Selective consumption of macroalgal species by herbivorous fishes suggests reduced functional complementarity on a fringing reef in Moorea, French Polynesia.

Worldwide, many coral reefs are at risk of shifting to degraded algal-dominated states, due to compromised ecological conditions. Functional diversity of herbivorous fishes maintains coral reef health and promotes reef resilience to disturbances. Given previous evidence, it appears the functional roles of herbivorous fishes differ across geographical locations, indicating a need for further assessment of macroalgal consumption by herbivorous fishes.

Flip it and reverse it: Reasonable changes in designated controls can flip synergisms to antagonisms.

Ecological systems are subjected to multiple stressors that can interact in complex ways resulting in "ecological surprises". We examine the pivotal role of 'control' assignment in the categorization of stressors into five classes: additive, +synergistic, -synergistic, +antagonistic, and -antagonistic. We demonstrate if an alternate treatment can reasonably be considered the experimental control, nonlinear interaction classifications change, both in sign (+/-) and in direction (synergistic/antagonistic).

TESTING THE CONCEPTUAL AND OPERATIONAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HERBIVORY ASSAYS: DOES VARIATION IN PREDICTABILITY OF RESOURCES, ASSAY DESIGN, AND DEPLOYMENT METHOD AFFECT OUTCOMES?

Herbivory assays are a valuable tool used by ecologists to understand many of the patterns and processes affecting herbivory, a widely recognized driving force in marine communities. However, methods vary substantially among studies in both design and operation, and the effect of these differences has yet to be evaluated. We assessed the effects of several key components of assay design on estimates of herbivory to offer four recommendations.

Impacts of harvesting on brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana) in Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA.

Selective harvesting can cause evolutionary responses in populations via shifts in phenotypic characteristics, especially those affecting life history. Brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana) cysts in Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah, USA are commercially harvested with techniques that select against floating cysts. This selective pressure could cause evolutionary changes over time.