We present a genome assembly from an individual
Patella vulgata
(the common limpet; Mollusca; Gastropoda; Patellogastropoda; Patellidae). The genome sequence is 695.4 megabases in span. Most of the ...assembly is scaffolded into 9 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 14.93 kilobases in length. Gene annotation of this assembly on Ensembl identified 19,378 protein coding genes.
Seaweed and seagrass communities in the northeast Atlantic have been profoundly impacted by humans, and the rate of change is accelerating rapidly due to runaway CO2 emissions and mounting pressures ...on coastlines associated with human population growth and increased consumption of finite resources. Here, we predict how rapid warming and acidification are likely to affect benthic flora and coastal ecosystems of the northeast Atlantic in this century, based on global evidence from the literature as interpreted by the collective knowledge of the authorship. We predict that warming will kill off kelp forests in the south and that ocean acidification will remove maerl habitat in the north. Seagrasses will proliferate, and associated epiphytes switch from calcified algae to diatoms and filamentous species. Invasive species will thrive in niches liberated by loss of native species and spread via exponential development of artificial marine structures. Combined impacts of seawater warming, ocean acidification, and increased storminess may replace structurally diverse seaweed canopies, with associated calcified and noncalcified flora, with simple habitats dominated by noncalcified, turf‐forming seaweeds.
In this study, predictions are made as to how rapid warming and ocean acidification are likely to affect benthic flora and coastal ecosystems of the north‐east Atlantic in this century based on global evidence from the literature as interpreted by the collective knowledge of the authorship. We predict that kelp forests will die out in the south due to warming, maerl habitat lost in the north through acidification, seagrasses will proliferate, associated epiphytes will switch from calcified algae to diatoms and filamentous species, and invasive species will thrive. Thus, structurally diverse seaweed canopies with associated calcified and noncalcified flora may be replaced with simple habitats dominated by noncalcified, turf‐forming seaweeds.
We present a genome assembly from an individual
(scale worm; Annelida; Polychaeta; Phyllodocida; Polynoidae). The genome sequence is 1,044 megabases in span. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into ...18 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 15.6 kilobases in length.
Climate change is impacting marine seascapes against a backdrop of multiple anthropogenic stressors. These current impacts are projected to increase in the future with increasing warming, ...acidification, oxygen loss, and sea level rise. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been established to protect features in the ocean, traditionally with a focus to reduce fishing pressures and infrastructure placements. These MPAs are static in nature and are rarely considering climate change; therefore, their potential adaptation effectiveness as local adaptation measures for conservation in response to climate change are not clear. Here we discuss the challenges to Marine Protected Areas as conservation tools and for adaptation to climate change threats. We use two case studies from the UK to ask how climate change resilience could be included in MPA management to future-proof these conservation measures. We conclude that the resilience of MPAs to climate change would be better supported when adaptive management measures and an ecosystem-based approaches are adopted. We emphasise the need to increase the recognition in the primary legislation of MPAs and the monitoring of sites to better understand climate change as it becomes more pronounced, and impacts emerge.
There is growing evidence that climate change could affect marine benthic systems. This review provides information of climate change‐related impacts on the marine benthos in the North Atlantic. We ...cover a number of related research aspects, mainly in connection to two key issues. First, is the relationship between different physical aspects of climate change and the marine benthos. This section covers: (a) the responses to changes in seawater temperature (biogeographic shifts and phenology); (b) altered Hydrodynamics; (c) ocean acidification (OA); and (d) sea‐level rise‐coastal squeeze. The second major issue addressed is the possible integrated impact of climate change on the benthos. This work is based on relationships between proxies for climate variability, notably the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, and the long‐term marine benthos. The final section of our review provides a series of conclusions and future directions to support climate change research on marine benthic systems. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:203–223. doi: 10.1002/wcc.330
This article is categorized under:
Climate, Ecology, and Conservation > Modeling Species and Community Interactions
Introduction
Post-glacial climate variation is known to have influenced the distribution of marine species in the North Atlantic. In particular, the Atlantic side of the Arctic has experienced strong ...fluctuations in both atmospheric and sea surface temperature, as well as seasonal ice coverage since the last glacial maximum (LGM). Here, we aim to unveil the phylogeography and historical demography of three rocky intertidal marine invertebrates showing a trans-Atlantic distribution and presently inhabiting the Arctic:
Gammarus oceanicus
,
Littorina saxatilis
and
Semibalanus balanoides
.
Methods
We used a large amount of mitochondrial DNA barcode data, both newly-obtained and stored in public databases. We performed phylogeographic and demographic analyses on 1119
G. oceanicus
, 205
L. saxatilis
, and 884
S. balanoides
sequences.
Results
Our results show that all three of these boreal species have expanded their effective population sizes in the high Arctic Svalbard Archipelago since the LGM. Analyses investigating the origin of all these populations point to the eastern Atlantic.
Discussion
Based on our results we conclude that the expansion of these boreal species to the Arctic possibly happened during an earlier warm cycle of the Holocene era, and is probably not the result of the recent ‘Atlantification’ of the Arctic. We also discuss the effects of dispersal potential on population structure as an important aspect of comparative biogeographical studies.
We present a genome assembly from an individual
Steromphala cineraria
(the grey topshell; Mollusca; Gastropoda; Trochida; Trochidae). The genome sequence is 1,270 megabases in span. Most of the ...assembly (99.23%) is scaffolded into 18 chromosomal pseudomolecules.
Realistic predictions of climate change effects on natural resources are central to adaptation policies that try to reduce these impacts. However, most current forecasting approaches do not ...incorporate species-specific, process-based biological information, which limits their ability to inform actionable strategies. Mechanistic approaches, incorporating quantitative information on functional traits, can potentially predict species- and population-specific responses that result from the cumulative impacts of small-scale processes acting at the organismal level, and can be used to infer population-level dynamics and inform natural resources management. Here we present a proof-of-concept study using the European anchovy as a model species that shows how a trait-based, mechanistic species distribution model can be used to explore the vulnerability of marine species to environmental changes, producing quantitative outputs useful for informing fisheries management. We crossed scenarios of temperature and food to generate quantitative maps of selected mechanistic model outcomes (e.g. Maximum Length and Total Reproductive Output). These results highlight changing patterns of source and sink spawning areas as well as the incidence of reproductive failure. This study demonstrates that model predictions based on functional traits can reduce the degree of uncertainty when forecasting future trends of fish stocks. However, to be effective they must be based on high spatial- and temporal resolution environmental data. Such a sensitive and spatially explicit predictive approach may be used to inform more effective adaptive management strategies of resources in novel climatic conditions.
This study examined echinoderm assemblages from nearshore rocky habitats for large-scale distribution patterns with specific emphasis on identifying latitudinal trends and large regional hotspots. ...Echinoderms were sampled from 76 globally-distributed sites within 12 ecoregions, following the standardized sampling protocol of the Census of Marine Life NaGISA project (www.nagisa.coml.org). Sample-based species richness was overall low (<1-5 species per site), with a total of 32 asteroid, 18 echinoid, 21 ophiuroid, and 15 holothuroid species. Abundance and species richness in intertidal assemblages sampled with visual methods (organisms >2 cm in 1 m(2) quadrats) was highest in the Caribbean ecoregions and echinoids dominated these assemblages with an average of 5 ind m(-2). In contrast, intertidal echinoderm assemblages collected from clearings of 0.0625 m(2) quadrats had the highest abundance and richness in the Northeast Pacific ecoregions where asteroids and holothurians dominated with an average of 14 ind 0.0625 m(-2). Distinct latitudinal trends existed for abundance and richness in intertidal assemblages with declines from peaks at high northern latitudes. No latitudinal trends were found for subtidal echinoderm assemblages with either sampling technique. Latitudinal gradients appear to be superseded by regional diversity hotspots. In these hotspots echinoderm assemblages may be driven by local and regional processes, such as overall productivity and evolutionary history. We also tested a set of 14 environmental variables (six natural and eight anthropogenic) as potential drivers of echinoderm assemblages by ecoregions. The natural variables of salinity, sea-surface temperature, chlorophyll a, and primary productivity were strongly correlated with echinoderm assemblages; the anthropogenic variables of inorganic pollution and nutrient contamination also contributed to correlations. Our results indicate that nearshore echinoderm assemblages appear to be shaped by a network of environmental and ecological processes, and by the differing responses of various echinoderm taxa, making generalizations about the patterns of nearshore rocky habitat echinoderm assemblages difficult.
Long-term research in the western English Channel, undertaken by the marine laboratories in Plymouth, is described and details of survey methods, sites, and time series given in this chapter. Major ...findings are summarized and their limitations outlined. Current research, with recent reestablishment and expansion of many sampling programmes, is presented, and possible future approaches are indicated. These unique long-term data sets provide an environmental baseline for predicting complex ecological responses to local, regional, and global environmental change. Between 1888 and the present, investigations have been carried out into the physical, chemical, and biological components (ranging from plankton and fish to benthic and intertidal assemblages) of the western English Channel ecosystem. The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom has performed the main body of these observations. More recent contributions come from the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey, now the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, dating from 1957; the Institute for Marine Environmental Research, from 1974 to 1987; and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, which was formed by amalgamation of the Institute for Marine Environmental Research and part of the Marine Biological Association, from 1988. Together, these contributions constitute a unique data series-one of the longest and most comprehensive samplings of environmental and marine biological variables in the world. Since the termination of many of these time series in 1987-1988 during a reorganisation of UK marine research, there has been a resurgence of interest in long-term environmental change. Many programmes have been restarted and expanded with support from several agencies. The observations span significant periods of warming (1921-1961; 1985-present) and cooling (1962-1980). During these periods of change, the abundance of key species underwent dramatic shifts. The first period of warming saw changes in zooplankton, pelagic fish, and larval fish, including the collapse of an important herring fishery. During later periods of change, shifts in species abundances have been reflected in other assemblages, such as the intertidal zone and the benthic fauna. Many of these changes appear to be related to climate, manifested as temperature changes, acting directly or indirectly. The hypothesis that climate is a forcing factor is widely supported today and has been reinforced by recent studies that show responses of marine organisms to climatic attributes such as the strength of the North Atlantic Oscillation. The long-term data also yield important insights into the effects of anthropogenic disturbances such as fisheries exploitation and pollution. Comparison of demersal fish hauls over time highlights fisheries effects not only on commercially important species but also on the entire demersal community. The effects of acute ("Torrey Canyon" oil spill) and chronic (tributyltin TBT antifoulants) pollution are clearly seen in the intertidal records. Significant advances in diverse scientific disciplines have been generated from research undertaken alongside the long-term data series. Many concepts in marine biological textbooks have originated in part from this work (e.g. the seasonal cycle of plankton, the cycling of nutrients, the pelagic food web trophic interactions, and the influence of hydrography on pelagic communities). Associated projects currently range from studies of marine viruses and bacterial ecology to zooplankton feeding dynamics and validation of ocean colour satellite sensors. Recent advances in technology mean these long-term programmes are more valuable than ever before. New technology collects data on finer temporal and spatial scales and can be used to capture processes that operate on multiple scales and help determine their influence in the marine environment. The MBA has been in the forefront of environmental modelling of shelf seas since the early 1970s. Future directions being pursued include the continued development of coupled physical-ecosystem models using western English Channel time-series data. These models will include both the recent high-resolution data and the long-term time-series information to predict effects of future climate change scenarios. It would be beneficial to provide more spatial and high-resolution temporal context to these data, which are fundamental for capturing processes that operate at multiple scales and understanding how they operate within the marine environment. This is being achieved through employment of technologies such as satellite-derived information and advanced telemetry instruments that provide real-time in situ profile data from the water column.
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