can lead to increased risks of resource misuse and overexploitation if management is not well aligned with ecological processes operating in the landscape. One important way to ensure better alignment of social and ecological processes is through improved communication among relevant stakeholders operating at different scales and/or localities. Thus, understanding the structure and function of social networks is an important aspect of disentangling outcomes where different stakeholders come together to deal with natural resource dilemmas (Hum Ecol 34:573–592, 2006; Ecol Soc 11:18, 2006; Glob Environ Chang 19:366–374, 2009; Social networks and natural resource management: uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance, Cambridge, 2011). For example, active successful networking of a few key actors at the onset of a resource management initiative was important for building trust and buy-in from local farmers (Hum Ecol 34:573–592, 2006; Ecol Soc 11:18, 2006). Elsewhere, external connections were key to why some rural communities were more successful in initiating economic development; a few key individuals with enough education and skills had contacts with donors and agencies outside the village. These ties to external actors with resources were crucial in differentiating successful outcomes in otherwise very similar-seeming rural Indian communities (Active social capital. Tracing the roots of development and democracy, New York, 2002). In resource-dependent communities, particularly in the developing world, a lack of formal institutions or enforcement of regulations often means that resource users resort to informal social networks for coordinating resource use. To understand if and how social networks influence resource management, it is important to analyze both the patterns of communication but also how these patterns relate to key ecological processes in the landscape.
Susan S. Bell - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Seagrass Ecology: New Contributions from a Landscape Perspective
SEAGRASSES: BIOLOGY ECOLOGYAND CONSERVATION, 2007Co-Authors: Susan S. Bell, Mark S. Fonseca, Nathaniel B. StaffordAbstract:Landscape ecology is the study of processes occurring across spatially heterogeneous mosaics and the biotic responses to the resulting pattern. Spatial mosaics are made up of structural elements, biotic, and/or abiotic, which produce a set of patches set in a homogeneous matrix. Quantitative analyses of spatial and temporal patterns resulting from patch dynamics form the basis of landscape ecology. A landscape is larger than an individual’s immediately observable area (Allen, 1998) and landscape studies typically address heterogeneity at very large spatial scales relative to the organism or process of interest. While terrestrial ecology has been studied at the landscape level for several decades, only more recently has the explicit examination of patch dynamics and spatial arrangement been applied to the study of seagrasses in the Marine environment. Studies of Marine Landscapes are not limited to seagrasses: application of this approach to soft sediment systems (Zajac et al., 2000) and salt marshes (Costanza et al., 1990) has also been documented. Given that seagrasses represent a group of over 60 species worldwide (den Hartog, 1970; den Hartog and Kuo,
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mobile corridors in Marine Landscapes enhancement of faunal exchange at seagrass sand ecotones
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 2001Co-Authors: Robert A Brooks, Susan S. BellAbstract:Field experiments utilizing peak nighttime activity levels of amphipods were performed to determine if the spatial location of drift macroalgae in seagrass Landscapes affected amphipod abundance on drift macroalgae. The study was conducted in Tampa Bay, FL over two nights in August 1995, within a Halodule wrightii Ascherson Phillips seagrass bed. Amphipod utilization of drift algae was assessed by defaunating the drift alga, Hypnea cervicornis J. Agardh, and recording net faunal movement onto algal clumps which were (1) stationary in bare sediment for 120 min; (2) stationary in H. wrightii for 120 min; (3) moved through H. wrightii for 90 min; and (4) moved through H. wrightii for 90 min and then across the seagrass sand ecotone and into bare sediment for 30 min. Amphipods, almost exclusively epiphytic taxa, were recovered from all experimental algal clumps placed both in seagrass and sand areas. Fourteen amphipod species were recovered with Ampithoe longimana and Cymadusa compta making up 77% of the total abundance. Greater abundances (but not diversity) of epifaunal amphipods were found on algae when they were located within a seagrass bed compared to bare sediment. Drift algal clumps that passed through the seagrass/sand ecotone had significantly higher amphipod abundance than (1) clumps that did not move through seagrass and were stationary in bare sediment and (2) clumps which moved through, but not out of, a seagrass bed. Demographic and ontogenetic differences were also detected among drift algal treatments. Gravid females were less abundant on algae that did not remain within or was not inside of the seagrass bed and proportionately more males and juveniles were found on algal clumps anchored away from seagrass vegetation. These findings demonstrate that drift algae acting as a mobile corridor provide epiphytal amphipods with a mechanism for dispersal within a seagrass landscape. Moreover, the drift algae that serve as a mobile corridor also act as a mechanism whereby the exchange of fauna is enhanced as drift algae move across the seagrass/sand ecotone. Thus, factors controlling drift algae movement, such as regional meteorological conditions, should have implications for interpatch dynamics of amphipods within a seagrass landscape.
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Mobile corridors in Marine Landscapes: enhancement of faunal exchange at seagrass/sand ecotones
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 2001Co-Authors: Robert A Brooks, Susan S. BellAbstract:Field experiments utilizing peak nighttime activity levels of amphipods were performed to determine if the spatial location of drift macroalgae in seagrass Landscapes affected amphipod abundance on drift macroalgae. The study was conducted in Tampa Bay, FL over two nights in August 1995, within a Halodule wrightii Ascherson Phillips seagrass bed. Amphipod utilization of drift algae was assessed by defaunating the drift alga, Hypnea cervicornis J. Agardh, and recording net faunal movement onto algal clumps which were (1) stationary in bare sediment for 120 min; (2) stationary in H. wrightii for 120 min; (3) moved through H. wrightii for 90 min; and (4) moved through H. wrightii for 90 min and then across the seagrass sand ecotone and into bare sediment for 30 min. Amphipods, almost exclusively epiphytic taxa, were recovered from all experimental algal clumps placed both in seagrass and sand areas. Fourteen amphipod species were recovered with Ampithoe longimana and Cymadusa compta making up 77% of the total abundance. Greater abundances (but not diversity) of epifaunal amphipods were found on algae when they were located within a seagrass bed compared to bare sediment. Drift algal clumps that passed through the seagrass/sand ecotone had significantly higher amphipod abundance than (1) clumps that did not move through seagrass and were stationary in bare sediment and (2) clumps which moved through, but not out of, a seagrass bed. Demographic and ontogenetic differences were also detected among drift algal treatments. Gravid females were less abundant on algae that did not remain within or was not inside of the seagrass bed and proportionately more males and juveniles were found on algal clumps anchored away from seagrass vegetation. These findings demonstrate that drift algae acting as a mobile corridor provide epiphytal amphipods with a mechanism for dispersal within a seagrass landscape. Moreover, the drift algae that serve as a mobile corridor also act as a mechanism whereby the exchange of fauna is enhanced as drift algae move across the seagrass/sand ecotone. Thus, factors controlling drift algae movement, such as regional meteorological conditions, should have implications for interpatch dynamics of amphipods within a seagrass landscape.
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Marine Landscapes and faunal recruitment a field test with seagrasses and copepods
Marine Ecology Progress Series, 1991Co-Authors: Susan S. Bell, Geoffrey R F HicksAbstract:The influence of plant Landscapes on recruitment of meiofaunal copepods was investigated in a New Zealand seagrass bed. Artificial plant mimics were placed into sediments at levels equivalent to natural blade densities (100 units per 0.5 X 0.25 m plot) in a variety of experimental treatments and retrieved 3 or 5 d later. To assess the effect of plant arrangement on faunal recruitment, plots were established within a seagrass bed in areas clipped of vegetation with (1) natural vegetation immediately surrounding the experimental plot; (2) natural vegetation clipped up to 0.5 m from plot edges; and (3) vegetation clipped up to 1 m from plot edges. Outside the natural seagrass bed plots were established in unvegetated sediments 0.5 m from the edge of the bed. Additionally, mimics were placed into plots 0.5 m from the edge of the bed which had sediment surfaces covered by plastic sheeting to determine whether recruitment onto plant mimics was from underlying sediments or from outside plots. Density of total copepods was highest on plant mimics with vegetation immediately adjacent to clipped areas inside the natural seagrass bed after 5 d. Densities of total copepods on mimics placed outside the bed were 5 x higher than those inside the bed and the covering of sediment significantly reduced recruitment. The dominant copepod species, Bulbarnphiascus sp., recruited to mimics irrespective of sediment border and probably invaded mimics from underlying sediments, although this was not true for other common species. While plant arrangement may influence recruitment of some copepod species, altering access to a source pool had a much greater effect on copepod densities on plant mimics.
Emily J. Shumchenia - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Toward wind farm monitoring optimization: assessment of ecological zones from Marine Landscapes using machine learning algorithms
Hydrobiologia, 2015Co-Authors: Annette R. Grilli, Emily J. ShumcheniaAbstract:Within the perspective of siting wind farms offshore of Rhode Island, USA, the State and National Environmental Agencies had requested a local Marine ecological assessment, which led to an ecological zoning of the area. In view of expanding this zoning outside its limit of the test area and filling gaps in ecological zones, an effort to model those ecological zones using Marine landscape or abiotic features was carried out. This study tests the accuracy of selected machine learning algorithmic models, decision tree, and random forest, for relating Marine Landscapes features to ecological sub-regions. Both models show to be good predictive tools with accuracy after cross validation of the order of 5–3%. Key abiotic variables to provide an accurate model were investigated. The study demonstrates the importance of the distance to coast, the sediment characteristics (fraction of clay, median size of the sediments), the hydrodynamic features, in particular not only tidal current/drag force, but also wave drag force, and finally the oceanographic characteristics such as stratification and sea surface temperature to built a good predictive model. Those findings provide some insight on the pre-monitoring effort optimization.
Orjan Bodin - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Social Networks: Uncovering Social–Ecological (Mis)matches in Heterogeneous Marine Landscapes
Learning Landscape Ecology, 2017Co-Authors: Orjan Bodin, Beatrice CronaAbstract:Ecological and socioeconomic processes often operate over different spatial and temporal scales. This can lead to increased risks of resource misuse and overexploitation if management is not well aligned with ecological processes operating in the landscape. One important way to ensure better alignment of social and ecological processes is through improved communication among relevant stakeholders operating at different scales and/or localities. Thus, understanding the structure and function of social networks is an important aspect of disentangling outcomes where different stakeholders come together to deal with natural resource dilemmas (Hum Ecol 34:573–592, 2006; Ecol Soc 11:18, 2006; Glob Environ Chang 19:366–374, 2009; Social networks and natural resource management: uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance, Cambridge, 2011). For example, active successful networking of a few key actors at the onset of a resource management initiative was important for building trust and buy-in from local farmers (Hum Ecol 34:573–592, 2006; Ecol Soc 11:18, 2006). Elsewhere, external connections were key to why some rural communities were more successful in initiating economic development; a few key individuals with enough education and skills had contacts with donors and agencies outside the village. These ties to external actors with resources were crucial in differentiating successful outcomes in otherwise very similar-seeming rural Indian communities (Active social capital. Tracing the roots of development and democracy, New York, 2002). In resource-dependent communities, particularly in the developing world, a lack of formal institutions or enforcement of regulations often means that resource users resort to informal social networks for coordinating resource use. To understand if and how social networks influence resource management, it is important to analyze both the patterns of communication but also how these patterns relate to key ecological processes in the landscape.
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social networks uncovering social ecological mis matches in heterogeneous Marine Landscapes
2017Co-Authors: Orjan Bodin, Beatrice CronaAbstract:Ecological and socioeconomic processes often operate over different spatial and temporal scales. This can lead to increased risks of resource misuse and overexploitation if management is not well aligned with ecological processes operating in the landscape. One important way to ensure better alignment of social and ecological processes is through improved communication among relevant stakeholders operating at different scales and/or localities. Thus, understanding the structure and function of social networks is an important aspect of disentangling outcomes where different stakeholders come together to deal with natural resource dilemmas (Hum Ecol 34:573–592, 2006; Ecol Soc 11:18, 2006; Glob Environ Chang 19:366–374, 2009; Social networks and natural resource management: uncovering the social fabric of environmental governance, Cambridge, 2011). For example, active successful networking of a few key actors at the onset of a resource management initiative was important for building trust and buy-in from local farmers (Hum Ecol 34:573–592, 2006; Ecol Soc 11:18, 2006). Elsewhere, external connections were key to why some rural communities were more successful in initiating economic development; a few key individuals with enough education and skills had contacts with donors and agencies outside the village. These ties to external actors with resources were crucial in differentiating successful outcomes in otherwise very similar-seeming rural Indian communities (Active social capital. Tracing the roots of development and democracy, New York, 2002). In resource-dependent communities, particularly in the developing world, a lack of formal institutions or enforcement of regulations often means that resource users resort to informal social networks for coordinating resource use. To understand if and how social networks influence resource management, it is important to analyze both the patterns of communication but also how these patterns relate to key ecological processes in the landscape.