Description: 33rd Annual Conference of IAMSLIC held 7-11 October, 2007 at Sarasota, Florida, USA

Description: Fouling communities are distributed worldwide, particularly in shallow and exposed marine systems. Due to their fast growth and their capacity to settle on artificial surfaces, these assemblages represent a suitable study system for ecologists and are therefore often used to investigate ecological models. Investigating broad scale ecological models has been of key interest since the time of the famous naturalist Charles Darwin. Two examples of well recognized macro-ecological patterns are i) the ‘latitudinal gradient of species richness’ and ii) the ‘relationship between local and regional diversity’. The first is the oldest paradigm about a large-scale ecological pattern and simply states that the tropical regions are richer in species than temperate and polar regions at higher latitudes. However, when exploring global diversity patterns, it is essential to comprehend not only the importance of differences in spatial scale for the observed patterns, but also how diversity at one scale may relate to diversity at a different scale. Indeed, several studies have shown that the number of species within small localities may increase either linearly or asymptotically with regional species richness (relationship between local and regional diversity). Exploring global diversity patterns still constitutes an important challenge for ecologists because it reflects the need to determine the current status of biodiversity. With the knowledge of today’s biodiversity, we can predict its future status and, as a consequence, be able to provide new answers to its probable response to phenomena such as climate change. In the present work, I investigate global diversity patterns in marine fouling communities, mainly by examining the previously mentioned macro-ecological patterns, i.e. the latitudinal gradient of species richness and the relationship between local and regional diversity. Previous studies investigating the local-regional diversity relationship have often assessed the number of species in a region by consulting available species lists. However, regional species pools based on such inventories may include species not susceptible to recruit into the community considered because they are restricted to different habitats and seasons. With the purpose of dealing with these difficulties, a few investigations have estimated regional richness based on local samples but confirmed a strong bias in relation to sampling effort. In order to optimize the quality of regional richness estimations, the current study develops a new statistical tool for estimating regional richness based on a limited number of replicates. Using three data-sets with a large number of replicates from different temperate shallow water habitats, I compare common richness estimators against the asymptote of the species accumulation curve, which was used as a reference for true regional richness. Subsequently and more importantly, the mis-estimation was quantified as a function of sampling effort. To complete this work, the relationship between local and regional diversity was expanded by integrating two categories of diversity (taxonomic and functional) and different successional stages at two different scales: European and global. At the European scale, the shape of the pattern was compared for different methods in assessing regional richness: species colonizing during a given period (transient regional richness) versus species colonizing during any phase of the experiment (total regional richness). At the global scale, I further examine whether the diversity of local communities is affected by parameters other than regional richness, such as number of functional groups or availability of resources. The results of this investigation support a clear influence of latitude on local species richness in marine fouling communities. In Chapter I, I show that tropical regions hold more marine fouling species when compared to areas at higher latitudes. In what concerns the regional richness assessment, I conclude that regional richness can be estimated based on a limited number of samples and that the quality of the estimation increases with sample effort. Moreover, the strength of the inevitable mis-estimation can be quantified (Chapter II). In addition, at the European scale (Chapter III), it was found that the shape of the relationship between local and regional diversity is sensitive to successional stage, the way regional richness is estimated and the dimension of diversity considered. The relevant regional richness, i.e. the regionally available colonizers, seems to vary in time and is larger when pooling all sampling events. As a consequence, the relationship between local and regional diversity is also influenced by the method in which regional richness is estimated. At a global scale (Chapter IV), the relationship between local and regional diversity in fouling assemblages is also affected by the succession process, if either taxonomic or functional diversity are considered. Local taxonomic diversity exhibits saturation at early stages of succession while saturation of local functional richness occurs later. In addition, functional groups were reported as the most influential predictor for local species richness.

Description: The widespread decline of anadromous Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) populations makes it imperative to research the underlying cause and to develop mitigation measures. One of the most vulnerable phases in the life-cycle of salmon is the fry stage in early spring. Survival rates of juveniles emerging from the gravel of riverbeds are related to the three-dimensional complexity of bottom morphology and hence the variety of microhabitats within the nursery area. However, anthropogenically increased sediment supply due to changes in agricultural land-use reduces complexity, especially the roughness of the streambed. This study used a series of controlled manipulative field experiments conducted in a purpose built raceway system, to provide quantitative data on the impact of sediment pollution on salmon production in freshwaters. The comparison of in-stream habitat with an increased sediment load and control (i.e. simulated natural) situations revealed that increased sedimentation drastically reduced the salmon fry carrying capacity of a stream. A modest increase in sand bed load (15%) in semi-natural streams reduced the fry density by 50% ten days after stocking with unfed fry. Emigration patterns of fry from sedimented habitat and control habitat were significantly different. Fry from both habitat types showed unusual active upstream migration which compensated for densities exceeding the carrying capacity. Riverine habitat was optimised on a reach scale to complement the raceway results and to provide a temporary mitigation measure. The in-stream habitat of a mill leat was manipulated to build the first Eco-Hatchery for salmon in the UK based, on results from the raceway and on an extensive literature review. The hatchery achieved high survival rates of salmon juveniles throughout their freshwater life stages. Furthermore, in-stream sediment traps were developed to offer effective protection for key fry nursery habitat from excess sand bed load. The data provided by the raceway system and the Eco-Hatchery inform riparian management plans. However, addressing sedimentation related issues in salmon rivers is a politically sensitive issue and will take time. Stocking with unfed fry is being used in the interim to temporarily enhance or restore populations. But stocking programmes based on conventional hatchery methodology as a response to declining stocks have frequently failed in both respects. A semi-natural incubator for salmon eggs, the Bamberger-box, was developed to address extremely low survival of newly stocked fry from conventional hatcheries. The new incubator mimics a natural salmon redd and aims in essence to produce wild fish in a hatchery environment. The results of five years field experiments using genetically different broodstock were encouraging. There was a significant increase in the average length and body mass of fry emerging from Bamberger-boxes and the mean eyed-egg-to-fry survival was 93% - greatly exceeding published data for egg-to-fry survival in the wild. Fry from Bamberger-boxes showed a significantly different and more natural rheotactic behaviour, and fewer fry had deformities when compared with fry incubated in conventional hatchery troughs. Seasonal and diurnal emergence patterns from Bamberger-boxes correlated with natural emergence patterns. A potentially crucial advantage of this new semi-natural incubation system was to ensure larvae survival during environmental extremes when all juveniles incubated in conventional hatchery troughs did not survive. Large-scale commercial incubators based on the same principles as the Bamberger-Box were developed and proved equally effective in producing ecologically viable fry. Low costs of production and operation render the new incubators an economically viable alternative to traditional incubation systems. Exploratory research on the influence of hyporheic invertebrates abundance on fry size at emergence was carried out as a next step in continuously improving semi-natural incubation technology.

Description: The main physical and biological processes that control the seasonal cycle of the plankton dynamics over the Western Black Sea were explored by means of a three‐dimensional, 7‐compartment, on‐line coupled biophysical model that was developed for this study. Adopting high frequency forcing in terms of air‐sea interaction and Danube river inputs, we performed a simulation of the coupled model during the 2002–2003 period. A series of 8‐day Chl‐a SeaWiFS images provided a validation tool that guided us, along with available in situ measurements, to the improvement of model parameterizations and the calibration of the biological parameters. The simulation of the seasonal phytoplankton variability over the entire Western Black Sea, extending from the highly eutrophic river influenced area to the open sea area, was a major challenge that made necessary the representation of both the spatial and time variability of several processes. Despite the model simplicity, the simulated Chl‐a patterns presented a good agreement as compared to the SeaWiFS and in situ data. During winter, phytoplankton in coastal areas was shown to be limited by light availability, primarily due to the increased particulate matter concentrations, as a result of resuspension from the sediment and the increased river loads. During summer, the primary production was mostly sustained by riverine nutrients and regeneration processes and thus was strongly linked to the evolution of the Danube plume. The limiting nutrients showed deviations from the observed concentrations, indicating the necessity for a more realistic phytoplankton growth model.

Description: A 2-year record of mixed layer measurements of CO2 partial pressure (pCO2), nitrate, and other physical, chemical, and biological parameters at a time series site in the northeast Atlantic Ocean (49N/16.5W) is presented. The data show average undersaturation of surface waters with respect to atmospheric CO2 levels by about 40 ± 15 matm, which gives rise to a perennial CO2 sink of 3.2 ± 1.3 mol m2 a1. The seasonal pCO2 cycle is characterized by a summer minimum (winter maximum), which is due to the dominance of biological forcing over physical forcing. Our data document a rapid transition from deep mixing to shallow summer stratification. At the onset of shallow stratification, up to one third of the mixed layer net community production during the productive season had already been accomplished. The combination of high prestratification productivity and rapid onset of tratification appears to have caused the observed particle flux peak early in the season. Mixed layer deepening during fall and winter reventilated CO2 from subsurface respiration of newly exported organic matter, thereby negating more than one third of the carbon drawdown by net community production in the mixed layer. Chemical signatures of both net community production and respiration are indicative of carbon overconsumption, the effects of which may be restricted, though, to the upper ocean. A comparison of the estimated net community production with satellite-based estimates of net primary production shows fundamental discrepancies in the timing of ocean productivity.