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This volume contains the papers and abstracts of the posters given at the symposium on Long-term Changes in Coastal Benthic Communities organized by the Commission of the European Communities in Brussels, Belgium from 9 till 12 December 1985. The organization of this symposium came to conclude five years of activities in the COST 647 project on Coastal Benthic Ecology, the rationale of which is explained in the foreword by B. F. Keegan. The importance of this volume is that for the first time special attention is given to long-term data series of relevant biological variables collected in different marine benthic habitats. Many of the data presented here are the result of years of careful data collection by some of the leading scientists in the field of benthic ecology. Some of the series, such as the Macoma balthica data from the Wadden Sea or the macrofauna data from Loch Linnhe, to name just those two, are already classics in the marine biological literature. Other data were collected in the framework of a monitoring programme and are now analyzed for the first time in the different perspective of the COST 647 project. Several papers are from related fields where they represent well known case studies; they were chosen in order to see how problems have been tackled elsewhere.
The biological composition and richness of most of the Earth's major ecosystems are being dramatically and irreversibly transformed by anthropogenic activity. Yet, despite the vast areal extent of our oceans, the mainstay of research to-date in the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning arena has been weighted towards ecological observations and experimentation in terrestrial plant and soil systems. This book provides a framework for extending these concepts to a variety of marine systems. Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning is the first book to address the latest advances in biodiversity-function science using marine examples. It brings together contributions from the leading scientists in the field to provide an in-depth evaluation of the science, before offering a perspective on future research directions for some of the most pressing environmental issues facing society today and in the future.
Concerns over the potential ecological effects of fishing have increased with the expansion of fisheries throughout the marine waters of the United States. Effects of Trawling and Dredging on Seafloor Habitat describes how assessment of fishing impacts depends on gear type, number and location of bottom tows, and the physical and biological characteristics of seafloor habitats. Many experimental studies have documented acute, gear-specific effects of trawling and dredging on various types of habitat. These studies indicate that low mobility, long-lived species are more vulnerable to towed fishing gear than short-lived species in areas where the seabed is often disturbed by natural phenomena. Trawling and dredging may also change the composition and productivity of fish communities dependent on seafloor habitats for food and refuge. The scale of these impacts depends on the level of fishing effort. This volume presents color maps of fishing effort for all regions with significant bottom trawl or dredge fisheries-the first time that such data has been assembled and analyzed for the entire nation.
Against a background of extensive multi-disciplinary oceanographic investigations over a number of years, together with the long-term establishment of a Society and Institute, extensive information is available from studies undertaken in the estuarine and coastal waters of the Basque Country.The present authors gained access to unpublished literature and reports which, together with a synthesis of internationally-refereed papers, provide a series of scientific overviews of particular subject areas. Teams of researchers (from Basque Institutes and Universities) combine to present the present 'state of knowledge', within a global context, of processes ranging from sub-seabed to air-sea interaction - incorporating data on the associated biology (including fisheries) and pollutant sources and levels. The latter are compared with regional, national and European legislation. The volume is divided into various sections: Introduction; Geography and Oceanography; Chemical Oceanography and Water Quality; Sediment Characteristics, Quality and Chemistry; Biomonitoring; Communities and Ecology; and Overall Assessment.The topics covered include: an historical review of marine research; the impact of human activities, during past centuries; geology, geomorphology and sediments; climate and meteorology; marine dynamics; hydrography; water mass characteristics; contaminants in the waters; microbiological quality; sedimentological characteristics; contaminants in sediments; biomonitoring of heavy metals and organic components, at tissue organism level and using cellular and molecular biomarkers; bacterioplankton and phytoplankton communities; zooplankton communities; benthic communities; seabirds; biodiversity and conservation; recovery of benthic communities; the polluted systems; and assessment of human impacts. On the basis of these syntheses, future challenges for marine research in the Basque Country are identified, in terms of a 'Research Agenda'. This comprehensive text, relating to estuarine, coastal and oceanographic processes at wide-ranging spatial and temporal scales in the southern Bay of Biscay, will be of interest to researchers, engineers and legislators - on a regional basis and within a world-wide perspective.
This book gives an overall analysis of the current knowledge status about structures, functions, utilization for German Baltic coast ecosystems. The main focus of this book is on the aquatic area, but land/sea interactions as well as river outfalls are included as well. Characteristic for this book is the inclusion of social science aspects. Approximately one third of its extent will be about the ecosystem services. In this segment the results of the last 6 years are presented in which a comprehensive quantification of the social relevance of ecosystems was carried out covering the entire area of the German Baltic Sea. This part builds directly on the results of scientific investigations and are in relation to social ideals. The assessment will not only be economically and ethically but also the mechanisms that are used for the valorisation of the ecosystem services will be evaluated. Both sub-areas, the classic natural science part as well as the part of social science aspects, deal with the changes caused by increasing anthropogenic influence and social (including demographic) changes. This will be among others in the sense of an exemplary historical outline. The final chapter of the synthesis therefore not only presents a summary of the level of knowledge gained and a deduction of the research needs. It further contains a presentation of the application aspects resulting from the analysis of the social relevance gained from basic scientific research. The book is aimed at scientists (and students) of natural, life and social sciences, analysing functioning and structures of coastal ecosystems with regard to sustainable use and nature protection, including aspects of coastal protection. Besides, it is thought to become a reference for all levels of decision makers and stakeholders in coastal and marine management of the Baltic and North Sea region, providing also a blueprint for system analysis respecting for societal as well as biological aspects world-wide.
The ocean has absorbed a significant portion of all human-made carbon dioxide emissions. This benefits human society by moderating the rate of climate change, but also causes unprecedented changes to ocean chemistry. Carbon dioxide taken up by the ocean decreases the pH of the water and leads to a suite of chemical changes collectively known as ocean acidification. The long term consequences of ocean acidification are not known, but are expected to result in changes to many ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Ocean Acidification: A National Strategy to Meet the Challenges of a Changing Ocean reviews the current state of knowledge, explores gaps in understanding, and identifies several key findings. Like climate change, ocean acidification is a growing global problem that will intensify with continued CO2 emissions and has the potential to change marine ecosystems and affect benefits to society. The federal government has taken positive initial steps by developing a national ocean acidification program, but more information is needed to fully understand and address the threat that ocean acidification may pose to marine ecosystems and the services they provide. In addition, a global observation network of chemical and biological sensors is needed to monitor changes in ocean conditions attributable to acidification.
Evaluating Climate Change Impacts discusses assessing and quantifying climate change and its impacts from a multi-faceted perspective of ecosystem, social, and infrastructure resilience, given through a lens of statistics and data science. It provides a multi-disciplinary view on the implications of climate variability and shows how the new data science paradigm can help us to mitigate climate-induced risk and to enhance climate adaptation strategies. This book consists of chapters solicited from leading topical experts and presents their perspectives on climate change effects in two general areas: natural ecosystems and socio-economic impacts. The chapters unveil topics of atmospheric circulation, climate modeling, and long-term prediction; approach the problems of increasing frequency of extreme events, sea level rise, and forest fires, as well as economic losses, analysis of climate impacts for insurance, agriculture, fisheries, and electric and transport infrastructures. The readers will be exposed to the current research using a variety of methods from physical modeling, statistics, and machine learning, including the global circulation models (GCM) and ocean models, statistical generalized additive models (GAM) and generalized linear models (GLM), state space and graphical models, causality networks, Bayesian ensembles, a variety of index methods and statistical tests, and machine learning methods. The reader will learn about data from various sources, including GCM and ocean model outputs, satellite observations, and data collected by different agencies and research units. Many of the chapters provide references to open source software R and Python code that are available for implementing the methods.
Survival, growth and distribution of marine organisms are highly influenced by climate variability. Marine biodiversity is threatened by the combined forces of harvesting, pollution and climate change. In this book, contributors summarize current knowledge of how climate affects marine ecosystems, focusing on the North Atlantic.