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Climate-driven changes in biotic interactions can profoundly alter ecological communities, particularly when they impact foundation species. In marine systems, changes in herbivory and the consequent loss of dominant habitat forming species can result in dramatic community phase shifts, such as from coral to macroalgal dominance when tropical fish herbivory decreases, and from algal forests to ‘barrens’ when temperate urchin grazing increases. Here, we propose a novel phase-shift away from macroalgal dominance caused by tropical herbivores extending their range into temperate regions. We argue that this phase shift is facilitated by poleward-flowing boundary currents that are creating ocean warming hotspots around the globe, enabling the range expansion of tropical species and increasing their grazing rates in temperate areas. Overgrazing of temperate macroalgae by tropical herbivorous fishes has already occurred in Japan and the Mediterranean. Emerging evidence suggests similar phenomena are occurring in other temperate regions, with increasing occurrence of tropical fishes on temperate reefs.

The ecological security of the Tibetan Plateau is vital for sustainable development. In recent years, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation caused by industrial and mining activities have attracted wide attention. However, a synthesis assessment of the impacts of industrial and mining land (IML) on the ecosystem is currently lacking. In this study, based on the land cover data and normalized differential vegetation index, we used the landscape ecological index, Theil-Sen trend analysis and equivalent value factors method to evaluate the change in IML and its ecosystem impact on the TP. The results demonstrated that the area of IML expanded by 3.3 times (228.56%) during 1990–2020, and reached 968.95 km² in 2020. Within this area, the newly added, stable, and reduced areas were 842.71, 126.26, and 168.65 km², respectively. Simultaneously, IML expansion made the landscape more fragmented during 1990–2020. The number of patches, splitting index, and landscape shape index in 2020 increased by 3.59-, 2.70-, and 1.90-fold compared to those in 1990, respectively. Furthermore, the difference in the vegetation change between the IML and its 10 km buffer zone was significant. About 77.34% of the vegetation in the IML area showed a trend of decrease, while about 76.51% of the vegetation in the buffer zone of IML showed a trend of increase. In addition, the expansion of IML also reduced the total ecological services value by USD 6969.31 million (0.66%) from 1990 to 2020. However, the lowered value was USD 8649.50 million (0.82%) in the newly added IML. This study highlights the rapid expansion of IML and reveals the ecosystem structure, ecosystem quality, and ecosystem service impact on the TP, which helps guide ecosystem protection and the sustainable development of mining.

The world is transitioning towards a net zero emissions future and solar energy is at the forefront of the transition. The land use requirements to install solar farms present a barrier for the industry as population density increases and land prices rise. Floating photovoltaics (FPV) addresses this issue by installing solar photovoltaics (PV) on bodies of water. Globally, installed FPV is increasing and becoming a viable option for many countries. A 1% coverage of global reservoirs with FPV would have a potential capacity of 404GWp benign power production. There are numerous advantages to FPV compared to ground mounted PV (GPV), which are discussed in this review. The major gap in research is the impact FPV has on water quality and living organisms in the bodies of water. This review paper examines the most recent research around FPV, analyzing the benefits, downfalls, and future. The review provides more insight into FPV in terms of varying water bodies that can be used, system efficiency, global potential, and potential for coupling FPV with other technologies.

Impermanence is an ecological principle1 but there are times when changes occur nonlinearly as abrupt community shifts (ACSs) that transform the ecosystem state and the goods and services it provides2. Here, we present a model based on niche theory3 to explain and predict ACSs at the global scale. We test our model using 14 multi-decadal time series of marine metazoans from zooplankton to fish, spanning all latitudes and the shelf to the open ocean. Predicted and observed fluctuations correspond, with both identifying ACSs at the end of the 1980s4–7 and 1990s5,8. We show that these ACSs coincide with changes in climate that alter local thermal regimes, which in turn interact with the thermal niche of species to trigger long-term and sometimes abrupt shifts at the community level. A large-scale ACS is predicted after 2014—unprecedented in magnitude and extent—coinciding with a strong El Niño event and major shifts in Northern Hemisphere climate. Our results underline the sensitivity of the Arctic Ocean, where unprecedented melting may reorganize biological communities5,9, and suggest an increase in the size and consequences of ACS events in a warming world.Abrupt community shifts, for marine species from zooplankton to fish, are shown to occur with local climate changes in which warming pushes species beyond their thermal niche. This modelling approach suggests future events will be larger and have more broad-reaching impacts.

We summarized over 30 years of research on zebra and quagga mussels in the Laurentian Great Lakes and compared with data from European and North American inland lakes. Invasion dynamics, growth, and reproduction of dreissenids in the Great Lakes are governed by lake morphometry. At < 30 m mussels overshot their carrying capacity and declined within 13–15 years after first detection. At 30–90 m their densities increased more slowly and declined to a lesser extent, while at > 90 m populations continue to increase even after 30 years of invasion. After the proliferation of quagga mussels, benthic wet biomass (including molluscs shells) increased about two orders of magnitude and currently exceeds zooplankton biomass > 40-fold. Strong benthic/pelagic coupling redirects food and energy from the water column to the bottom causing an increase in Secchi depth, decline in phosphorus, chlorophyll, phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass. The abundance of commercially important fishes declined as a result of the dramatic decrease in their main food deep water amphipods Diporeia , which has been outcompeted by exotic mussels. However, the introduction of round goby into the Great Lakes in the 1990s provided an important link between dreissenids and commercially and recreationally valuable fish species, increasing their productivity.

Biological invasions are a serious threat to biodiversity conservation, especially in freshwater ecosystems. The American macrophyte Ludwigia hexapetala, which colonizes both the aquatic and bank habitats of lakes, rivers, and canals, is invading many waterbodies in Europe, becoming an increasingly worrisome threat in several European countries, including Italy. However, only fragmentary information is available on the actual impact of its invasion in these habitats. This study aims to collect field data from various freshwater habitats in central and northern Italy, to assess the possible impact of L. hexapetala on the environmental parameters and plant biodiversity of the invaded habitats. The results show that in aquatic habitats, dense floating L. hexapetala populations reduce the light levels and oxygen available in the water, consequently limiting the growth of other aquatic plants. Indeed, L. hexapetala populations negatively affect aquatic plant diversity, as an increase in L. hexapetala cover corresponded to a decrease in Simpson’s diversity index. In contrast, in bank habitats, L. hexapetala has no significant impact on plant diversity. Evidence suggests that some native species, such as Phragmites australis, which generally form compact populations along the banks, effectively counteract the invasion of L. hexapetala. This information may prove valuable for the environmental managers of those freshwater habitats where L. hexapetala invasion needs to be addressed and controlled.

Evidence suggests that the Chinese mystery snail, Cipangopaludina chinensis, a freshwater, dioecious, snail of Asian origin has become invasive in North America, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Invasive species threaten indigenous biodiversity and have socioeconomic consequences where invasive. The aim of this review is to synthesize the relevant literature pertaining to C. chinensis in Canada. In doing so, we (i) describe C. chinensis ecosystem interactions in both indigenous (Asia) and non-indigenous habitats (North America and Europe), (ii) identify gaps in the literature, and (iii) determine where the species potential distribution in North America requires further exploration. We also briefly discuss potential management strategies for this species, as an aquatic invasive species (AIS), in Canada. Due to the much larger relative size of adult C. chinensis, multiple feeding mechanisms, and resistance to predation, C. chinensis can out-compete and displace indigenous freshwater gastropods and other molluscs. Furthermore, C. chinensis can affect food webs through bottom-up interactions with the bacterial and zooplankton communities by changing nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations. Also, the Chinese literature indicates the potential for C. chinensis to act as a biotransfer of contaminants between polluted ecosystems and consumers. In its indigenous range, C. chinensis was identified as a host for numerous parasites harmful to human and animal consumers alike. A comparison of the Canadian geographical distribution of reported occurrences with that for the United States indicates several potential gaps in Canadian reporting, which merits further investigation and consideration, especially in regard to federal and provincial non-indigenous monitoring and regulations. Southern Ontario had the highest number of reports that were mostly from web-based photo-supported sources. This suggests that interactive citizen science through popular apps backed by well-supported educational campaigns may be a highly effective means of tracking C. chinensis spread, which can be complementary to traditional methods using specimen-vouchered taxonomically verified natural-history collections overseen by professional curators. Il semblerait que la vivipare orientale, Cipangopaludina chinensis, un escargot d’eau douce dioïque d’origine asiatique, soit devenue envahissante en Amérique du Nord, en Belgique et aux Pays-Bas. Les espèces envahissantes menacent la biodiversité indigène et ont des conséquences socio-économiques aux endroits où elles sont envahissantes. L’objectif de cette étude est de faire une synthèse de la littérature pertinente relative à C. chinensis au Canada. Ce faisant, les auteurs (i) décrivent les interactions entre C. chinensis et de l’écosystème dans les habitats indigènes (Asie) et non indigènes (Amérique du Nord et Europe), (ii) identifient les lacunes de la littérature et (iii) déterminent les endroits où la répartition potentielle de l’espèce en Amérique du Nord nécessite une exploration plus approfondie. Ils abordent aussi brièvement les stratégies de gestion possibles pour cette espèce à titre d’espèce aquatique envahissante (EAE) au Canada. En raison de la taille relative beaucoup plus importante de C. chinensis adulte, de multiples mécanismes d’alimentation et de la résistance à la prédation, C. chinensis peut supplanter et déplacer les gastéropodes et les autres mollusques d’eau douce indigènes. En outre, C. chinensis peut affecter les réseaux alimentaires par des interactions ascendantes avec les communautés bactériennes et zooplanctoniques en modifiant les concentrations d’azote et de phosphore. De plus, la littérature chinoise indique que C. chinensis peut agir comme agent de transfert biologique de contaminants entre les écosystèmes pollués et les consommateurs. Dans son aire de répartition indigène, C. chinensis a été identifié comme hôte pour de nombreux parasites dangereux pour les humains et les animaux qui les consomment. Une comparaison de la répartition géographique des signalements au Canada et aux États-Unis révèle plusieurs lacunes potentielles dans les signalements canadiens qui doivent être approfondies et prises en compte, notamment en ce qui concerne la surveillance et la réglementation fédérales et provinciales des espèces non indigènes. Le sud de l’Ontario a enregistré le plus grand nombre de signalements qui provenaient pour la plupart de sources photographiques sur Internet. Cela suggère que la science citoyenne interactive, par des applications populaires soutenues par des campagnes d’éducation bien étayées, peut être un moyen très efficace de suivre la propagation de C. chinensis, qui serait complémentaire aux méthodes traditionnelles supervisées par des conservateurs professionnels qui utilisent des collections de spécimens témoins vérifiés sur les plans de l’histoire naturelle et de la taxonomie.

The effects of climate change (CC) on contaminants and their potential consequences to marine ecosystem services and human wellbeing are of paramount importance, as they pose overlapping risks. Here, we discuss how the interaction between CC and contaminants leads to poorly constrained impacts that affects the sensitivity of organisms to contamination leading to impaired ecosystem function, services and risk assessment evaluations. Climate drivers, such as ocean warming, ocean deoxygenation, changes in circulation, ocean acidification, and extreme events interact with trace metals, organic pollutants, excess nutrients, and radionuclides in a complex manner. Overall, the holistic consideration of the pollutants-climate change nexus has significant knowledge gaps, but will be important in understanding the fate, transport, speciation, bioavailability, toxicity, and inventories of contaminants. Greater focus on these uncertainties would facilitate improved predictions of future changes in the global biogeochemical cycling of contaminants and both human health and marine ecosystems.

Increasing abundance of geese in North America and Europe constitutes a major conservation success, but has caused increasing conflicts with economic, health and safety interests, as well as ecosystem impacts. Potential conflict resolution through a single, 'one size fits all' policy is hindered by differences in species' ecology, behaviour, abundance and population status, and in contrasting political and socio-economic environments across the flyways. Effective goose management requires coordinated application of a suite of tools from the local level to strategic flyway management actions. The European Goose Management Platform, established under the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, aims to harmonise and prioritise management, monitoring and conservation efforts, sharing best practice internationally by facilitating agreed policies, coordinating flyway efforts, and sharing and exchanging experiences and information. This depends crucially upon adequate government financing, the collection of necessary monitoring data (e.g., on distribution, abundance, hunting bags, demography, ecosystem and agricultural damage), the collation and effective use of such data and information, as well as the evaluation of outcomes of existing management measures.

Disentangling the effects of mixed fisheries and climate change across entire food-webs requires a description of ecosystems using tools that can quantify interactive effects as well as bio-economic aspects. A calibrated dynamic model for the Sicily Channel food web, made up of 72 functional groups and including 13 fleet segments, was developed. A temporal simulation until 2050 was conducted to evaluate the bio-economic interactive effects of the reduction of bottom trawling fishing effort by exploring different scenarios that combine fishery and climate change. Our results indicate that direct and indirect effects produce a net increase in biomass of many functional groups with immediate decline of trawlers’ catches and economic incomes, followed by a long term increase mainly due to biomass rebuilding of commercial species which lasts 5-10 years after fishing reduction. Synergistic and antagonistic effects caused by changes in the fishing effort and in climate characterize a specific functional group’s response in biomass which, in turn, modulate also the catch and income of the other fleets, and especially of those sharing target resources. However, trawler’s intra-fleet competition is higher than the others fleet effects. In the medium term, the effects of fishing effort reduction are higher than those of climate change and seem to make exploitation of marine resources more sustainable over time and fishery processes more efficient by improving ecosystem health.