Search results for " multiple stressors"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
Multi-level responses of Mytilus galloprovincialis to environmental stressors
2019
Conceptualizing ecosystem tipping points within a physiological framework
2017
Connecting the nonlinear and often counterintuitive physiological effects of multiple environmental drivers to the emergent impacts on ecosystems is a fundamental challenge. Unfortunately, the disconnect between the way “stressors” (e.g., warming) is considered in organismal (physiological) and ecological (community) contexts continues to hamper progress. Environmental drivers typically elicit biphasic physiological responses, where performance declines at levels above and below some optimum. It is also well understood that species exhibit highly variable response surfaces to these changes so that the optimum level of any environmental driver can vary among interacting species. Thus, specie…
Taking the acid test: Mediterranean limpets face up to climate change
2014
Impacts of climate change involve the interactions of multiple stressors on intertidal organisms, but rarely are the impacts of these stressors examined together. Many tests are also conducted in artificial, controlled laboratory conditions, without making use of natural opportunities to test performance of organisms under different environmental stressors. Given its small tidal range, the Mediterranean Sea provides such an opportunity, with a very fine scale environmental gradient and species living very close to each other over the tidal gradient. The vertical distribution of the limpets, Patella rustica and P. caerulea overlap in Palermo, Sicily, but despite this they have different ther…
MACROALGAL BIODIVERSITY RESPONSE UNDER A MULTIPLE STRESSOR SCENARIO
2019
Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function experimental stu- dies focusing on marine systems are few and produce contrasting outcomes. Here, we provide experimental proofs on how communities, on a natural gradient of diversity, respond under stressful conditions in inter- tidal habitats. In August 2017 a field experiment was performed in Western Sicily (Italy) in a site charac- terized by tidal pools whose biodiversity structure and composition change as a function of the distance from the low tide mark. The pools closer to the sea are more stable from a thermal and oxic point of view and characterized by high algal biodiversity. Those further from the sea are highly variable with extreme conditions a…
The Synergistic Impacts of Anthropogenic Stressors and COVID-19 on Aquaculture: A Current Global Perspective
2021
13 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables.-- This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
Warming and acidification effects on biofilm/grazer interaction in an early-stage rocky intertidal community
2016
Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are increasing greenhouse effects and changing seawater carbonate chemistry, leading to ocean warming and acidification. Increasing temperature and decreasing seawater pH can potentially interact to cause changes in species interactions and community shifts. To understand how ocean warming and acidification may affect the early stages of an intertidal community in the Mediterranean, we set up an in situ experiment and assessed potential changes in grazer density andbiofilm composition by manipulating temperature on bare rock plots (10x10cm)in two locations along a natural coastal CO2 gradient (Low pH: 7.8 pH, and Ambient:8.1 pH) off Vulcano Islan…
Response of Sabella spallanzanii to multiple stressors. The combined effect of infection and copper sulphate
2022
The aim of this work is to study the immune responses of the polychaete Sabella spallanzanii after exposure to copper sulphate, an immunomodulating agent in marine organisms, and the multiple stresses caused by Escherichia coli infection, to validate the species as a model organism in marine-coastal biomonitoring programmes. Polychaetes were housed in laboratory and divided into five experimental groups: 1. Control (no microinjected), 2. filtered seawater + TBS injection (control of point 3), 3. filtered seawater + E. coli injection (control of point 4), 4. CuSO4 + TBS injection (control of point 5), and 5. CuSO4 + E. coli injection. The immune variables, esterase and alkaline phosphatase a…
Environmental context determines pollution impacts on ecosystem functioning
2023
Global change assessments have typically ignored synthetic chemical pollution, despite the rapid increase of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and industrial chemicals in the environment. Part of the problem reflects the multifarious origins of these micropollutants, which can derive from urban and agricultural sources. Understanding how micropollutants harm ecosystems is a major scientific challenge due to asymmetries of stress across trophic levels and ecological surprises generated by multiple drivers interacting in human-impacted landscapes. We used field assays above and below municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in 60 sampling locations across 20 Swiss streams to test how micropoll…