Dominance determines fish community biomass in a temperate seagrass ecosystem.

Biodiversity and ecosystem function are often correlated, but there are multiple hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Ecosystem functions such as primary or secondary production may be maximized by species richness, evenness in species abundances, or the presence or dominance of species with certain traits. Here, we combine surveys of natural fish communities (conducted in July and August 2016) with morphological trait data to examine relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem function (quantified as fish community biomass) across 14 subtidal eelgrass meadows in the Northeast Pacific (54°N, 130°W).

Intrapopulation foraging niche variation between phenotypes and genotypes of Spirit bear populations.

Foraging niche variation within a species can contribute to the maintenance of phenotypic diversity. The multiniche model posits that phenotypes occupying different niches can contribute to the maintenance of balanced polymorphisms. Using coastal populations of black bears ( from British Columbia, Canada, we examined potential foraging niche divergence between phenotypes (black and white "Spirit" coat color) and between genotypes (black-coated homozygote and heterozygous).

Early effects of COVID-19 on US fisheries and seafood consumption.

The US seafood sector is susceptible to shocks, both because of the seasonal nature of many of its domestic fisheries and its global position as a top importer and exporter of seafood. However, many data sets that could inform science and policy during an emerging event do not exist or are only released months or years later. Here, we synthesize multiple data sources from across the seafood supply chain, including unconventional real-time data sets, to show the relative initial responses and indicators of recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Climate change has different predicted effects on the range shifts of two hybridizing ambush bug (, Family , Order Hemiptera) species.

Aim: A universal attribute of species is that their distributions are limited by numerous factors that may be difficult to quantify. Furthermore, climate change-induced range shifts have been reported in many taxa, and understanding the implications of these shifts remains a priority and a challenge. Here, we use Maxent to predict current suitable habitat and to project future distributions of two closely related, parapatrically distributed species in light of anthropogenic climate change.

Resolving fine-scale population structure and fishery exploitation using sequenced microsatellites in a northern fish.

The resiliency of populations and species to environmental change is dependent on the maintenance of genetic diversity, and as such, quantifying diversity is central to combating ongoing widespread reductions in biodiversity. With the advent of next-generation sequencing, several methods now exist for resolving fine-scale population structure, but the comparative performance of these methods for genetic assignment has rarely been tested. Here, we evaluate the performance of sequenced microsatellites and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array to resolve fine-scale population structure in a critically important salmonid in north eastern Canada, Arctic Charr ().

Percent ash-free dry weight as a robust method to estimate energy density across taxa.

Determining how energy flows through ecosystems reveals underlying ecological patterns that drive processes such as growth and food web dynamics. Models that assess the transfer of energy from producers to consumers require information on the energy content or energy density (ED) of prey species. ED is most accurately measured through bomb calorimetry, but this method suffers from limitations of cost, time, and sample requirements that often make it unrealistic for many studies.

Community assessment techniques and the implications for rarefaction and extrapolation with Hill numbers.

Diversity estimates play a key role in ecological assessments. Species richness and abundance are commonly used to generate complex diversity indices that are dependent on the quality of these estimates. As such, there is a long-standing interest in the development of monitoring techniques, their ability to adequately assess species diversity, and the implications for generated indices.

Stoichiometric traits of stickleback: Effects of genetic background, rearing environment, and ontogeny.

Phenotypes can both evolve in response to, and affect, ecosystem change, but few examples of diverging ecosystem-effect traits have been investigated. Bony armor traits of fish are good candidates for this because they evolve rapidly in some freshwater fish populations, and bone is phosphorus rich and likely to affect nutrient recycling in aquatic ecosystems. Here, we explore how ontogeny, rearing environment, and bone allocation among body parts affect the stoichiometric phenotype (i.

Local site differences in survival and parasitism of periwinkles ( Philippi, 1846).

The periwinkle, , is found throughout the intertidal zone, often in isolated subpopulations. The majority of trematode parasites use snails as intermediate hosts, and decreased survivorship is often observed in snails infected with trematodes. Sampling from four sites in Barkley Sound, British Columbia, Canada, we test the effects of parasitic infection on snail survival using maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches using the software MARK and WinBUGS.