Intraspecific niche differentiation can contribute to population persistence in changing environments. Following declines in large predatory fish, eutrophication, and climate change, there has been a major increase in the abundance of threespine stickleback () in the Baltic Sea. Two morphotype groups with different levels of body armor-completely plated and incompletely plated-are common in coastal Baltic Sea habitats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecreational boating can impact benthic ecosystems in coastal waters. Reduced height and cover of aquatic vegetation in shallow Baltic Sea inlets with high boat traffic have raised concerns about cascading effects on benthic communities in these ecosystems. Here, we characterized the diversity and composition of sediment-associated microbial and meiofaunal communities across five bays subjected to low and high degrees of boating activity and examined the community-environment relationships and association with bay morphometry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRegime shifts in ecosystem structure and processes are typically studied from a temporal perspective. Yet, theory predicts that in large ecosystems with environmental gradients, shifts should start locally and gradually spread through space. Here we empirically document a spatially propagating shift in the trophic structure of a large aquatic ecosystem, from dominance of large predatory fish (perch, pike) to the small prey fish, the three-spined stickleback.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSustainable management of coastal and inland water areas requires knowledge of how tourism and recreation affects the ecosystems. Here, we present the first systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify to what extent recreational boat traffic and infrastructure for mooring affect the abundance of submerged vegetation on soft bottoms. Our systematic search yielded 25 studies containing data on effects of boat traffic, docks and mooring buoys on vegetation abundance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecreational boating increases globally and associated moorings are often placed in vegetated habitats important for fish recruitment. Meanwhile, assessments of the effects of boating on vegetation, and potential effects on associated fish assemblages are rare. Here, we analysed (i) the effect of small-boat marinas on vegetation structure, and (ii) juvenile fish abundance in relation to vegetation cover in shallow wave-sheltered coastal inlets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFField surveys often show that high water turbidity limits cover of aquatic vegetation, while many small-scale experiments show that vegetation can reduce turbidity by decreasing water flow, stabilizing sediments, and competing with phytoplankton for nutrients. Here we bridged these two views by exploring the direction and strength of causal relationships between aquatic vegetation and turbidity across seasons (spring and late summer) and spatial scales (local and regional), using causal modeling based on data from a field survey along the central Swedish Baltic Sea coast. The two best-fitting regional-scale models both suggested that in spring, high cover of vegetation reduces water turbidity.
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