Identifying the scaling rules describing ecological patterns across time and space is a central challenge in ecology. Taylor's law of fluctuation scaling, which states that the variance of a population's size or density is proportional to a positive power of the mean size or density, has been widely observed in population dynamics and characterizes variability in multiple scientific domains. However, it is unclear if this phenomenon accurately describes ecological patterns across many orders of magnitude in time, and therefore links otherwise disparate observations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFucoid forests are areas dominated by marine brown seaweed in the taxonomic order Fucales that, like the better-known marine foundation species-corals, kelps, seagrasses, salt marshes, and mangroves-are threatened by anthropogenic stressors. Fucoid forests are fabulous and important because they, like the better-known marine foundation species (i) span large areas, bioregions, and ecosystems, (ii) provide ecological functions such as high productivity, biodiversity, and habitat for iconic and endemic species, and (iii) support a variety of ecosystem services, like commercial fisheries, regulation of nutrients and carbon, and cultural values. Fucoid forests are, based on a new citation analysis, forgotten worldwide, because they are described orders of magnitude less than the better-known marine foundation species, in ecology and marine biology textbooks, in Google Scholar and Scopus databases over scientific literature, and in recent reports and reviews about seaweed forests.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe introduction-rate of non-indigenous species (NIS) to coastal water bodies has accelerated over the last century. We present a model study assessing the fate of NIS released in likely point sources of the Danish Wadden Sea. We show that NIS-particles released in the deep North Sea are generally transported away from the Wadden Sea, while those released in the coastal North Sea and the Wadden Sea show large variability in track pattern and settlement location.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn situ Chl-a data were used to perform empirical calibration and validation of Sentinel-3 level 2 product in Danish marine waters. Comparing in situ data with both same-day and ±5 days moving averaged Sentiel-3 Chl-a values yielded two similar positive correlations (p > 0.05) with r values of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA rapid increase in population size along with expansion in hotel investment have been identified as key drivers of marine pollution in Zanzibar coastal waters. A validated high-resolution hydrodynamic tracer model was used to estimate the dispersal and impact range of pollutants from the main hotel areas along the western coastline of Unguja Island. The model showed the highest impact of pollutants from land during the northeast monsoon season due to the weakening of the main current.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoastal waters are highly productive and diverse ecosystems, often dominated by marine submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and strongly affected by a range of human pressures. Due to their important ecosystem functions, for decades, both researchers and managers have investigated changes in SAV abundance and growth dynamics to understand linkages to human perturbations. In European coastal waters, monitoring of marine SAV communities traditionally combines diver observations and/or video recordings to determine, for example, spatial coverage and species composition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe assessed the importance of boulder reefs to the oxygen dynamics of a shallow estuary during two growing seasons in 2017 and 2018. Using open-system diel oxygen measurements and benthic and pelagic incubations, we evaluated the relative contribution of pelagic and benthic habitats to the ecosystem metabolism along a depth gradient in two areas, with (Reef) and without (Bare) boulder reefs in the Limfjorden, Denmark. System integrated areal rates of gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) both increased with depth in both areas.
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