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/1 Excited to share two papers we recently had published this year looking into the role of ocean acidification in shaping marine communities using our natural CO2 seep in Japan.
Ocean acidification (OA) causes a shift from corals and macroalgae systems, to simplified turf algae
Ocean acidification (OA) causes a shift from corals and macroalgae systems, to simplified turf algae
/2 In order to understand how this shift in the community happened, we assessed the community succession patterns of macroalgae.
We found that OA 'locked' the community into an early-stage turf community, recently published in Global Change Biology https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15455
We found that OA 'locked' the community into an early-stage turf community, recently published in Global Change Biology https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15455
/3 The patterns were consistent over seasons, and importantly we show that the simplification was not just due to physiological intolerance or limited recruitment.
See https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15528 for an excellent Invited Commentary by the wonderful Dr Shawna Foo & Prof. Maria Byrne.
See https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15528 for an excellent Invited Commentary by the wonderful Dr Shawna Foo & Prof. Maria Byrne.
/4 We found that communities raised in present-day conditions for 6-months still shift to turf under OA. HOWEVER, tiles raised under OA and returned into present-day conditions also shifted back! Thus meaningful reductions in pCO2 can help the recovery of algal communities.
/5 OA-driven changes in ecological interactions are important for determining communities. We found that positive feedbacks allowed the turf algal system to dominate under OA, and may even exhibit hysteresis.
This was published in Communications Biology https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-01712-2
This was published in Communications Biology https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-01712-2
/6 Turf algae trap lots of sediment, impairing growth and recruitment of other organisms. This due to large microbial activity in the turf and sediment that strongly decreased the oxygen concentration and pH. These conditions were detrimental to anything else trying to recruit.
/7 The ability of management to mitigate or reverse an ecological regime shift depends upon an understanding of how species interactions stabilise marine ecosystems.
Our work contributes towards enabling better science-based management of regime shifts.
Our work contributes towards enabling better science-based management of regime shifts.
