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Diversity
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Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Food Webs under Climate Change
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Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Food Webs under Climate Change

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Diversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 3552

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Anna-Maria Vafeiadou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Marine Biology Research Group, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281/S8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Interests: marine biodiversity; benthic ecology; climate change impacts; meiofauna; nematodes; species interactions; stable isotope ecology; trophic ecology; food webs

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Food webs are a critical, well-studied concept in ecology as they illustrate the various trophic connections among taxa in ecological communities, which, in turn, represent the energy and nutrient flows through living organisms. Food web dynamics have been used as a measure of the functional complexity of communities or as an indication in terms of stability of ecosystems. There is strong empirical evidence that the warming and acidification of the oceans may result in major structural changes within marine food webs, leading to severe biodiversity loss and reducing ecosystem stability and resilience. Accurate predictions of species and communities’ responses to climate change are crucial for decision-making on conservation of natural habitats within marine ecosystems. Therefore, it is important to investigate the responses to climate change from individual organisms to trophic interactions and ecosystem functions.

For this Special Issue on “Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Food Webs Under Climate Change”, we invite submissions that address all aspects of food web ecology addressing species interactions within food webs and their response to climate change in a wide range of marine habitats (estuarine, coastal, polar ecosystems), highlighting new research especially related to: i) trophic links and trophic interactions in marine food webs; ii) the dynamics and energy flow in marine ecosystems; and iii) the link between food webs and ecosystem functioning in marine ecosystems, in relation to climate change.

Dr. Anna-Maria Vafeiadou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • trophic interactions
  • food webs
  • marine ecosystems
  • climate change
  • energy dynamics
  • ecosystem functions

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3885 KiB  
Article
Seasonal Variability in Non-Structural Carbohydrate Content of Warm-Adapted Zostera noltei and Zostera marina Populations
by Tomás Azcárate-García, Pedro Beca-Carretero, Ignacio Hernández and Fernando G. Brun
Diversity 2024, 16(7), 391; https://doi.org/10.3390/d16070391 - 9 Jul 2024
Viewed by 406
Abstract
Non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) are energetic compounds that can be accumulated in tissues and mobilized during periods of unfavorable conditions to maintain the biological functions of plants. The balance of these biochemical compounds is controlled by environmental factors such as temperature and irradiance. Zostera [...] Read more.
Non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) are energetic compounds that can be accumulated in tissues and mobilized during periods of unfavorable conditions to maintain the biological functions of plants. The balance of these biochemical compounds is controlled by environmental factors such as temperature and irradiance. Zostera noltei and Zostera marina find one of their southern distribution limits in southern Spain, where relatively high seawater temperatures are reached during summer (23–24 °C). To better understand the effects of elevated temperatures on the concentration of NSCs, we conducted a seasonal study at Cadiz Bay, representing warm-adapted populations of these species. Our results showed a bimodal pattern in both species, with the highest NSC content observed in December and June, followed by a depletion in March and August. In addition, the NSC content observed in the leaves of Z. noltei (71.26 ± 30.77 mg g−1 dry weight) was higher than in the rhizomes and roots (52.14 ± 38.86 mg g−1 DW). The observed patterns suggest that these species accumulated NSCs to cope with periods of unfavorable environmental conditions. We also suggest that the limited concentration of NSCs in Z. noltei rhizomes and roots indicates that this population may be suffering physiological stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Food Webs under Climate Change)
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15 pages, 1715 KiB  
Article
Spatial, Temporal, and Interspecific Differences in Composition of Stable Isotopes in Fishes in Maryland Coastal Bays
by Chelsea Richardson, Paulinus Chigbu and Ali Ishaque
Diversity 2024, 16(6), 331; https://doi.org/10.3390/d16060331 - 4 Jun 2024
Viewed by 480
Abstract
Carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes were used to evaluate spatial, temporal, and interspecific differences in trophic relationships of four fish species (Paralichthys dentatus, Anchoa mitchilli, Leiostomus xanthurus, and Bairdiella chrysoura) in Maryland’s coastal [...] Read more.
Carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes were used to evaluate spatial, temporal, and interspecific differences in trophic relationships of four fish species (Paralichthys dentatus, Anchoa mitchilli, Leiostomus xanthurus, and Bairdiella chrysoura) in Maryland’s coastal bays. The δ13C values for all species were more enriched in 2017 than in 2018, a year of higher-than-average rainfall that likely caused higher amounts of terrestrial carbon to enter the estuary. There were significant differences among species in the δ13C values, with L. xanthurus being the least depleted (−17.2‰ in 2017; −18.8‰ in 2018). Spatially, the δ13C values of the species, particularly P. dentatus and B. chrysoura, were more depleted in the northern bays, which have a higher nutrient content and receive more freshwater inflow directly from tributaries, than the southern bays. The observed δ13C values (−19.5 ± 0.2‰ to –17.2 ± 0.3‰), however, indicate that marine phytoplankton was the primary carbon source of the fishes. Overall, A. mitchilli was the most enriched in δ15N (13.0‰), and L. xanthurus was the most depleted (10.2‰). δ15N was more enriched in fish from the more human-impacted northern bays than in fish from the southern bays, though this might also have stemmed from the differences in the diet composition of the species in the northern and southern bays. A. mitchilli had the highest trophic level, while L. xanthurus and P. dentatus had the lowest trophic levels. Niche breadth was widest in L. xanthurus compared to the other fish species, suggesting a higher variability in diets among L. xanthurus individuals, leading to specialized diets. There was a high niche overlap between B. chrysoura, A. mitchilli, and L. xanthurus, which indicates they fed on similar prey resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Food Webs under Climate Change)
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18 pages, 8505 KiB  
Article
Estimating the Impact of Biodiversity Loss in a Marine Antarctic Food Web
by Vanesa Salinas, Georgina Cordone, Tomás I. Marina and Fernando R. Momo
Diversity 2024, 16(1), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/d16010063 - 18 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1526
Abstract
The consequences of climate change and anthropogenic stressors, such as habitat loss and overexploitation, are threatening the subsistence of species and communities across the planet. Therefore, it is crucial that we analyze the impact of environmental perturbations on the diversity, structure and function [...] Read more.
The consequences of climate change and anthropogenic stressors, such as habitat loss and overexploitation, are threatening the subsistence of species and communities across the planet. Therefore, it is crucial that we analyze the impact of environmental perturbations on the diversity, structure and function of ecosystems. In this study, in silico simulations of biodiversity loss were carried out on the marine food web of Caleta Potter (25 de Mayo/King George Island, Antarctica), where global warming has caused critical changes in the abundance and distribution of benthic and pelagic communities over the last 30 years. We performed species removal, considering their degree and trophic level, and including four different thresholds on the occurrence of secondary extinctions. We examined the impact of extinctions on connectance, modularity and stability of the food web. We found different responses for these properties depending on the extinction criteria used, e.g., large increase in modularity and rapid decrease in stability when the most connected and relatively high-trophic-level species were removed. Additionally, we studied the complexity–stability relationship of the food web, and found two regimes: (1) high sensitivity to small perturbations, suggesting that Potter Cove would be locally unstable, and (2) high persistence to long-range perturbations, suggesting global stability of this ecosystem. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Food Webs under Climate Change)
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