Supporting ecosystem services of habitat and biodiversity in temperate seaweed (Saccharina spp.) farms.

Habitat provisioning, and the biodiversity within, is considered a type of "supporting" ecosystem service. Ecosystem services are the benefits humans receive from healthy ecosystems. We assess whether kelp (Saccharina spp.

Effects of climate change on coastal ecosystem food webs: Implications for aquaculture.

Coastal ecosystems provide important ecosystem services for millions of people. Climate change is modifying coastal ecosystem food web structure and function and threatens these essential ecosystem services. We used a combination of two new and one existing ecosystem food web models and altered scenarios that are possible with climate change to quantify the impacts of climate change on ecosystem stability in three coastal bays in Maine, United States.

Stable isotopes reveal contrasting trophic dynamics between host-parasite relationships: A case study of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and parasitic lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Argulus foliaceus).

Across existing fish host-parasite literature, endoparasites were depleted in δ N compared to their hosts, while ectoparasitic values demonstrated enrichment, depletion and equivalence relative to their hosts. δ C enrichment varied extensively for both endo- and ectoparasites across taxa and host tissues. In our case study, sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) were enriched in δ N relative to their farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) hosts, although the value contradicted the average that is currently assumed across the animal kingdom.

Food webs and species biodiversity of the fouling community associated with bivalve aquaculture farms compared to analogous non-farm structures.

Bivalve aquaculture farms are an integral part of the surrounding coastal marine ecosystem and associated food webs. What is not well understood is how these anthropogenically manipulated, dense, single-species cultures influence species trophodynamics in the coastal ocean. Fouling macrofauna biodiversity, macroalgae biomass, sediment, and food web structure were studied at two blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) floating raft rope-culture aquaculture farm structures and two analogous floating dock structures without mussels in Casco Bay, Maine, USA during the summers of 2016 and 2017.