Search results for "intertidal"

In situ measurements of molecular iodine in the marine boundary layer: the link to macroalgae and the implications for O<sub>3</…

2010

Abstract. Discrete in situ atmospheric measurements of molecular iodine (I2) were carried out at Mace Head and Mweenish Bay on the west coast of Ireland using diffusion denuders in combination with a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. I2, IO and OIO were also measured by long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy (LP-DOAS). The simultaneous denuder and LP-DOAS I2 measurements were well correlated (R2=0.80) but the denuder method recorded much higher concentrations. This can be attributed to the fact that the in situ measurements were made near to macroalgal sources of I2 in the intertidal zone, whereas the LP-DOAS technique provides distance-averaged mixing rat…

Regime shifts and alternative stable states in intertidal rocky habitats: State of the art and new trends of research

2018

Abstract The existence of regime shifts and alternative stable states in ecosystems is well known and has very large effects on their structure and dynamics. Since shifts between alternative stable states have significant implications for the ecosystems conservation, their prevention should be an aim of primary interest, and for this reason a particular attention has been paid to their study. Regarding marine ecosystems, rocky intertidal habitats, in particular, represent an ideal system for the study of alternative stable states because of their characteristics: they exhibit strong environmental gradients, are easy to manipulate, and most of the inhabiting species grow rapidly. Given the s…

Latitudinal variations in positive and negative effects of invertebrates on rocky shore biofilm

2011

First xiphosuran traceway in the middle Muschelkalk facies (Middle Triassic) of the Catalan Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula)

2021

In the last decade, the first ichnoassamblages from the middle Muschelkalk facies (upper Anisian-middle Ladinian) of the Catalan Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula) have been discovered. Herein, the first xiphosuran trace fossils are described from the locality of Penya Rubí, a newly discovered ichnosite from the Catalan Basin. The finding opens a window into peri-Tethys ecosystems with coastal influence. The traceway is referred to the ichnogenus Kouphichnium, a locomotion trace attributed to xiphosurans. The traceway preserves telson grooves and different imprint morphologies from the various appendages. The traceway pattern and arrangement of the different traces suggest a crawling locomotion s…

Phylogeography and demographic inference in Nacella (Patinigera) concinna (Strebel, 1908) in the western Antarctic Peninsula

2011

10 pages; International audience; Endemic to Antarctic ecosystems, the limpet Nacella (Patinigera) concinna (Strebel, 1908) is an abundant and dominant marine benthic invertebrate of the intertidal and shallow subtidal zone. In order to examine the phylogeographic pattern and historical demography of the species along the western Antarctic Peninsula, we amplified 663 bp of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase subunit I of 161 N. concinna specimens from five localities, as well as two specimens from South Georgia and Sub-Antarctic Marion Island. As two different morphotypes, one characterized by an elevated shell in the intertidal and the other by a flat one in the subtidal, have been re…

The Mediterranean intertidal habitat as a natural laboratory to study climate change drivers of geographic patterns in marine biodiversity.

2011

Climate change, marine policy and the valuation of Mediterranean intertidal ecosystems

2011

This commentary describes a gap in the qualitative and quantitative knowledge of the provision of benefits to humans from the intertidal ecosystems of the Mediterranean and offers a framework for quantification of the benefits provided by these systems. The identification of such benefits, understanding their spatial distribution and their subsequent quantification will be critical to the design of policy responses to future climate change, sea level rise and seawater acidification. A baseline understanding of the current state of ecosystem functions, as well as of the provision of related ecosystem services, is therefore needed. Further, researchers must strive to generate forecasts of the…

Combining heat-transfer and energy budget models to predict thermal stress in Mediterranean intertidal mussels

2011

Recent studies have emphasised that organisms can experience physiological stress well within their geographic range limits. Developing methods for mechanistically predicting the presence, absence and physiological performance of organisms is therefore important because of the ongoing effects of climate change. In this study, we merged a biophysical–ecological (BE) model that estimates the aquatic (high tide) and aerial (low tide) body temperatures of Mytilus galloprovincialis with a Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) model to predict growth, reproduction and mortality of this Mediterranean mussel in both intertidal and subtidal environments. Using weather and chlorophyll-a data from three Mediter…

High-resolution records of growth temperature and life history of two Nacella limpet species, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

2020

Stable isotope ratios in patelloid limpets of the genus Patella have been established as proxies for coastal environmental change at sub-monthly resolution along the eastern North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Nacella deaurata (Gmelin, 1791) and N. magellanica (Gmelin, 1791) are common intertidal species of patelloid limpets inhabiting the coast of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina/Chile and are commonly found in Holocene archaeological deposits. Here, we examine oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ18Oshell and δ13Cshell, respectively) of modern specimens of N. deaurata and N. magellanica to test the hypotheses that: 1) they form their shells in isotopic equilibrium with ambient water; and 2) pr…

Habitat geometry of benthic substrata: effects on arrival and settlement of mobile epifauna

1996

Abstract The effect of substratum complexity on the early stages of colonization by mobile epifauna was assessed through a comparative study based on the architecture of artificial substrata. We conducted field observations over 4 years, on six types of small plastic substrata placed in the low intertidal zone of an exposed rocky shore, for varied immersion periods (1, 2, 4 and 12 wk). The use of artificial substrata allowed us to manipulate independently structural and spatial features of the habitat, such as total area, amount of folds, intercepting area, total volume, and interstitial volume. The invertebrate fauna colonizing over 300 sample units was recorded, and their densities compar…