ORCID Profile
0000-0001-6805-6260
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Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 24-05-2022
Abstract: Mangrove forests provide essential ecosystem services, but are threatened by habitat loss, effects of climatic change and chemical pollutants. Hypersalinity can also lead to mangrove mortality, although mangroves are adapted to saline habitats. A recent dieback event of & ha of temperate mangrove ( Avicennia marina ) in South Australia allowed to evaluate the generality of anthropogenic impacts on mangrove ecosystems. We carried out multidisciplinary investigations, combining airborne remote sensing with on-ground measurements to detect the extent of the impact. The mangrove forest was differentiated into “healthy,” “stressed,” and “dead” zones using airborne LIDAR, RGB and hyperspectral imagery. Differences in characteristics of trees and soils were tested between these zones. Porewater salinities of & were measured in areas where mangrove dieback occurred, and hypersalinity persisted in soils a year after the event, making it one of the most extreme hypersalinity cases known in mangrove. Sediments in the dieback zone were anaerobic and contained higher concentrations of sulfate and chloride. CO 2 efflux from sediment as well as carbon stocks in mangrove biomass and soil did not differ between the zones a year after the event. Mangrove photosynthetic traits and physiological characteristics indicated that mangrove health was impacted beyond the immediate dieback zone. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate as well as chlorophyll fluorescence were lower in the “stressed” than “healthy” mangrove zone. Leaves from mangrove in the “stressed” zone contained less nitrogen and phosphorous than leaves from the “healthy” zone, but had higher arsenic, sulfur and zinc concentrations. The response to extreme hypersalinity in the temperate semi-arid mangrove was similar to response from the sub-/tropical semi-arid mangrove. Mangrove in semi-arid climates are already at their physiological tolerance limit, which places them more at risk from extreme hypersalinity regardless of latitude. The findings have relevance for understanding the generality of disturbance effects on mangrove, with added significance as semi-arid climate regions could expand with global warming.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 20-09-2021
DOI: 10.3389/FMARS.2021.723749
Abstract: Coastal ecosystems are vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances which can cause loss of benthic macrofauna and their ecosystem functioning. Despite the importance of functional assessments for conservation and management, knowledge gaps persist on the generality of how the ersity and functional traits of benthic communities influence ecosystem functioning. We investigated eight sites in three different habitats across ~1,260 km of coastline, to evaluate patterns between taxonomic and functional ersity of benthic macrofauna, and the relationship between benthic macrofauna, functional traits and environmental conditions. A total of 74 benthic macrofauna taxa were identified. Significant differences across sites and season were found for metrics based on taxonomic and functional traits. Multivariate analysis revealed spatial-temporal differences, which were more evident based on taxa than functional traits. Functional ersity also showed spatial and temporal differences and was positively correlated with the number of taxa. The dominant functional traits modalities were deposit feeders, with large (& mm) body size, burrowers, bioirrigators, deeper than 3 cm in sediments, and irregular morphology. Novel Generalized Linear Latent Variable Models (GLLVM) uncovered several site-dependent relationships between taxa, traits and environmental conditions. Functional redundancy was lowest in a highly modified lagoon, and highest in a more pristine embayment. The outcomes from this study showed site-dependent patterns of benthic communities based on either taxonomic or functional metrics, highlighting that both perspectives are complementary to obtain a holistic understanding of the functioning in marine sediments under environmental change.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-07-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-11-2020
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.7040
Abstract: Trait‐based approaches are increasingly used as a proxy for understanding the relationship between bio ersity and ecosystem functioning. Macrobenthic fauna are considered one of the major providers of ecosystem functions in marine soft sediments however, several gaps persist in the knowledge of their trait classification, limiting the potential use of functional assessments. While trait databases are available for the well‐studied North Atlantic benthic fauna, no such trait classification system exists for Australia. Here, we present the South Australian Macrobenthic Traits (SAMT) database, the first comprehensive assessment of macrobenthic fauna traits in temperate Australian waters. The SAMT database includes 13 traits and 54 trait‐modalities (e.g., life history, morphology, physiology, and behavior), and is based on records of macrobenthic fauna from South Australia. We provide trait information for more than 250 macrobenthic taxa, including outcomes from a fuzzy coding procedure, as well as an R package for using and analyzing the SAMT database. The establishment of the SAMT constitutes the foundation for a comprehensive macrobenthic trait database for the wider southern Australian region that could facilitate future research on functional perspectives, such as assessments of functional ersity and changes to ecosystem functioning.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-07-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-023-02414-6
Abstract: Macrobenthic traits, for ex le feeding mode, life history, morphology, are increasingly used for determining responses of macrobenthic fauna to environmental change and influences on ecosystem functioning. Yet, trait information is scarce or non-existent in several parts of the world, such as New Zealand. This deficit makes collecting trait data a difficult and time-consuming task, limiting its potential use in trait-based assessments. Here, we present the New Zealand Trait Database (NZTD) for marine benthic invertebrates, the first comprehensive assessment of macrobenthic traits in New Zealand. The NZTD provides trait information for more than 700 macrobenthic taxa, categorised by 18 traits and 77 trait modalities. The NZTD includes five freely downloadable datasets, (1) the macrobenthic trait dataset, with outcomes from a fuzzy coding procedure, (2) the trait source information, (3) the references by taxa, (4) the full references list, and (5) the full taxa list used in the NZTD. Establishing the NZTD closes the trait knowledge gap in New Zealand and facilitates future research applying trait-based approaches to New Zealand’s coastal macrofauna.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2023
Publisher: Brill
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1163/15685403-00003832
Abstract: The study of species distributions is fundamental for environmental research, conservation planning, and resource management. However, it is not always possible to obtain access to these data, making it difficult to reach the goal of quantifying bio ersity. The distribution of many crustacean groups is poorly studied such is the case of the superfamily Raninoidea (frog crabs). In order to reduce this information gap, herein we mapped and described the world distribution of members of this superfamily by performing a data visualization analysis. We carried out an extensive review of species records and distribution data from different databases, collections, and unpublished data. Furthermore, we conducted a species richness analysis and an agglomerative cluster analysis to identify biogeographic regions. Both analyses were carried out using the software Bio erse (v. 2.0). Results showed that Raninoidea is composed of 46 species across a pantropical distribution. For this study, the globe was ided into 30 pre-established biogeographical regions, ranging from the Indo-Pacific seas & Indian Ocean (IPSIO) region, represented by 19 species and a maximum richness of eight species, to the Southern Ocean (SO) region, represented by only one species. Some species are distributed across regions while some are found exclusively in a single region. Due to issues with accuracy and sufficiency of raw data, we also calculated the Chao 1 and ACE indices, which suggest that other species have yet to be recorded.
Publisher: Bulletin of Marine Science
Date: 2019
Abstract: Frog crabs are marine brachyurans predominantly tropical-subtropical adapted for inhabiting soft sandy bottoms across a wide bathymetric range. In the Gulf of Mexico, seven species of the superfamily Raninoidea have been reported. This study documents further records of 495 frog crabs collected in the south-southwest Gulf of Mexico, belonging to Raninoides louisianensis Rathbun, 1933 (88.1%), Raninoides lamarcki A. Milne-Edwards and Bouvier, 1923 (10.3%), Lysirude nitidus (A. Milne-Edwards, 1880) (1.2%), and Raninoides laevis (Latreille, 1825) (0.4%). The updated records of Raninoidea species from the Gulf of Mexico (based on literature review and results from the present study) extend the geographical distribution of R . louisianensis to the entire Gulf of Mexico. These records indicate that the south-southwest and east-southeast geographic sectors (both in the tropical portion of the Gulf of Mexico) have the highest number of species (6) further, the lower bathymetric limit for R . louisianensis and R . lamarcki is extended. A cluster analysis based on presence/absence data using the Jaccard similarity coefficient provided additional support indicating that the eight geographic sectors of the Gulf of Mexico were closely related (≥0.6) in terms of species composition.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2022
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2022.155201
Abstract: Estuarine ecosystems have very high ecological and economic value, and also act as a buffer for coastal oceans by processing nutrient inputs from terrestrial sources. However, ongoing pressures from increased urbanisation and agriculture, overlaid by climate change, has reduced inflows and increased nutrient loads that challenge the health and buffering capacity of these ecosystems. This study aimed to investigate whether restoring the bioturbating activity of Simplisetia aequisetis (Polychaeta: Nereididae) and other macrofauna could improve biogeochemical conditions in 'hostile' (i.e. hypersaline, sulfide-rich) sediments. To achieve this aim, we conducted an in situ experiment in the Coorong estuarine-lagoon ecosystem, translocating hostile hypersaline sediments, devoid of bioturbating macrofauna, to a 'healthy' (lower salinity) location where macrobenthic fauna naturally occur, and manipulating the S. aequisetis density in the sediments. Porewater, solid-phase, and diffusive equilibrium and diffusive gradient in thin-films (DET/DGT) measurements showed that bioturbation by macrobenthic fauna significantly influenced sediment biogeochemistry and remediated hostile conditions in sediment within a short time (four weeks) irrespective of S. aequisetis density. Bioturbation promoted sediment oxygenation, while salinity and the concentrations of total organic carbon and porewater sulfide, ammonium, and phosphate all decreased over time at all sediment depths. This research highlights the importance of macrobenthic communities and their functional traits for improving sediment conditions, promoting resilience to eutrophication, providing a nature-based remediation option, and in general ensuring healthy functioning of estuarine ecosystems.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2021
DOI: 10.1016/J.MARPOLBUL.2021.113202
Abstract: Estuarine ecosystems are considered hotspots for productivity, biogeochemical cycling and bio ersity, however, their functions and services are threatened by several anthropogenic pressures. We investigated how abundance and ersity of benthic macrofauna, and their functional traits, correlate to sediment biogeochemistry and nutrient concentrations throughout an estuarine-to-hypersaline lagoon. Benthic communities and functional traits were significantly different across the sites analysed, with higher abundance and more traits expressed in the estuarine region. The results revealed that the benthic trait differences correlated with sediment biogeochemistry and nutrient concentrations in the system. The estuarine regions were dominated by high abundance of large burrowing and bioturbating macrofauna, promoting nutrient cycling and organic matter mineralisation, while these organisms were absent in the hypersaline lagoon, favouring accumulation of organic matter and nutrients in the sediment. The results highlight the importance of preserving healthy benthic communities to maintain ecosystem functioning and mitigate the potential impacts of eutrophication in estuarine ecosystems.
Location: New Zealand
Location: Mexico
No related grants have been discovered for Orlando Lam-Gordillo.