As in terrestrial biodiversity, human influences over marine biodiversity will alter the way ecosystems contribute to biogeochemical or ecosystem processes. While many studies have documented how alterations of terrestrial biology affect ecosystem functioning, few studies have examined marine systems. The main challenge faced by biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) research in marine ec...

While specifically focusing on trophic interactions affecting habitat utilization and foraging patterns of California sea lions (CSL) in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME), the long-term goal of our modeling approach is to better understand and characterize biological “hotspots” (i.e., the aggregation of multiple marine organisms over multiple trophic levels) off the U.S. wes...

2012 Storm water runoff Reef quality decline Wave height change Beach width change $ Value of impact Remedial or preventative Investment How does pollution affect the reef? How does reef structure affect the waves? How do waves affect the beach? How does beach width affect tourism revenues? How much to spend on fixing/preventing runoff? ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Funding was provided through the project ...

The ecosystem-based approach (EA) to the management of marine resources has been the focus of several recent publications (e.g. Browman & Stergiou 2004, Pikitch et al. 2004, Beddington & Kirkwood 2005, Daan et al. 2005). Despite this flurry of articles, the often over-riding importance of political and socio-economic forces in establishing and implementing the EA have not been adequately addres...

Knowledge of the chlorophyll-a dynamics and their long-term changes is important for assessing marine ecosystems, especially for coastal waters. In this study, the spatial and temporal variability of sea surface chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a) in the Bohai Sea were investigated using 13-year (2000–2012) satellite-derived products from MODIS and SeaWiFS observations. Based on linear regressi...

Abrupt and rapid ecosystem shifts (where major reorganizations of food-web and community structures occur), commonly termed regime shifts, are changes between contrasting and persisting states of ecosystem structure and function. These shifts have been increasingly reported for exploited marine ecosystems around the world from the North Pacific to the North Atlantic. Understanding the drivers a...

Large-bodied, top-predators are often highly mobile, with the potential to provide important linkages between spatially distinct food webs. What biological factors contribute to variation in cross-ecosystem movements, however, have rarely been examined. Here, we investigated how ontogeny (body size), sex and individual-level behaviour impacts intrapopulation variation in cross-ecosystem foragin...

• it stores and releases large quantities of heat, freshwater and soluble gases, • heat, freshwater and gas releases are sometimes substantially separated in space and time from their point of storage, due to ocean dynamics and mixing • freshwater and gas fluxes are determined partly by direct and indirect effects of ocean surface temperatures • carbon fluxes, storage and natural sequestration ...

Effective marine ecosystem-based management (EBM) requires understanding the key processes and relationships controlling the aspects of biodiversity, productivity, and resilience to perturbations. Unfortunately, the scales, complexity, and non-linear dynamics that characterize marine ecosystems often confound managing for these properties. Nevertheless, scientifically derived decisionsupport to...