Simple procedures to assess and compare the ecological niche of species

Hutchinson's (1957; Cold Spring Harbour Symp Quant Biol 22:415-427) niche concept is being used increasingly in the context of global change, and is currently applied to many ecological issues including climate change, exotic species invasion and management of endangered species. For both the marine and terrestrial realms, there is a growing need to assess the breadth of the niches of individual species and to make comparisons among them to forecast the species' capabilities to adapt to global change. In this paper, we describe simple non-parametric multivariate procedures derived from a method originally used in climatology to (1) evaluate the breadth of the ecological niche of a species and (2) examine whether the niches are significantly separated. We first applied the statistical procedures to a simple fictive example of 3 species separated by 2 environmental factors in order to describe the technique. We then used it to quantify and compare the ecological niche of 2 key-structural marine zooplankton copepod species, Calanus finmarchicus and C. helgolandicus, in the northern part of the North Atlantic Ocean using 3 environmental factors. The test demonstrates that the niches of both species are significantly separated and that the coldwater species has a niche larger than that of its warmer-water congeneric species.

Multi-decadal oceanic ecological datasets and their application in marine policy and management

Long-term biological time-series in the oceans are relatively rare. Using the two longest of these we show how the information value of such ecological time-series increases through space and time in terms of their potential policy value. We also explore the co-evolution of these oceanic biological time-series with changing marine management drivers. Lessons learnt from reviewing these sequences of observations provide valuable context for the continuation of existing time-series and perspective for the initiation of new time-series in response to rapid global change. Concluding sections call for a more integrated approach to marine observation systems and highlight the future role of ocean observations in adaptive marine management.

Physiology, ecological niches and species distribution

Although many studies have debated the theoretical links between physiology, ecological niches and species distribution, few studies have provided evidence for a tight empirical coupling between these concepts at a macroecological scale. We used an ecophysiological model to assess the fundamental niche of a key-structural marine species. We found a close relationship between its fundamental and realized niche. The relationship remains constant at both biogeographical and decadal scales, showing that changes in environmental forcing propagate from the physiological to the macroecological level. A substantial shift in the spatial distribution is detected in the North Atlantic and projections of range shift using IPCC scenarios suggest a poleward movement of the species of one degree of latitude per decade for the 21st century. The shift in the spatial distribution of this species reveals a pronounced alteration of polar pelagic ecosystems with likely implications for lower and upper trophic levels and some biogeochemical cycles.

Recovery or decline of the Northwestern Black Sea: A societal choice revealed by socio-ecological modelling

During recent decades anthropogenic activities have dramatically impacted the Black Sea ecosystem. High levels of riverine nutrient input during the 1970s and 1980s caused eutrophic conditions including intense algal blooms resulting in hypoxia and the subsequent collapse of benthic habitats on the northwestern shelf. Intense fishing pressure also depleted stocks of many apex predators, contributing to an increase in planktivorous fish that are now the focus of fishing efforts. Additionally, the Black Sea's ecosystem changed even further with the introduction of exotic species. Economic collapse of the surrounding socialist republics in the early 1990s resulted in decreased nutrient loading which has allowed the Black Sea ecosystem to start to recover, but under rapidly changing economic and political conditions, future recovery is uncertain. In this study we use a multidisciplinary approach to integrate information from socio-economic and ecological systems to model the effects of future development scenarios on the marine environment of the northwestern Black Sea shelf. The Driver–Pressure–State-Impact-Response framework was used to construct conceptual models, explicitly mapping impacts of socio-economic Drivers on the marine ecosystem. Bayesian belief networks (BBNs), a stochastic modelling technique, were used to quantify these causal relationships, operationalise models and assess the effects of alternative development paths on the Black Sea ecosystem. BBNs use probabilistic dependencies as a common metric, allowing the integration of quantitative and qualitative information. Under the Baseline Scenario, recovery of the Black Sea appears tenuous as the exploitation of environmental resources (agriculture, fishing and shipping) increases with continued economic development of post-Soviet countries. This results in the loss of wetlands through drainage and reclamation. Water transparency decreases as phytoplankton bloom and this deterioration in water quality leads to the degradation of coastal plant communities (Cystoseira, seagrass) and also Phyllophora habitat on the shelf. Decomposition of benthic plants results in hypoxia killing flora and fauna associated with these habitats. Ecological pressure from these factors along with constant levels of fishing activity results in target stocks remaining depleted. Of the four Alternative Scenarios, two show improvements on the Baseline ecosystem condition, with improved waste water treatment and reduced fishing pressure, while the other two show a worsening, due to increased natural resource exploitation leading to rapid reversal of any recent ecosystem recovery. From this we conclude that variations in economic policy have significant consequences for the health of the Black Sea, and ecosystem recovery is directly linked to social–economic choices.

Identifying four phytoplankton functional types from space: An ecological approach

Deriving maps of phytoplankton taxa based on remote sensing data using bio-optical properties of phytoplankton alone is challenging. A more holistic approach was developed using artificial neural networks, incorporating ecological and geographical knowledge together with ocean color, bio-optical characteristics, and remotely sensed physical parameters. Results show that the combined remote sensing approach could discriminate four major phytoplankton functional types (diatoms, dinoflagellates, coccolithophores, and silicoflagellates) with an accuracy of more than 70%. Models indicate that the most important information for phytoplankton functional type discrimination is spatio-temporal information and sea surface temperature. This approach can supply data for large-scale maps of predicted phytoplankton functional types, and an example is shown.