Journal ArticleDOI
A trophic cascade triggers collapse of a salt-marsh ecosystem with intensive recreational fishing
Andrew H. Altieri,Mark D. Bertness,Tyler C. Coverdale,Nicholas C. Herrmann,Christine Angelini +4 more
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It is found that the localized depletion of top predators at sites accessible to recreational anglers has triggered the proliferation of herbivorous crabs, which in turn results in runaway consumption of marsh vegetation, suggesting that overfishing may be a general mechanism underlying the consumer-driven die-off of salt marshes spreading throughout the western Atlantic.Abstract:
Overexploitation of predators has been linked to the collapse of a growing number of shallow-water marine ecosystems. However, salt-marsh ecosystems are often viewed and managed as systems controlled by physical processes, despite recent evidence for herbivore-driven die-off of marsh vegetation. Here we use field observations, experiments, and historical records at 14 sites to examine whether the recently reported die-off of northwestern Atlantic salt marshes is associated with the cascading effects of predator dynamics and intensive recreational fishing activity. We found that the localized depletion of top predators at sites accessible to recreational anglers has triggered the proliferation of herbivorous crabs, which in turn results in runaway consumption of marsh vegetation. This suggests that overfishing may be a general mechanism underlying the consumer-driven die-off of salt marshes spreading throughout the western Atlantic. Our findings support the emerging realization that consumers play a dominant role in regulating marine plant communities and can lead to ecosystem collapse when their impacts are amplified by human activities, including recreational fishing.read more
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Living dangerously on borrowed time during slow, unrecognized regime shifts
Terry P. Hughes,Christina Linares,Vasilis Dakos,Vasilis Dakos,Ingrid A. van de Leemput,Egbert H. van Nes +5 more
TL;DR: This paper argues that slow responses by ecosystems after transgressing a dangerous threshold also affords borrowed time - a window of opportunity to return to safer conditions before the new state eventually locks in and equilibrates.
Journal ArticleDOI
Critical transitions in disturbance‐driven ecosystems: identifying Windows of Opportunity for recovery
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors demonstrate a concept to analyse time series for short-term variability in external forcing that can identify potential events for sudden vegetation recovery in biogeomorphic ecosystems such as saltmarshes, mangroves, dunes or floodplains.
Journal ArticleDOI
Predators help protect carbon stocks in blue carbon ecosystems
Trisha B. Atwood,Trisha B. Atwood,Rod M. Connolly,Euan G. Ritchie,Catherine E. Lovelock,Michael R. Heithaus,Graeme C. Hays,Graeme C. Hays,James W. Fourqurean,James W. Fourqurean,Peter I. Macreadie,Peter I. Macreadie +11 more
TL;DR: In this article, the influence of predators on carbon accumulation and preservation in vegetated coastal habitats (that is, salt marshes, seagrass meadows and mangroves) is poorly understood.
Journal ArticleDOI
Can we manage coastal ecosystems to sequester more blue carbon
Peter I. Macreadie,Daniel A. Nielsen,Jeffrey J. Kelleway,Jeffrey J. Kelleway,Trisha B. Atwood,Justin R. Seymour,Katherina Petrou,Rod M. Connolly,Alexandra C. G. Thomson,Stacey M. Trevathan-Tackett,Stacey M. Trevathan-Tackett,Peter J. Ralph +11 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss three potential management strategies that hold promise for optimizing coastal blue carbon sequestration: reducing anthropogenic nutrient inputs, reinstating top-down control of bioturbator populations, and restoring hydrology.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital
Robert Costanza,Rudolf de Groot,Stephen Farberk,Monica Grasso,Bruce Hannon,Karin E. Limburg,Shahid Naeem,José M. Paruelo,Robert Raskin,Paul Suttonkk,Marjan van den Belt +10 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors have estimated the current economic value of 17 ecosystem services for 16 biomes, based on published studies and a few original calculations, for the entire biosphere, the value (most of which is outside the market) is estimated to be in the range of US$16-54 trillion (10^(12)) per year, with an average of US $33 trillion per year.
Journal ArticleDOI
Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems.
Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Michael Xavier Kirby,Wolfgang H Berger,Karen A. Bjorndal,Louis W. Botsford,Bruce J. Bourque,Roger Bradbury,Richard G. Cooke,Jon M. Erlandson,James A. Estes,Terry P. Hughes,Susan M. Kidwell,Carina B. Lange,Hunter S. Lenihan,John M. Pandolfi,Charles H. Peterson,Robert S. Steneck,Mia J. Tegner,Robert R. Warner +19 more
TL;DR: Paleoecological, archaeological, and historical data show that time lags of decades to centuries occurred between the onset of overfishing and consequent changes in ecological communities, because unfished species of similar trophic level assumed the ecological roles of over-fished species until they too were overfished or died of epidemic diseases related to overcrowding as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services.
Boris Worm,Edward B. Barbier,Nicola Beaumont,J. Emmett Duffy,Carl Folke,Carl Folke,Benjamin S. Halpern,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Heike K. Lotze,Fiorenza Micheli,Stephen R. Palumbi,Enric Sala,Kimberley A. Selkoe,John J. Stachowicz,Reg Watson +15 more
TL;DR: The authors analyzed local experiments, long-term regional time series, and global fisheries data to test how biodiversity loss affects marine ecosystem services across temporal and spatial scales, concluding that marine biodiversity loss is increasingly impairing the ocean's capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate Change, Human Impacts, and the Resilience of Coral Reefs
Terry P. Hughes,Andrew H. Baird,David R. Bellwood,M. Card,Sean R. Connolly,Carl Folke,Richard K. Grosberg,Ove Hoegh-Guldberg,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Jeremy B. C. Jackson,Joan A. Kleypas,Janice M. Lough,Paul Marshall,Magnus Nyström,Stephen R. Palumbi,John M. Pandolfi,Brian R. Rosen,Jonathan Roughgarden +17 more
TL;DR: International integration of management strategies that support reef resilience need to be vigorously implemented, and complemented by strong policy decisions to reduce the rate of global warming.
Journal ArticleDOI
Community Structure, Population Control, and Competition
TL;DR: Populations of producers, carnivores, and decomposers are limited by their respective resources in the classical density-dependent fashion and interspecific competition must necessarily exist among the members of each of these three trophic levels.