A Donor Registry: Genomic Analyses of Seagrass Meadows Identifies Adaptive Genotypes for Future-Proofing.

Globally, anthropogenic climate change has caused declines of seagrass ecosystems necessitating proactive restoration approaches that would ideally anticipate future climate scenarios, such as marine warming. In eastern Australia, estuaries with meadows of the endangered seagrass s have warmed and acidified over the past decade, and seagrass communities have declined in some estuaries. Securing these valuable habitats will require proactive conservation and restoration efforts that could be augmented with restoration focussed on boosting resilience to future climate.

Genomic analyses indicate resilience of a commercially and culturally important marine gastropod snail to climate change.

Genomic vulnerability analyses are being increasingly used to assess the adaptability of species to climate change and provide an opportunity for proactive management of harvested marine species in changing oceans. Southeastern Australia is a climate change hotspot where many marine species are shifting poleward. The turban snail, is a commercially and culturally harvested marine gastropod snail from eastern Australia.

Climate change threatens unique evolutionary diversity in Australian kelp refugia.

Climate change has driven contemporary decline and loss of kelp forests globally with an accompanying loss of their ecological and economic values. Kelp populations at equatorward-range edges are particularly vulnerable to climate change as these locations are undergoing warming at or beyond thermal tolerance thresholds. Concerningly, these range-edge populations may contain unique adaptive or evolutionary genetic diversity that is vulnerable to warming.

Loss of a globally unique kelp forest from Oman.

Kelp forests are declining in many regions globally with climatic perturbations causing shifts to alternate communities and significant ecological and economic loss. Range edge populations are often at most risk and are often only sustained through localised areas of upwelling or on deeper reefs. Here we document the loss of kelp forests (Ecklonia radiata) from the Sultanate of Oman, the only confirmed northern hemisphere population of this species.

A Historical Summary of the Distribution and Diet of Australian Sea Hares (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Aplysiidae).

Recent studies have highlighted the great diversity of sea hares (Aplysiidae) in central New South Wales, but their distribution elsewhere in Australian waters has not previously been analysed. Despite the fact that they are often very abundant and occur in readily accessible coastal habitats, much of the published literature on Australian sea hares concentrates on their taxonomy. As a result, there is a paucity of information about their biology and ecology.