Coastal wetland restoration through the lens of Odum's theory of ecosystem development

Advancing ecological restoration assessments requires a more detailed consideration of species interactions and ecosystem processes. Most restoration projects rely on a few metrics not always directly linked with ecological theory. Here, we used Odum's theory of ecosystem development to assess and compare the ecosystem structure and services of created marshes (4–6 years old) with preexisting, reference marshes in a brackish water region of the Mississippi River Delta. We built ecosystem models for created and reference marshes that integrated large datasets of stomach contents, stable isotopes, and taxa abundances. Despite strong resemblance in community structure, created marshes were at an earlier succession stage compared to the reference marshes, having lower biomass (including exploited species), higher biomass turnover and production, less dependence on detritus, lower material cycling, and less energy flowing through specialist pathways. Although preserving preexisting marshes should be a priority, created marshes may still be an important tool for the restoration of coastal areas and their ecosystem services. In addition, our results show that comparisons of species biodiversity alone may fail to capture essential differences in ecosystem processes between habitats, which reinforces the importance of ecosystem modeling approaches to assess restoration projects.     

野化放归丹顶鹤活动节律、家域特征和栖息地选择

了解野放丹顶鹤的运动模式、家域和栖息地选择的时间节律特征对丹顶鹤种群保护和栖息地管理尤为重要。基于GPS-GSM跟踪数据,综合运用3S技术、动态布朗桥模型、栖息地选择指数,研究了盐城海滨湿地野放丹顶鹤在不同生活周期的活动节律、家域的面积和重叠指数,以及栖息地选择。结果表明：(1)丹顶鹤日活动节律具有明显的周期性特征。丹顶鹤活动强度：育成期>越冬期>孵化期>育雏期,孵化期和育雏期日间活动强度平稳,育成期和越冬期呈“双峰”模式。(2)丹顶鹤95%家域面积均值介于(111.18±22.15)hm²—(621.28±105.77)hm²,育成期((621.28±105.77) hm²)>育雏期((226.83±54.86) hm²)>孵化期((112.40±7.72) hm²)>越冬期((111.18±22.15) hm²);核心家域面积均值介于(0.53±0.26)—(45.78±6.66) hm²,育成...     

适应气候变化的海岸带韧性研究综述——基于文献计量分析

海岸带是人口经济高度集聚且生态敏感区域,提升其适应气候变化扰动的韧性能力是促进沿海地区可持续治理的重要手段。研究从适应气候变化风险出发,在辨析海岸带韧性概念、内涵及特征的基础上,运用软件分析法和归纳总结法梳理海岸带韧性相关研究的热点结构分布、演进脉络特征和热词主题类别,指出当前海岸带韧性研究聚焦于韧性作用机制解析、韧性表征测度、韧性提升路径和韧性管理策略4大方面。研究表明灾害影响范围界定、多灾耦合的链式演变、复杂系统时空韧性测度和人-地-海弹性匹配尚存薄弱之处,提出我国海岸带气候韧性未来研究需关注理论体系建构、空间规划实践和多学科交叉融合。依据"原则-目标-路径"逻辑从治理对象、治理主体、治理空间和治理机制4个维度展望海岸带气候韧性治理框架,即辨识治理对象,以风险链评估为韧性治理起点;协同治理主体,探索跨权益治理的韧性平衡;统筹治理空间,建构韧性空间优化治理模式;创新治理机制,完善韧性治理能级长效路径。     

The development of policy approaches for reducing nitrogen pollution to coastal waters of the USA

Two-thirds of the coastal rivers and bays in the United States are degraded from nutrient pollution, and nitrogen inputs these waters continue to increase. The nitrogen comes from a variety of sources, including runoff from agricultural fields, concentrated animal feeding operations, atmospheric deposition from fossil fuel combustion, and sewage and septic wastes.Technical solutions for nitrogen pollution exist at reasonable cost. That most of these solutions have not yet been implemented to any significant extent across the United States suggests that new policy approaches are necessary. The best solution may involve a combination of voluntary and mandatory approaches, applying different approaches to different sources of nitrogen poilution. A watershed-based approach that relies heavily on voluntary mechanisms (such as crop-yield insurance to reduce over-fertilization) is likely to be the most effective for some sources of nitrogen (such as runoff from agricultural fields), while a uniform national regulatory approach may be better for others (such as NOx emissions from fossil fuel combustion). Implementation of management strategies should be carefully coupled to monitoring programs to assess the effectiveness of these strategies. While both nitrogen and phosphorus are important to control, the focus should be on nitrogen management, in part because nitrogen is more generally the causal agent of coastal eutrophication. Also, while nitrogen-control practices tend to also reduce phosphorus pollution, phosphorus-control practices often have little effect on nitrogen.Although current scientific and technical knowledge is sufficient to begin to make substantial progress toward solving coastal nitrogen pollution, progress will be made more quickly and more cost effectively with increased investment in appropriate scientific research.     

Spatial and temporal variations of hydrological conditions,nutrients and chlorophyll <Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis> in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon (Mar Menor,Spain)

The Mar Menor is a sheltered and hypersaline lagoon, with salinity ranges between 38 and 51 psu. The lagoon is threatened by several pressures and in the last decades detrimental impact on the natural community structure and dynamics have increased. In the watershed, agricultural practices are rapidly evolving from extensive dry crop farming to intensively irrigated crops, with increasing loads of nutrient and pollutants to the lagoon. Hydrological conditions, nutrients and chlorophyll a concentrations were analysed in 1997 and 2002–2003 in a grid of 20 stations in the lagoon. Different time scales, from daily to inter-annual, were considered. In the considered periods, the dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) increased whilst phosphate decreased significantly. These contrasting patterns depended upon the increased agricultural loading for DIN and were due to the implementation of the wastewater works for phosphates. In 1997 and 2002, the highest nitrate concentrations were usually found on the west coast of the lagoon, close to the mouths of the main watercourses. In parallel, the lowest concentrations were detected at the inner coastline along “La Manga” sandy bar and “El Estacio” channel. Based on weekly data, correlations between chlorophyll a concentrations and environmental variables disagreed with traditional eutrophication models. Relationships between chlorophyll a and nutrients were negative, suggesting that in the short term phytoplankton controlled nutrient concentrations. Moreover, nitrate and phosphorous seemed to alternate as limiting factors. The relationships between chlorophyll a became positive when considering time lags and analysed at longer time scales (monthly or seasonal means), thus suggesting a very rapid response of primary producers to nutrient enrichment. A significant correlation between chlorophyll a concentration and fish larvae density was also found at all time scales analysed, suggesting a top-down control of the trophic web.     

Marine genetic swamping: hybrids replace an obligately estuarine fish

Populations of obligately estuarine taxa are potentially small and isolated and may lack genetic variation and display regional differentiation as a result of drift and inbreeding. Hybridization with a wide‐ranging marine congener should introduce genetic variation and reduce the effects of inbreeding depression and genetic drift. However, high levels of hybridization can cause demographic and genetic swamping. In southeastern Australia hybridization occurs between obligately estuarine Black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri) and migratory marine Yellowfin bream (Acanthopagrus australis). Here, we surveyed genetic variation at eight microsatellite loci and the mitochondrial control region of juvenile fish from five coastal lagoons (including temporal replication in two lagoons) (total n = 970) to determine the frequency and persistence of hybridization, and its likely consequence for the estuarine restricted A. butcheri. Of 688 juvenile fish genotyped 95% were either A. australis (347) or hybrids (309); only 5% (32) were A. butcheri. Most hybrids were later generation hybrids or A. butcheri backcrosses, which are likely multi‐generational residents within lagoons. Far greater proportions of hybrid juveniles were found within two lagoons that are generally closed to the ocean (>90% hybrid fish within generally closed lagoons vs. 12–27% in permanently or intermittently open lagoons). In both lagoons, this was consistent across multiple cohorts of fish [79–97% hybrid fish (n = 282)]. Hybridization and introgression represent a major threat to the persistence of A. butcheri and have yet to be investigated for large numbers of estuarine taxa.     

Changes in aquatic vegetation and fish communities following 5 years of sustained low water levels in coastal marshes of eastern Georgian Bay,Lake Huron

Aquatic vegetation in the relatively pristine coastal wetlands of eastern Georgian Bay provides critical habitat for a diverse fish community. Declining water levels in Lake Huron over the past decade, however, have altered the wetland plant assemblages in favour of terrestrial (emergent and meadow) taxa and have thus reduced or eliminated this important ecosystem service. In this study, we compared IKONOS satellite images for two regions of eastern Georgian Bay (acquired in 2002 and 2008) to determine significant changes in cover of four distinct wetland vegetation groups [meadow (M), emergent (E), high‐density floating (HD) and low‐density floating (LD)] over the 6 years. While LD decreased significantly (mean ?2995.4 m²), M and HD increased significantly (mean +2020.9 m² and +2312.6 m², respectively) between 2002 and 2008. Small patches of LD had been replaced by larger patches of HD. These results show that sustained low water levels have led to an increasingly homogeneous habitat and an overall net loss of fish habitat. A comparison of the fish communities sampled between 2003 and 2005 with those sampled in 2009 revealed that there was a significant decline in species richness. The remaining fish communities were also more homogeneous. We suggest that the observed changes in the wetland plant community due to prolonged low water levels may have resulted in significant changes in the fish communities of coastal wetlands in eastern Georgian Bay.     

Range expansion by moose into coastal temperate rainforests of British Columbia, Canada

Ranges of species are dynamic and respond to long‐term climate change and contemporary effects such as habitat modification. We report here that moose (Alces alces) have recently colonized coastal temperate rainforests of British Columbia, Canada. Contrary to recent publications, field observations of moose and their sign, combined with their occurrence in wolf (Canis lupus) faeces, suggest that moose are now widespread on the coastal mainland and occur on least three islands. Traditional ecological knowledge (information accumulated by aboriginal peoples about their environment) suggests that colonization occurred during the mid 1900s, concomitant with logging of major watersheds that bisect the Coast Mountain Range. Range expansion by moose may have ecological consequences such as alteration of predator–prey dynamics and transmission of disease to native deer (Odocoileus hemionus).