A5041928974- Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Marine and fisheries research
- Marine and coastal plant biology
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Plant and animal studies
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Fish Ecology and Management Studies
- Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics
- Ichthyology and Marine Biology
- Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology
- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Aquaculture disease management and microbiota
- Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Isotope Analysis in Ecology
- Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies
- Marine animal studies overview
- Food Safety and Hygiene
- Coastal and Marine Management
- Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Marine Sponges and Natural Products
- Fish biology, ecology, and behavior
- Plant Parasitism and Resistance
University of California, Santa Barbara
2016-2025
Scientific Services
2016-2025
South African Environmental Observation Network
2020-2025
Pennsylvania State University
2018
Ecological Society of America
2018
Florida International University
2009-2017
South African National Parks
2016
University of New Mexico
2016
Colorado State University
2016
Northeastern University
2016
Thermal-stress events associated with climate change cause coral bleaching and mortality that threatens reefs globally. Yet patterns vary spatially temporally. Here we synthesize field observations of at 3351 sites in 81 countries from 1998 to 2017 use a suite environmental covariates temperature metrics analyze patterns. Coral was most common localities experiencing high intensity frequency thermal-stress anomalies. However, significantly less variance sea-surface (SST) Geographically, the...
Abstract Losses of corals worldwide emphasize the need to understand what drives reef decline. Stressors such as overfishing and nutrient pollution may reduce resilience coral reefs by increasing coral–algal competition reducing recruitment, growth survivorship. Such effects themselves develop via several mechanisms, including disruption microbiomes. Here we report results a 3-year field experiment simulating pollution. These stressors increase turf macroalgal cover, destabilizing...
Abstract Nutrient loading is one of the strongest drivers marine habitat degradation. Yet, link between nutrients and disease epizootics in organisms often tenuous supported only by correlative data. Here, we present experimental evidence that chronic nutrient exposure leads to increases both prevalence severity coral bleaching scleractinian corals, major habitat‐forming tropical reefs. Over 3 years, from June 2009 2012, continuously exposed areas a reef elevated levels nitrogen phosphorus....
Consumer effects on prey are well known for cascading through food webs and producing dramatic top-down community structure ecosystem function. Bottom-up of (primary producer) biodiversity also known. However, the role consumer diversity in affecting or function is not understood. Here, we show that herbivore species richness can be critical maintaining coral reefs. In two experiments over 2 years, constructed large cages enclosing single species, equal densities mixed herbivores, excluding...
Climate change threatens coral reefs by causing heat stress events that lead to widespread bleaching and mortality. Given the global nature of these mass mortality events, recent studies argue mitigating climate is only path conserve reefs. Using a analysis 223 sites, we show local stressors act synergistically with kill corals. Local factors such as high abundance macroalgae or urchins magnified loss in year after bleaching. Notably, combined effects increasing intensified loss. Our results...
Climate change is increasing the frequency and magnitude of temperature anomalies that cause coral bleaching, leading to widespread mortality stony corals can fundamentally alter reef structure function. However, bleaching often spatially variable for a given heat stress event, drivers this heterogeneity are not well resolved. While small-scale experiments have shown excess nitrogen increase susceptibility colony we lack evidence in pollution shape spatial patterns across seascape. Using...
Background Herbivory is an important top-down force on coral reefs that regulates macroalgal abundance, mediates competitive interactions between macroalgae and corals, provides resilience following disturbances such as hurricanes bleaching. However, reductions in herbivore diversity abundance via disease or over-fishing may harm corals directly indirectly increase susceptibility to other disturbances. Methodology Principal Findings In two experiments over years, we enclosed equivalent...
▪ Abstract Mutualisms occur when interactions between species produce reciprocal benefits. However, the outcome of these frequently shifts from positive, to neutral, negative, depending on environmental and community context, indirect effects commonly unexpected mutualisms that have community-wide consequences. The dynamic, context dependent, nature can transform consumers, competitors, parasites into mutualists, even while they consume, compete with, or parasitize their partner species....
MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout JournalEditorsTheme Sections 520:1-20 (2015) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11170 FEATURE ARTICLE: REVIEW Herbivory and resilience of Caribbean coral reefs: knowledge gaps implications for management Thomas C. Adam1,4,*, Deron E. Burkepile1, Benjamin I. Ruttenberg2, Michelle J. Paddack3 1Marine Sciences Program, Department Biological...
Microbes are known to affect ecosystems and communities as decomposers, pathogens, mutualists. However, they also may function classic consumers competitors with animals if chemically deter larger from using rich food-falls such carrion, fruits, seeds that can represent critical windfalls both microbes animals. often use chemicals (i.e., antibiotics) compete against other microbes. Thus might be expected could redirect significant energy subsidies upper trophic levels the detrital pathway....
As physiological processes of ectotherms are coupled to environmental temperature, climate change will likely alter their fundamental biological rates, including metabolism, consumption, growth, and reproduction. Here we combine the metabolic theory ecology (MTE) with metabolism consumption measurements a model organism, urchin Lytechinus variegatus, test how affect consumer fitness. Unexpectedly, found that exhibit different scaling relationships temperature mismatched at high temperatures....
Predators can exert strong direct and indirect effects on ecological communities by intimidating their prey. The nature of predation risk is often context dependent, but in some ecosystems these contingencies are overlooked. Risk not uniform across landscapes or among species. Indeed, they vary widely gradients habitat complexity with different prey escape tactics. These dependencies may be especially important for such as coral reefs that have species-rich predator communities. With field...
With the continued and unprecedented decline of coral reefs worldwide, evaluating factors that contribute to demise is critical importance. As cover declines, macroalgae are becoming more common on tropical reefs. Interactions between these corals may alter microbiome, which thought play an important role in colony health survival. Together, such changes benthic microbiome result a feedback mechanism contributes additional loss. To determine if we conducted field-based experiment Porites...
Rising temperatures can influence the top-down control of plant biomass by increasing herbivore metabolic demands. Unfortunately, we know relatively little about effects temperature on herbivory rates for most insect herbivores in a given community. Evolutionary history, adaptation to local environments, and dietary factors may lead variable thermal response curves across different species. Here characterized effect 21 herbivore-plant pairs, encompassing 14 12 We show that overall...
On coral reefs, fishes can facilitate growth via nutrient excretion; however, as abundance declines, these nutrients may help increases in macroalgae. By combining surveys of reef communities with bioenergetics modeling, we showed that fish excretion supplied 25 times more nitrogen to forereefs the Florida Keys, USA, than all other biotic and abiotic sources combined. One apparent result was a positive relationship between macroalgal cover on reefs. Herbivore biomass also negative cover,...
Abstract Wild large herbivores are declining worldwide. Despite extensive use of exclosure experiments to investigate herbivore impacts, there is little consensus on the effects wild ecosystem function. Of functions likely impacted, we reviewed five most‐studied in experiments: resilience/resistance disturbance, nutrient cycling, carbon plant regeneration, and primary productivity. Experimental data herbivores' were predominately derived from temperate grasslands (50% grasslands, 75% zones)....
Animal-derived nutrients play an important role in structuring nutrient regimes within and between ecosystems. When animals undergo repetitive, aggregating behavior through time, they can create hotspots where rates of biogeochemical activity are higher than those found the surrounding environment. In turn, these influence ecosystem processes community structure. We examined potential for reef fishes from family Haemulidae (grunts) to impact on communities. To do so, we tracked schooling...
Temperature can regulate a number of important biological processes and species interactions. For example, environmental temperature alter insect herbivore consumption, growth survivorship, suggesting that temperature‐driven impacts on herbivory could influence plant community composition or nutrient cycling. However, few studies to date have examined whether rising influences preference performance among multiple species, which often dictates their impact at the level. Here, we assessed...