A scaling approach to spatial variability in early diagenetic processes

The traditional approach to understanding early diagenetic processes in sediments has generally been to analyze pore water and solid phases from a single core on depth scales of centimeters. The resulting data is then modeled using the approximations of lateral homogeneity and steady-state conditions. However, the continuing advancement of the field of benthic biogeochemistry and development of new microelectrode analytic techniques are clearly demonstrating that in many sedimentary environments a more sophisticated approach to measure the spatial and temporal variability is necessary. Although no one approach is appropriate for all situations, a scaling method is presented, with examples, in this study for determining appropriate sampling intervals in time and space that has considerable utility for investigating early changes in sediment geochemistry in complex natural systems. This approach is derived from scaling techniques that have been developed by physical oceanographers for the study of processes in the water column where many analogous sampling problems are encountered.     

A catchment‐scale perspective of plastic pollution

Plastic pollution is distributed across the globe, but compared with marine environments, there is only rudimentary understanding of the distribution and effects of plastics in other ecosystems. Here, we review the transport and effects of plastics across terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. We focus on hydrological catchments as well‐defined landscape units that provide an integrating scale at which plastic pollution can be investigated and managed. Diverse processes are responsible for the observed ubiquity of plastic pollution, but sources, fluxes and sinks in river catchments are poorly quantified. Early indications are that rivers are hotspots of plastic pollution, supporting some of the highest recorded concentrations. River systems are also likely pivotal conduits for plastic transport among the terrestrial, floodplain, riparian, benthic and transitional ecosystems with which they connect. Although ecological effects of micro‐ and nanoplastics might arise through a variety of physical and chemical mechanisms, consensus and understanding of their nature, severity and scale are restricted. Furthermore, while individual‐level effects are often graphically represented in public media, knowledge of the extent and severity of the impacts of plastic at population, community and ecosystem levels is limited. Given the potential social, ecological and economic consequences, we call for more comprehensive investigations of plastic pollution in ecosystems to guide effective management action and risk assessment. This is reliant on (a) expanding research to quantify sources, sinks, fluxes and fates of plastics in catchments and transitional waters both independently as a major transport routes to marine ecosystems, (b) improving environmentally relevant dose–response relationships for different organisms and effect pathways, (c) scaling up from studies on individual organisms to populations and ecosystems, where individual effects are shown to cause harm and; (d) improving biomonitoring through developing ecologically relevant metrics based on contemporary plastic research.     

Species turnover in lake littorals: spatial and temporal variation of benthic macroinvertebrate diversity and community composition

Aims Despite wide consensus that ecological patterns and processes should be studied at multiple spatial scales, the temporal component of diversity variation has remained poorly examined. Specifically, rare species may exhibit patterns of diversity variation profoundly different from those of dominant taxa. Location Southern Finland. Methods We used multiplicative partitioning of true diversities (species richness, Shannon diversity) to identify the most important scale(s) of variation of benthic macroinvertebrate communities across several hierarchical scales, from individual samples to multiple littorals, lakes and years. We also assessed the among‐scale variability of benthic macroinvertebrate community composition by using measures of between‐ and within‐group distances at hierarchical scales. Results On average, a single benthic sample contained 23% of the total regional macroinvertebrate species pool. For both species richness and Shannon diversity, beta‐diversity was clearly the major component of regional diversity, with within‐littoral beta‐diversity (β₁) being the largest component of gamma‐diversity. The interannual component of total diversity was small, being almost negligible for Shannon index. Among‐sample (within‐littoral) diversity was related to variation of substratum heterogeneity at the same scale. By contrast, only a small proportion of rare taxa was found in an average benthic sample. Thus, dominant species among lakes and years were about the same, whereas rare species were mostly detected in a few benthic samples in one lake (or year). For rare species, the temporal component of diversity was more important than spatial turnover at most scales. Main conclusions While individual species occurrences and abundances, particularly those of rare taxa, may vary strongly through space and time, patterns of dominance in lake littoral benthic communities are highly predictable. Consequently, many rare species will be missed in temporally restricted samples of lake littorals. In comprehensive biodiversity surveys, interannual sampling of littoral macroinvertebrate communities is therefore needed.     

Characterizing the role benthos plays in large coastal seas and estuaries: A modular approach

Ecologists studying coastal and estuarine benthic communities have long taken a macroecological view, by relating benthic community patterns to environmental factors across several spatial scales. Although many general ecological patterns have been established, often a significant amount of the spatial and temporal variation in soft-sediment communities within and among systems remains unexplained. Here we propose a framework that may aid in unraveling the complex influence of environmental factors associated with the different components of coastal systems (i.e. the terrestrial and benthic landscapes, and the hydrological seascape) on benthic communities, and use this information to assess the role played by benthos in coastal ecosystems. A primary component of the approach is the recognition of system modules (e.g. marshes, dendritic systems, tidal rivers, enclosed basins, open bays, lagoons). The modules may differentially interact with key forcing functions (e.g. temperature, salinity, currents) that influence system processes and in turn benthic responses and functions. Modules may also constrain benthic characteristics and related processes within certain ecological boundaries and help explain their overall spatio-temporal variation. We present an example of how benthic community characteristics are related to the modular structure of 14 coastal seas and estuaries, and show that benthic functional group composition is significantly related to the modular structure of these systems. We also propose a framework for exploring the role of benthic communities in coastal systems using this modular approach and offer predictions of how benthic communities may vary depending on the modular composition and characteristics of a coastal system.     

Time delay as a key factor of model plankton dynamics

Studies of the mechanisms underlying complex dynamics of ecological systems at various spatial and time scales bring increasing awareness that complexity is an intrinsic feature of ecological functioning. This paper is to investigate the role of such an ecologically significant parameter as the time delay due to maturation processes in the complex plankton dynamics. We show that the time lag T1, associated with the zooplankton maturation period can lead to essential changes in the plankton dynamics. Particularly, we show that the coexistence of limit cycle and chaotic attractor we have recently found to be typical of the system at T1 = 0 [A.B. Medvinsky, I.A. Tikhonova, R.R. Aliev, B.-L. Li, Z.-S. Lin, H. Malchow, Patchy environment as a factor of complex plankton dynamics, Phys. Rev. E 64 (2001) 021915] is replaced by pure chaotic plankton dynamics as T1 becomes more than a critical value. The results obtained imply that chaos is a rather common phenomenon in the plankton functioning.     

A comparison of the colonization of the planktic realm and the land

Metazoans evolved in the sea and quickly invaded benthic niches. It was from these niches that other large ecosystems were colonized through the later Precambrian and the Phanerozoic. Entering these new environments, the colonists encountered new sets of macroevolutionary controls. Narratives of each colonization are important for historical ecology, while comparison of different events can throw light on these underlying controls. Recent narrative work on the evolution of plankton has suggested that this series of events was unique in respect of its duration and method. Animals have been migrating into the plankton since the Proterozoic, and all the main planktic groups have a benthic origin. Migration was usually by single species acting independently of their native community. A comparison with the other major Phanerozoic colonization, that of the land, highlights these unusual features. Colonization of the land began in the Ordovician and seems to have occurred sporadically. Several of the major groups of terrestrial animals originated on land. The invasion of land is usually related to the evolution of land plants and is perhaps best regarded as migration at the level of the community. The major differences between the two colonizations may be attributable to the dominant control of the environment over plankton versus that of biotic interaction over land animals.     

Speciation patterns and processes in the zooplankton of the ancient lakes of Sulawesi Island,Indonesia

Although studies of ancient lake fauna have provided important insights about speciation patterns and processes of organisms in heterogeneous benthic environments, evolutionary forces responsible for speciation in the relatively homogenous planktonic environment remain largely unexplored. In this study, we investigate possible mechanisms of speciation in zooplankton using the freshwater diaptomids of the ancient lakes of Sulawesi, Indonesia, as a model system. We integrate phylogenetic and population genetic analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear genes with morphological and genome size data. Overall, our results support the conclusion that colonization order and local adaptation are dominant at the large, island scale, whereas at local and intralacustrine scales, speciation processes are regulated by gene flow among genetically differentiated and locally adapted populations. In the Malili lakes, the diaptomid populations are homogenous at nuclear loci, but show two highly divergent mitochondrial clades that are geographically restricted to single lakes despite the interconnectivity of the lake systems. Our study, based on coalescent simulations and population genetic analyses, indicates that unidirectional hybridization allows gene flow across the nuclear genome, but prevents the introgression of mitochondria into downstream populations. We suggest that hybridization and introgression between young lineages is a significant evolutionary force in freshwater plankton.     

Power law relationships among hierarchical taxonomic categories in algae reveal a new paradox of the plankton

Aim In this continental‐scale study, the biodiversity of benthic and planktonic algal communities was explored. A recent analysis of extinct and extant tree communities by Enquist et al. (2002) showed that richness of higher taxa was a power function of species richness, invariant across temporal and spatial scales. Here we examined whether the relationships between algal richness at hierarchical taxonomic levels conform to power laws as seen for trees, and if these relationships differ between benthic and planktonic habitats. Location Streams from more than 50 major watersheds in the United States. Method A total of 3698 samples were collected from 1277 locations by the National Water‐Quality Assessment Program. Three types of stream habitat were sampled: richest targeted habitats, depositional targeted habitats, and phytoplankton. The relationships between taxonomic richness at the species level vs. all higher categories from genus to phylum across the three habitats were examined by ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions after ln‐transformation of all variables. The slopes, b, of these regressions represent the exponents of the power functions that scaled the richness of higher taxonomic levels (T) to species richness (S) in the form: T∝S^b. Results Algal richness at hierarchical taxonomic categories (genus to phylum) is a power function of species richness. The scaling exponent of this function, which captures the diversification of higher taxa, i.e. the rate of increase of their richness with the increase of species richness, is significantly different across environments. Main conclusions The differential algal diversification in the three studied habitats emphasizes the fundamental role of the environment in structuring the communities of simple organisms such as algae. The finding that the diversification of higher taxa is greater in the seemingly homogeneous planktonic environment, when compared to benthic habitats, encompassing an array of ecological niches, poses a new paradox of the plankton.     

Patch occupancy of North American mammals: is patchiness in the eye of the beholder?

Aim Intraspecific variation in patch occupancy often is related to physical features of a landscape, such as the amount and distribution of habitat. However, communities occupying patchy environments typically exhibit non‐random distributions in which local assemblages of species‐poor patches are nested subsets of assemblages occupying more species‐rich patches. Nestedness of local communities implies interspecific differences in sensitivity to patchiness. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain interspecific variation in responses to patchiness within a community, including differences in (1) colonization ability, (2) extinction proneness, (3) tolerance to disturbance, (4) sociality and (5) level of adaptation to prevailing environmental conditions. We used data on North American mammals to compare the performance of these ‘ecological’ hypotheses and the ‘physical landscape’ hypothesis. We then compared the best of these models against models that scaled landscape structure to ecologically relevant attributes of individual species. Location North America. Methods We analysed data on prevalence (i.e. proportion of patches occupied in a network of patches) and occupancy for 137 species of non‐volant mammals and twenty networks consisting of four to seventy‐five patches. Insular and terrestrial networks exhibited significantly different mean levels of prevalence and occupancy and thus were analysed separately. Indicator variables at ordinal and family levels were included in models to correct for effects caused by phylogeny. Akaike's information criterion was used in conjunction with ordinary least squares and logistic regression to compare hypotheses. Results A patch network's physical structure, indexed using patch area and isolation, received the greatest support among models predicting the prevalence of species on insular networks. Niche breadth (diet and habitat) received the greatest support for predicting prevalence of species occupying terrestrial networks. For both insular and terrestrial systems, physical features (patch area and isolation) received greater support than any of the ecological hypotheses for predicting species occupancy of individual patches. For terrestrial systems, scaling patch area by its suitability to a focal species and by individual area requirements of the species, and scaling patch isolation by species‐specific dispersal ability and niche breadth, resulted in models of patch occupancy that were superior to models relying solely on physical landscape features. For all selected models, unexplained levels of variation were high. Main conclusions Stochasticity dominated the systems we studied, indicating that random events are probably quite important in shaping local communities. With respect to deterministic factors, our results suggest that forces affecting species prevalence and occupancy may differ between insular and terrestrial systems. Physical features of insular systems appeared to swamp ecological differences among species in determining prevalence and occupancy, whereas species with broad niches were disproportionately represented in terrestrial networks. We hypothesize that differential extinction over long time periods in highly variable networks has driven nestedness of mammalian communities on islands, whereas differential colonization over shorter time‐scales in more homogeneous networks probably governed the local structure of terrestrial communities. Our results also demonstrate that integration of a species' ecological traits with physical features of a patch network is superior to reliance on either factor separately when attempting to predict the species' probability of patch occupancy in terrestrial systems.     

Network scaling reveals consistent fractal pattern in hierarchical mammalian societies

Recent studies have demonstrated that human societies are hierarchically structured with a consistent scaling ratio across successive layers of the social network; each layer of the network is between three and four times the size of the preceding (smaller) grouping level. Here we show that similar relationships hold for four mammalian taxa living in multi-level social systems. For elephant (Loxodonta africana), gelada (Theropithecus gelada) and hamadryas (Papio hamadryas hamadryas) baboon, successive layers of social organization have a scaling ratio of almost exactly 3, indicating that such branching ratios may be a consistent feature of all hierarchically structured societies. Interestingly, the scaling ratio for orca (Orcinus orca) was 3.8, which might mean that aquatic environments place different constraints on the organization of social hierarchies. However, circumstantial evidence from a range of other species suggests that scaling ratios close to 3 may apply widely, even in species where hierarchical social structures have not traditionally been identified. These results identify the origin of the hierarchical, fractal-like organization of mammalian social systems as a fundamental question.     

Large-scale species-richness gradients in the Atlantic Ocean

The increase in species richness from the poles to the Equator has been observed in numerous terrestrial and aquatic taxa. A number of different hypotheses have been put forward as explanations for this trend, e.g. area and energy availability. However, whether these hypotheses apply to large spatial scales in marine environments remains unclear. The present study shows a clear latitudinal gradient from high to low latitude (from 80 degrees N to 70 degrees S) in marine species richness for 6643 species (fishes and invertebrates) in 10 different taxa dwelling in benthic and pelagic habitats on both sides of the Atlantic. The patterns in benthic taxa are strongly influenced by coastal hydrographic processes, with marked peaks and troughs, and consequently the gradients are not symmetric along both Atlantic sides. Pelagic taxa show a plateau-shaped distribution and the influence from coastal events on gradients could not be demonstrated. The relationships between species richness and different environmental factors indicate that area size does not explain the latitudinal pattern in benthic species richness on a large spatial scale. Sea-surface temperature (positive relationship) is the best predictor of this pattern for benthic species, and nitrate concentration (negative relationship) is the best predictor for pelagic species. The results call into question the existence of a single primary cause that would explain the pattern in marine species richness on a large spatial scale.     

Nutrient dynamics and pelagic food web interactions in oligotrophic and eutrophic environments: an overview

The concept of limiting nutrients is a cornerstone of theories concerning the control of production, structure and dynamics of freshwater and marine plankton. The current dogma is that nitrogen is limiting in most marine environments while freshwater ecosystems are mostly phosphorus-limited, although evidence of phytoplankton limitation by either N or P has been found in both environments.However, the same considerations apply to the availability of phosphorus in freshwater as to nitrogen in oceans. In resource-limited environments the plankton dynamics depend mostly on the internal mechanisms which act to recycle the limiting nutrient many times over within the surface waters. As the overall productivity increases, this dependence on nutrient regeneration decreases.The relationship between the stock of limiting nutrient, rates of supply and plankton dynamics must therefore be seen in the light of the processes operating within the entire food chain over quite different time scales. There is strong evidence that process-rates are mostly size-dependent and that food web interactions at the microbial level (picophytoplankton, bacteria, microheterotrophs) strongly effect the production of carbon and the regeneration of nutrients in the pelagic zone.     

生态学中的尺度问题——尺度上推

尺度推绎是生态学理论和应用的核心。如何在一个异质景观中进行尺度推绎仍然是一个悬而未决的科学难题,是对当今生态学家在全球变化背景下研究环境问题的重大挑战。就目前的研究,一般可分为四大类尺度推绎途径:空间分析法(如分维分析法和小波分析法)、基于相似性的尺度上推方法、基于局域动态模型的尺度上推方法、随机(模型)法。基于相似性的尺度上推方法来源于生物学上的异量关联,可将其思想延伸至空间上,研究物种丰富度、自然河网、地形特征、生态学格局或过程变量和景观指数等。基于局域动态模型的尺度上推方法需要首先确定是否进行跨尺度推绎,以及是否考虑空间单元之间的水平相互作用和反馈,然后再应用具体的方法或途径,如简单聚合法、有效值外推法、直接外推法、期望值外推、显式积分法和空间相互作用模拟法等。随机(模型)法以其它尺度上推方法为基础,根据研究的是单个景观,还是多个景观,采用不同的途径。理解、定量和降低尺度推绎结果的不确定性已经变得越来越重要,但相关研究仍然极少。以上所有有关尺度推绎的方法、途径和结果分析共同构成了尺度推绎的概念框架。     

Benthic-pelagic interactions in shallow water columns: an experimentalist's perspective

Shallow water column benthic and pelagic communities are thought to be linked by trophic relationships, through life history or ontogenetic links, and by biologically or physically-mediated resuspension or sedimentation processes. It is often confusing and sometimes misleading to focus only on benthic or only on pelagic components of aquatic food webs, even though the literature on shallow water column experiments contains few experiments that give a balanced view of these components, or interactions between components in different habitats. The rarity of balanced experiments is especially troublesome because the most common types of manipulations in shallow water column experiments (fish and nutrients) often have rapid, direct effects on both kinds of habitats, or easily recognized indirect links between the two habitats that go unevaluated. Despite a large experimental literature on pelagic and benthic foodwebs (with less on both in the same systems), there appears to be continuing uncertainty about the importance to pelagic productivity of nutrients released from resuspended sediments, the role of macrobenthos in controlling plankton, and the efficacy and interaction of trophic cascades between pelagic and benthic communities.     

Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Macrofaunal Diversity Components Relative to Sea Floor Landscape Structure

We examined temporal changes in macrofaunal α- and β-diversity over several spatial scales (within patches, among patches, across landscapes and across regions) in Long Island Sound on the northeast USA coast. Regional ε-diversity was estimated at 144 taxa, however γ-diversity fluctuated over time as did α- and β-diversity components. Based on additive partitioning, patch- and region-scale β-diversity components generally had the highest contributions to γ-diversity; lower percentages were found at within-patch and landscape scales. Multiplicative diversity partitioning indicated highest species turnover at within- and among patch scales. For all partition results, within-patch and patch-scale β-diversity increased sharply when hypoxia impacted benthic communities. Spatial variation in diversity components can be attributed to the collection of different patch types at varying spatial scales and their associated habitats across the benthic landscapes, as well as gradients in depth and other estuarine-scale characteristics. Temporal variation in diversity components across spatial scales may be related to seasonal changes in habitat heterogeneity, species population dynamics, and seasonal disturbances. Rare species were significant and temporally consistent components of macrofaunal diversity patterns over different spatial scales. Our findings agree with other marine and terrestrial studies that show diversity components vary significantly over different spatial scales and the importance of habitat/landscape heterogeneity in supporting diversity. However, our results indicate that the relative contributions of scale-specific β-diversity components can also change significantly over time. Thus, studies of diversity patterns across patches and landscapes based on data collected at one time, or assembled into a single data set from different times, may not capture the full suite of diversity patterns that occur over varying spatial scales and any time-specific determinants of those patterns. Many factors that shape and maintain sedimentary communities vary temporally, and appear to play an important role in determining and maintaining macrofaunal diversity over different spatial scales.     

Phylogenetic grouping, curvature and metabolic scaling in terrestrial invertebrates

For more than a century, the scaling of animal metabolic rates with individual body masses and environmental temperature has predominantly been described by power-law and exponential relationships respectively. Many theories have been proposed to explain these scaling relationships, but were challenged by empirically documented curvatures on double-logarithmic scales. In the present study, we present a novel data set comprising 3661 terrestrial (mainly soil) invertebrate respiration rates from 192 independent sources across a wide range in body masses, environmental temperatures and phylogenetic groups. Although our analyses documented power-law and exponential scaling with body masses and temperature, respectively, polynomial models identified curved deviations. Interestingly, complex scaling models accounting for phylogenetic groups were able to remove curvatures except for a negative curvature at the highest temperatures (>30 °C) indicating metabolic down regulation. This might indicate that the tremendous differences in invertebrate body architectures, ecology and physiology may cause severely different metabolic scaling processes.     

Marine ecosystem dynamics: Comparison of scales

When marine and terrestrial ecological systems are compared at the same time scales, there are very great differences in their relations with their physical environments. Similarities arise when comparisons are made at different time scales. There are significant consequences for management.     

Testing for temporal coherence across spatial extents: the roles of climate and local factors in regulating stream macroinvertebrate community dynamics

Temporal coherence or spatial synchrony refers to the tendency of population, community or ecosystem dynamics to behave similarly among locations through time as a result of spatially‐correlated environmental stochasticity (Moran effect), dispersal or trophic interactions. While terrestrial studies have treated synchrony mainly as a population‐level concept, the majority of freshwater studies have focused on community‐level patterns, particularly in lake planktonic communities. We used spatially and temporally hierarchical data on benthic stream invertebrates across six years, with three seasonal samples a year, in 11 boreal streams to assess temporal coherence at three spatial extents: 1) among regions (watersheds), 2) among streams within a region, and 3) among riffles within a stream, using the average of correlation coefficients for stream/riffle pairs across years. Our results revealed the primacy of strongly synchronized climatic factors (precipitation, air temperature) in inducing temporal coherence of macroinvertebrate assemblages across geographically distinct sites (i.e. Moran effect). Coherence tended to decrease with increasing spatial extent, but positive coherence was detected for most biological variables even at the largest extent (about 350 km). The generally high level of coherence reflected the strong seasonality of boreal freshwater communities. A hydrologically exceptional year enhanced the synchrony of biological variables, particularly total macroinvertebrate abundance. Regionally low precipitation in that year led to a substantial decrease in benthic densities across a broad spatial extent, followed by a rapid post‐drought recovery. Coherence at the among‐riffle (within‐stream) extent was lower than expected, implying that local‐scale habitat filters determine community dynamics at smaller spatial extents. Thus, temporal coherence of stream benthic communities appears to be controlled by partly different processes at different spatial scales.     

Discrete prey availability promotes foraging segregation and early divergence in Arctic charr, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Salvelinus alpinus</Emphasis>

Many animal species show individual foraging specialisms when potential prey requires prey-specific foraging strategies. Arctic charr are often found as benthic (macroinvertebrate) or pelagic (plankton) foraging specialists. Here, we tested specifically if given a choice of prey with different characteristics individuals would specialise in a single prey type and if individuals would chose prey based on their expressed trophic morphology, in a laboratory experiment and in a field observation. When offered a choice of benthic and pelagic prey most individuals (73%) showed that 100% fidelity to a single foraging source. Naïve individuals (not previously exposed to natural prey) with more robust head and mouth shape were more likely to forage on a benthic prey source (chironomids). In contrast, individuals with a more fusiform body, larger eye, but more slender head shape were more likely to specialise on pelagic prey (Artemia). Field observations of a natural population of Arctic charr from Loch Doine identified specialists foraging on either plankton or macrobenthos (on the basis of stomach contents) and some generalists. Morphological analysis showed that significant differences in shape reflecting recent foraging history. These results support the hypothesis that the availability of discrete, different prey types results in discrete foraging specialisms which in turn may result in the expression of discrete alternative phenotypes through subsequent plastic ontogenetic process. We conclude that this provides a partial explanation for why ecologically driven evolution processes are particularly prevalent in fishes from post-glacial lake systems.     

Comparative limb bone scaling in turtles: Phylogenetic transitions with changes in functional demands?

Several terrestrial vertebrate clades include lineages that have evolved nearly exclusive use of aquatic habitats. In many cases, such transitions are associated with the evolution of flattened limbs that are used to swim via dorsoventral flapping. Such changes in shape may have been facilitated by changes in limb bone loading in novel aquatic environments. Studies on limb bone loading in turtles found that torsion is high relative to bending loads on land, but reduced compared to bending during aquatic rowing. Release from torsion among rowers could have facilitated the evolution of hydrodynamically advantageous flattened limbs among aquatic species. Because rowing is regarded as an intermediate locomotor stage between walking and flapping, rowing species might show limb bone flattening intermediate between the tubular shapes of walkers and the flattened shapes of flappers. We collected measurements of humeri and femora from specimens representing four functionally divergent turtle clades: sea turtles (marine flappers), softshells (specialized freshwater rowers), emydids (generalist semiaquatic rowers), and tortoises (terrestrial walkers). Patterns of limb bone scaling with size were compared across lineages using phylogenetic comparative methods. Although rowing taxa did not show the intermediate scaling patterns we predicted, our data provide other functional insights. For example, flattening of sea turtle humeri was associated with positive allometry (relative to body mass) for the limb bone diameter perpendicular to the flexion-extension plane of the elbow. Moreover, softshell limb bones exhibit positive allometry of femoral diameters relative to body mass, potentially helping them maintain their typical benthic position in water by providing additional weight to compensate for shell reduction. Tortoise limb bones showed positive allometry of diameters, as well as long humeri, relative to body mass, potentially reflecting specializations for resisting loads associated with digging. Overall, scaling patterns of many turtle lineages appear to correlate with distinctive behaviors or locomotor habits.