Global Change Marine Ecology
When: 8:15 AM – 12:00 PM on SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2015
Where: Capitol Ballroom, DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Sacramento, CA
Event Contact
Speakers
Dr. Carol Blanchette
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX, WORKING ACROSS DISCIPLINES TO UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES OF RAPIDLY CHANGING OCEAN CONDITIONS
University of California, Santa Barbara
Ocean conditions are undergoing rapid changes, and our ability to predict the consequences of changing conditions for organisms and ecosystems depends critically on our ability to synthesize information across temporal and spatial scales and across traditional disciplinary boundaries. The California Current Ecosystem lies at the front line of ocean change. The combined effects of temperature increases, sea level rise, acidification and changes in upwelling may lead to dramatic shifts in species distributions and community structure. The Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) has pioneered a large-scale, long-term, interdisciplinary approach to studying this ecosystem to address fundamental science questions that are relevant to society. Additionally, the Ocean Margin Ecosystem Group for Acidification Studies (OMEGAS) has focused the large-scale, interdisciplinary approach on the problem of coastal ocean acidification. In this talk I will provide examples of the power of a large-scale, interdisciplinary approach to addressing global ocean change issues in coastal marine ecosystems.
Dr. Heather Leslie
ECOLOGICAL SCIENCE INSPIRING ACTION
Darling Marine Center, University of Maine
Marine ecology has been a hotbed of theory and empirical results relevant to conservation and management long before many eminent researchers in the field began counting seastars, snails, and sea otters. Drawing on several examples from the Pacific coast, Heather will reflect on how marine ecologists working in the last two decades in particular have contributed to the rapid emergence of marine conservation science and its applications. By integrating natural and social science knowledge and approaches, conservation science has played a key role in solving challenges facing the fisheries and aquaculture industries as well as coastal communities more broadly. Both population-level and ecosystem-based science have and will continue to be critical to enabling us to forecast the coupled dynamics of marine ecosystems and the people who are part of them.
Dr. Sergio Navarrete
DISPERSAL AND THE MAINTENANCE OF BIODIVERSITY IN MARINE META-COMMUNITIES: FROM STRONGLY DETERMINISTIC NICHE DIFFERENTIATION TO ST
Estacion Costera de Investigaciones Marinas, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
One of the fundamental questions in ecology has been “which are the processes that control local biodiversity i.e. the coexistence of species within a community?”. From the 60’s – 80’s, marine ecologists working on rocky shores addressed this question through experimental manipulations that focused on subsets of strongly interacting species. Their results established the paradigm of local control of species diversity, where deterministic competitive hierarchies lead to local extinction unless prevented by predation or disturbance. Since the 90’s, some of the same pioneering marine ecologists have led the way in showing us that, despite the recurrence of the predation hypothesis, the explanation is far from being an overriding mechanism controlling biodiversity in any marine community. The reasons are many and some are illustrated in this presentation: 1) predation-mediated and niche-based coexistence are possible in only a small subset of species. Dispersal-mediated coexistence at regional scales is probably a much more general mechanism. 2) competitive hierarchies are not universal among sessile, space-dominant species. Fairly “neutral” coexistence among competitors, passively following recruitment variation, may be more common than previously suspected. 3) both deterministic and neutral processes often appear to modulate local biodiversity when a large fraction of species are considered, instead of the few typically included in experiments.
Dr. Karina Nielsen
ROCK, SAND, WATER: META-ECOSYSTEMS AT THE LAND-SEA INTERFACE
Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, San Francisco State University
Our knowledge of natural systems, the influence of human activities on them and the portfolio of opportunities available for adaptive ecosystem management have been enhanced by our growing understanding of ecosystem connectivity. Marine communities of the coastal margin, have been extensively studied over a range of spatial scales, ranging from tightly controlled field manipulations at a single site to comparative experiments along environmental gradients encompassing many sites to the analysis of seascapes. This body of work has revealed the nature and scale(s) of connectivity among populations, among the interacting species that comprise communities, and among ecosystems connected by the exchange of energy, materials and organisms. Ecosystems of the land-sea interface such as rocky shores, sandy beaches and salt marshes are boundary ecosystems that link oceanic and terrestrial ecosystems, and are often linked to adjacent ecosystems along the coast, of the same or different type(s). Studies of these ecosystems as networks, within the context of the theory of metaecosystms, are providing new insights about the importance of ecosystem connectivity. Sustaining the functional links of metaecosystems will become increasingly important as we manage for coastal ecosystem resilience in face of climate change.
Dr. Eric Sanford
THE NEXT GENERATION? REPOPULATION OF THE KEYSTONE PREDATOR PISASTER OCHRACEUS DURING A WASTING DISEASE EPIDEMIC
Bodega Marine Laboratory, University of California Davis
A widespread epidemic of Sea Star Wasting Disease (SSWD) along the Pacific coast of North America has devastated populations of the keystone predator Pisaster ochraceus. Although recovery of these populations will depend on successful recruitment of new individuals, we know surprisingly little about the natural history and ecology of juvenile Pisaster. Since Fall 2013, we have been studying a massive settlement event of Pisaster that occurred in the Bodega Bay region. I will present data regarding the intertidal distribution, density, diet, growth, survival, and incidence of SSWD in juvenile Pisaster over their first two years. Our results document a remarkably diverse juvenile diet and an important ecological role for tiny gastropod and bivalve prey. Early survival was surprisingly high during the first 6 months, but then declined, perhaps as preferred prey were depleted and juvenile stars became more vulnerable to bird predation. Juvenile Pisaster experienced a trend of increasing, and then decreasing, incidence of SSWD, and this cycle was temporally delayed relative to that of adult Pisaster. After two years, despite relatively high levels of mortality and many unanswered questions, there is reason for optimism that juvenile Pisaster will contribute to repopulation in this region.
Dr. Cascade Sorte
BACK TO THE FUTURE: COMBINING HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY TO UNDERSTAND GLOBAL CHANGE IMPACTS IN COASTAL MARINE SYSTEMS
University of California Irvine
Global change has already led to widespread alterations of species’ distributions and community composition in coastal marine systems. Understanding the ecological processes driving these alterations is critical for anticipating future changes under not only continuing but accelerating global change. To inform future prediction, I started by going back in time. Using identical methods, I conducted resurveys of intertidal blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) populations in the Gulf of Maine and shallow subtidal communities in northern California that were previously surveyed in the 1970s. Comparisons to historical baselines indicated significant shifts in mussel abundances and subtidal community composition over the past 35-40 years. I combined these retrospective analyses with physiological studies to help resolve the role of climate in driving past changes and anticipate future population and community trajectories.