The author presents a functional overview of mangrove forest ecosystems: how they live and grow at the edge of tropical seas, how they play a critical role along the world's tropical coasts, and what ...their future might be in a world affected by climate change.
Aquatic ecosystems are rich in biodiversity and home to a diverse array of species and habitats, providing a wide variety of benefits to human beings. Many of these valuable ecosystems are at risk of ...being irreversibly damaged by human activities and pressures, including pollution, contamination, invasive species, overfishing and climate change. Such pressures threaten the sustainability of these ecosystems, their provision of ecosystem services and ultimately human well-being. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) is now widely considered the most promising paradigm for balancing sustainable development and biodiversity protection, and various international strategies and conventions have championed the EBM cause and the inclusion of ecosystem services in decision-making. This open access book introduces the essential concepts and principles required to implement ecosystem-based management, detailing tools and techniques, and describing the application of these concepts and tools to a broad range of aquatic ecosystems, from the shores of Lough Erne in Northern Ireland to the estuaries of the US Pacific Northwest and the tropical Mekong Delta.
Employing history of science methods, including analyses of the scientific literature, archival documents, and interviews with scientists, this paper presents a history of lampreys in neurobiology ...from the 1830s to the present. We emphasize the lamprey's roles in helping to elucidate spinal cord regeneration mechanisms. Two attributes have long perpetuated studies of lampreys in neurobiology. First, they possess large neurons, including multiple classes of stereotypically located, 'identified' giant neurons in the brain, which project their large axons into the spinal cord. These giant neurons and their axonal fibers have facilitated electrophysiological recordings and imaging across biological scales, ranging from molecular to circuit-level analyses of nervous system structures and functions and including their roles in behavioral output. Second, lampreys have long been considered amongst the most basal extant vertebrates on the planet, so they have facilitated comparative studies pointing to conserved and derived characteristics of vertebrate nervous systems. These features attracted neurologists and zoologists to studies of lampreys between the 1830s and 1930s. But, the same two attributes also facilitated the rise of the lamprey in neural regeneration research after 1959, when biologists first wrote about the spontaneous, robust regeneration of some identified CNS axons in larvae after spinal cord injuries, coupled with recovery of normal swimming. Not only did large neurons promote fresh insights in the field, enabling studies incorporating multiple scales with existing and new technologies. But investigators also were able to attach a broad scope of relevance to their studies, interpreting them as suggesting conserved features of successful, and sometimes even unsuccessful, CNS regeneration. Lamprey research demonstrated that functional recovery takes place without the reformation of the original neuronal connections, for instance, by way of imperfect axonal regrowth and compensatory plasticity. Moreover, research performed in the lamprey model revealed that factors intrinsic to neurons are integral in promoting or hindering regeneration. As this work has helped illuminate why basal vertebrates accomplish CNS regeneration so well, whereas mammals do it so poorly, this history presents a case study in how biological and medical value have been, and could continue to be, gleaned from a non-traditional model organism for which molecular tools have been developed only relatively recently.
The characterisation of functional traits of non-indigenous and invasive species is crucial to assess their impact within invaded habitats. Successful biological invasions are often facilitated by ...the generalist diet of the invaders which can modify their trophic position and adapt to new ecosystems determining changes in their structure and functioning. Invasive crustaceans are an illustrative example of such mechanisms since their trophic habits can determine important ecological impacts on aquatic food webs. The Atlantic blue crab
is currently established and considered invasive in the Mediterranean Sea where it has been recorded for the first time between 1947 and 1949. In the last decade, the blue crab colonised most of the eastern and central Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea and it is currently widening its distribution towards the western region of the basin.
Stable isotope analysis is increasingly used to investigate the trophic habits of invasive marine species. Here, we collated individual measures of the blue crab δ
C and δ
N values and of its potential invertebrate prey into a geo-referenced dataset. The dataset includes 360 records with 236 isotopic values of the blue crab and 224 isotopic data of potential prey collected from five countries and 12 locations between 2014 and 2019. This dataset allows the estimation of the trophic position of the blue crab within a variety of invaded ecosystems, as well as advanced quantitative comparisons of the main features of its isotopic niche.
This open access book discusses biogeochemical processes relevant to carbon and aims to provide readers, graduate students and researchers, with insight into the functioning of marine ecosystems. A ...carbon centric approach has been adopted, but other elements are included where relevant or needed. The book focuses on concepts and quantitative understanding of primary production, organic matter mineralization and sediment biogeochemistry. The impact of biogeochemical processes on inorganic carbon dynamics and organic matter transformation are also discussed.
Lipids in Aquatic Ecosystems provides a comprehensive summary of the most recent literature on the role of lipids in aquatic systems from many world experts. Essential fatty acids (EFAs), or omega-3 ...and omega-6 fatty acids as they are known in the popular press, have garnered considerable attention in the technical and popular literature during the last decade. Lipids are important energy storage molecules in most organisms. However, equally or even more important, specific lipids (e.g. EFAs) play critical roles in a wide range of physiological processes such as regulating the structural properties of cell membranes and serving as precursors to eicosanoid signaling molecules (i.e. prostaglandins, prostacyclins, the thromboxanes and the leukotrienes). It is well established the EFAs have important impacts on human health, and it is widely agreed that the classic 'Western diet' is particularly imbalanced vis-à-vis foods containing omega-3 versus omega-6 fatty acids. But beyond the specialist literature, it is not widely known that the most physiologically important long chain, polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, i.e. eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are produced de novo principally by aquatic algae. Furthermore, within aquatic ecosystems these molecules may be synthesized from precursor fatty acid molecules and/or concentrated as they are conveyed to animals consumed by humans. For example, in salmonid fish DHA and EPA constitute ~40% of total fatty acids, whereas in typical marine and freshwater phytoplankton EPA and DHA account for between 2% and 20% of total fatty acids. In humans, EPA and DHA play key roles in heart health, immune and inflammatory responses, visual acuity as well being major components of neurological tissues such as the brain and spinal cord. This realization has prompted great concern in the fisheries management community that the world's natural supply of EPA and DHA is being overexploited. There is also concern th
Oceanography and Marine Biology Hawkins, S. J.; Lemasson, A.J.; Allcock, A.L. ...
CRC Press eBooks,
2022, 2023, Volume:
60
eBook
Open access
Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review remains one of the most cited sources in marine science and oceanography. The ever-increasing interest in work in oceanography and marine biology and ...its relevance to global environmental issues, especially global climate change and its impacts, creates a demand for authoritative refereed reviews summarizing and synthesizing the results of both historical and recent research. This Volume celebrates 60 years of OMBAR, over which time it has been an essential reference for research workers and students in all fields of marine science. The peer-reviewed contributions in Volume 60 are available to read Open Access via this webpage and on OAPEN. If you are interested in submitting a review for consideration for publication in OMBAR, please email the Editor-in-Chief, Stephen Hawkins (S.J.Hawkins@soton.ac.uk) for Volume 61. For Volume 62 onwards, please email the new co-Editors in Chief, Dr Peter Todd (dbspat@nus.edu.sg) and Dr Bayden Russell (brussell@hku.hk). Volume 60 features an editorial on the UN Decade of Ocean Science and goes on to consider such diverse topics as Cenozoic tropical marine biodiversity, blue carbon ecosystems in Sri Lanka, marine litter and microplastics in the Western Indian Ocean, and the ecology and conservation status of the family Syngnathidae in southern and western Africa. This volume also contains a retrospective Prologue on the evolution of OMBAR and pays tribute to one of its early Editors in Chief, Margaret Barnes, by providing an update on her review in OMBAR of the stalked barnacle Pollicipes. Supplementary online videos as well as additional Tables and Appendices are available on the Support Tab of the book's Routledge webpage. An international Editorial Board ensures global relevance and expert peer review, with editors from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Singapore and the UK. The series volumes find a place in the libraries of not only marine laboratories and oceanographic institutes, but also universities worldwide.
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