Book•
Ecological Processes in Coastal Environments
01 Jan 1979-
About: The article was published on 1979-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 209 citations till now.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: The general paradigm, called the GP, herein, relates respiration to any number of individual processes that it supports, and is more realistic, complete and mechanistic than other approaches to describing or modelling respiration.
706 citations
TL;DR: This review provides a comprehensive and current overview of environmental metabolomics research, and critically evaluates the contribution that metabolomics has made to the environmental sciences, and highlights and discusses recommendations to advance the understanding of the environment, ecology and evolution using a metabolomics approach.
Abstract: Environmental metabolomics is the application of metabolomics to characterise the interactions of organisms with their environment. This approach has many advantages for studying organism–environment interactions and for assessing organism function and health at the molecular level. As such, metabolomics is finding an increasing number of applications in the environmental sciences, ranging from understanding organismal responses to abiotic pressures, to investigating the responses of organisms to other biota. These interactions can be studied from individuals to populations, which can be related to the traditional fields of ecophysiology and ecology, and from instantaneous effects to those over evolutionary time scales, the latter enabling studies of genetic adaptation. This review provides a comprehensive and current overview of environmental metabolomics research. We begin with an overview of metabolomic studies into the effects of abiotic pressures on organisms. In the field of ecophysiology, studies on the metabolic responses to temperature, water, food availability, light and circadian rhythms, atmospheric gases and season are reviewed. A section on ecotoxicogenomics discusses research in aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicology, assessing organismal responses to anthropogenic pollutants in both the laboratory and field. We then discuss environmental metabolomic studies of diseases and biotic–biotic interactions, in particular herbivory. Finally, we critically evaluate the contribution that metabolomics has made to the environmental sciences, and highlight and discuss recommendations to advance our understanding of the environment, ecology and evolution using a metabolomics approach.
695 citations
TL;DR: It is reported here that soil-borne diseases may contribute to the succession of foredune plant species and the different sensitivities of plant species for the soil-bourne pathogens could be an evolutionary response to selection pressures of the succession stage.
Abstract: ECOLOGICAL study of the role of soil microorganisms in vegetation succession has focused mainly on organisms affecting plant nutrition, such as mycorrhiza and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. But, soil-borne diseases are involved in the degeneration of Ammophila arenaria (Marram grass) and Hippophae rhamnoides (Sea buckthorn), two plant species that dominate the coastal foredunes of Europe and are widely planted for sand stabilization. We have used reciprocal transplantation and report here that soil-borne diseases may contribute to the succession of foredune plant species. In pot experiments, plant species that succeed A. arenaria were tolerant of the soil-borne diseases of this species. Plant species that were grown in soils from both previous and later succession stages were reduced most in soils from the later stages. During foredune succession, therefore, plants disappear from sites where the soil has become colonized with specific growth-depressing microorganisms. The soil-borne diseases must have considerable importance for the outcome of interspecific competition and may be involved in patterns of clonal growth. The different sensitivities of plant species for the soil-borne pathogens could be an evolutionary response to selection pressures of the succession stage to which a species is confined by the combined effect of local abiotic and biotic environmental factors.
613 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present quantitative evidence for the effectiveness of a meso-to macro-tidal open coast salt marsh in attenuating incoming waves over a range of tidal and meteorological conditions.
Abstract: This paper presents quantitative evidence for the effectiveness of a meso- to macro-tidal open coast salt marsh in attenuating incoming waves over a range of tidal and meteorological conditions. Field measurements of wind waves at three locations on a sand flat to salt marsh cross-shore transect showed that wave energy dissipation rates over the salt marsh were significantly higher (at an average of 82%) than over the sand flat (at an average of 29%). The difference in water depth between the sand flat and salt marsh sections of the transect was not sufficient to account for the difference in wave attenuation, indicating that an increase in surface friction is the primary reason for increased wave attenuation over the salt marsh. Comparison of the field results with a numerical model based on theoretical wave energy dissipation suggests that surface friction factors of the order of ≤0·4 are responsible for the high values of wave attenuation over the salt marsh. The results provide empirical support, both for maintaining salt marshes in front of existing sea defence lines and for creating new salt marsh as part of coastal set-back/shoreline realignment schemes.
409 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors employed a quantitatively defined reference optimum temperature range for brown trout, based on the sinusoidal regression of seasonally varying field data, and found that brown trout catch data documenting an altitudinally dependent decline indicate that climate-related population decrease has in fact occurred.
Abstract: Twenty-five years of extensive water temperature data show regionally coherent warming to have occurred in Alpine rivers and streams at all altitudes, reflecting changes in regional air temperature . Much of this warming occurred abruptly in 1987/1988. For brown trout populations , the warming resulted in an upward shift in thermal habitat that was accelerated by an increase in the incidence of temperature -dependent Proliferative Kidney Disease at the habitat's lower boundary. Because physical barriers restrict longitudinal migration in mountain regions, an upward habitat shift in effect implies habitat reduction, suggesting the likelihood of an overall population decrease. Extensive brown trout catch data documenting an altitudinally dependent decline indicate that such a climate-related population decrease has in fact occurred. Our analysis employs a quantitatively defined reference optimum temperature range for brown trout , based on the sinusoidal regression of seasonally varying field data.
397 citations