Aquatic Functional Biodiversity An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective

About this book

Aquatic Functional Biodiversity: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective provides a general conceptual framework by some of the most prominent investigators in the field for how to link eco-evolutionary approaches with functional diversity to understand and conserve the provisioning of ecosystem services in aquatic systems. Rather than producing another methodological book, the editors and authors primarily concentrate on defining common grounds, connecting conceptual frameworks and providing examples by a more detailed discussion of a few empirical studies and projects, which illustrate key ideas and an outline of potential future directions and challenges that are expected in this interdisciplinary research field.

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in using network approaches to disentangle the relationship between biodiversity, community structure and functioning. Novel methods for model construction are being developed constantly, and modern methods allow for the inclusion of almost any type of explanatory variable that can be correlated either with biodiversity or ecosystem functioning. As a result these models have been widely used in ecology, conservation and eco-evolutionary biology. Nevertheless, there remains a considerable gap on how well these approaches are feasible to understand the mechanisms on how biodiversity constrains the provisioning of ecosystem services.

Contents

    Perspective: Functional Biodiversity during the Anthropocene
    Section I. Theoretical Background
        Chapter 1. From Metabolic Constraints on Individuals to the Dynamics of Ecosystems
            Introduction
            Individual Metabolic Rate, Biomechanics, and Fitness
            From Individual Metabolism and Biomechanics to Interactions
            From Interactions to Consumer–Resource Dynamics
            From Consumer–Resource Pairs to Community and Ecosystem Dynamics
            Conclusions
            Abbreviations and Mathematical Symbols
        Chapter 2. Ecological Effects of Intraspecific Consumer Biodiversity for Aquatic Communities and Ecosystems
            Introduction
            Case Studies
            Meta-Analysis
            Conclusions
        Chapter 3. How Does Evolutionary History Alter the Relationship between Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function?
            Introduction
            Methods
            Results
            Discussion
            Abbreviation
        Chapter 4. Effects of Metacommunity Networks on Local Community Structures: From Theoretical Predictions to Empirical Evaluations
            Introduction
            Four Paradigms
    Section II. Across Aquatic Ecosystems
        Chapter 5. Limited Functional Redundancy and Lack of Resilience in Coral Reefs to Human Stressors
            Introduction
            Data Quality
            Pattern of Change
            Drivers of Change
            Are Coral Reefs Functionally Redundant?
            Solutions to Ensure Resilience
            Concluding Remarks
        Chapter 6. Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Services in Fresh Waters: Ecological and Evolutionary Implications of Climate Change
            Introduction
        Chapter 7. Global Aquatic Ecosystem Services Provided and Impacted by Fisheries: A Macroecological Perspective
            Introduction
            Macroecological Variables and Their Interactions within Aquatic Ecosystems
            A Central Challenge: Identifying Processes Underlying Macroecological Patterns
            A Traits-Based Focus on Aquatic Functional Diversity
            Ecological and Evolutionary Effects of Selective Fisheries on Aquatic Ecosystem Functioning
        Chapter 8. Valuing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Complex Marine Ecosystem
            Introduction
            Materials and Methods
            Results
            Discussion
            Conclusions
    Section III. In the Wild: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Conservation
        Chapter 9. The Role of Marine Protected Areas in Providing Ecosystem Services
            Introduction
            Introduction to Marine Protected Areas
            Introduction to Ecosystem Services and the Link to Human Well-Being
            Marine Protected Area Effects on Individual Ecosystem Services
            Marine Protected Area Effects on Long-Term Ecosystem Function and the Provision of Multiple Services
            Key Directions and Open Questions
        Chapter 10. Freshwater Conservation and Biomonitoring of Structure and Function: Genes to Ecosystems
            Introduction
            Concluding Remarks
    Epilogue: The Robustness of Aquatic Biodiversity Functioning under Environmental Change: The Ythan Estuary, Scotland
    Index

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Biography

Andrea Belgrano is currently at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources, Institute of Marine Research, Lysekil, and at the Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment (SIME), Gothenburg, in Sweden. He has held faculty positions in the United States at the University of Maryland, University of New Mexico, University of Washington, and was a visiting scientist at the National Center for Genomic Research (NCGR), Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr Belgrano is broadly interested in ecological and evolutionary studies that use ecosystem status and trend data, for characterising relationships between diversity patterns and ecosystem functioning, which includes the effect of commercial fisheries, climate change and environmental variability. His research approach is to use the broad concepts of macroecology, food webs theory and evolution to understand the underlying common rules governing ecosystem dynamics and functioning. Most of Dr Belgrano's current work focuses on functional biodiversity, ecosystem-based management for marine fisheries, ocean health, governance, sustainability and resilience in aquatic systems.

Guy Woodward is Professor of Ecology in the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London and Series Editor for Advances in Ecological Research. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including recent papers in Nature, Science and Nature Climate Change, with a strong emphasis on understanding and predicting how aquatic ecosystems and food webs respond to a wide range of biotic and abiotic stressors, including climate change, chemical pollution, habitat degradation and invasive species. Much of this work covers multiple scales in space and time and also a range of organisational levels - from genes to ecosystems. His research group and ongoing collaborations span the natural and social sciences, reflecting the need for multidisciplinary approaches for addressing the environmental challenges of the 21st Century.

Ute Jacob is a Research Scientist at the Institute of Hydrobiology and Fisheries Science, University of Hamburg, Germany. She has contributed to previously published books as well as high-impact peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Jacob has been co-editor of two volumes of Advances in Ecological Research as well as a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and is very active in this area of research.