ORCID Profile
0000-0002-2111-4803
Current Organisations
Environment and Climate Change Canada
,
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
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Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 10-2018
DOI: 10.1029/2018GB005941
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 08-2022
Abstract: Distribution of Earth’s biomes is structured by the match between climate and plant traits, which in turn shape associated communities and ecosystem processes and services. However, that climate–trait match can be disrupted by historical events, with lasting ecosystem impacts. As Earth’s environment changes faster than at any time in human history, critical questions are whether and how organismal traits and ecosystems can adjust to altered conditions. We quantified the relative importance of current environmental forcing versus evolutionary history in shaping the growth form (stature and biomass) and associated community of eelgrass ( Zostera marina ), a widespread foundation plant of marine ecosystems along Northern Hemisphere coastlines, which experienced major shifts in distribution and genetic composition during the Pleistocene. We found that eelgrass stature and biomass retain a legacy of the Pleistocene colonization of the Atlantic from the ancestral Pacific range and of more recent within-basin bottlenecks and genetic differentiation. This evolutionary legacy in turn influences the biomass of associated algae and invertebrates that fuel coastal food webs, with effects comparable to or stronger than effects of current environmental forcing. Such historical lags in phenotypic acclimatization may constrain ecosystem adjustments to rapid anthropogenic climate change, thus altering predictions about the future functioning of ecosystems.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.2064
Abstract: Latitudinal gradients in species interactions are widely cited as potential causes or consequences of global patterns of bio ersity. However, mechanistic studies documenting changes in interactions across broad geographic ranges are limited. We surveyed predation intensity on common prey (live hipods and gastropods) in communities of eelgrass (Zostera marina) at 48 sites across its Northern Hemisphere range, encompassing over 37° of latitude and four continental coastlines. Predation on hipods declined with latitude on all coasts but declined more strongly along western ocean margins where temperature gradients are steeper. Whereas in situ water temperature at the time of the experiments was uncorrelated with predation, mean annual temperature strongly positively predicted predation, suggesting a more complex mechanism than simply increased metabolic activity at the time of predation. This large-scale biogeographic pattern was modified by local habitat characteristics predation declined with higher shoot density both among and within sites. Predation rates on gastropods, by contrast, were uniformly low and varied little among sites. The high replication and geographic extent of our study not only provides additional evidence to support biogeographic variation in predation intensity, but also insight into the mechanisms that relate temperature and biogeographic gradients in species interactions.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-07-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41477-023-01464-3
Abstract: Currents are unique drivers of oceanic phylogeography and thus determine the distribution of marine coastal species, along with past glaciations and sea-level changes. Here we reconstruct the worldwide colonization history of eelgrass ( Zostera marina L.), the most widely distributed marine flowering plant or seagrass from its origin in the Northwest Pacific, based on nuclear and chloroplast genomes. We identified two ergent Pacific clades with evidence for admixture along the East Pacific coast. Two west-to-east (trans-Pacific) colonization events support the key role of the North Pacific Current. Time-calibrated nuclear and chloroplast phylogenies yielded concordant estimates of the arrival of Z. marina in the Atlantic through the Canadian Arctic, suggesting that eelgrass-based ecosystems, hotspots of bio ersity and carbon sequestration, have only been present there for ~243 ky (thousand years). Mediterranean populations were founded ~44 kya, while extant distributions along western and eastern Atlantic shores were founded at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (~19 kya), with at least one major refuge being the North Carolina region. The recent colonization and five- to sevenfold lower genomic ersity of the Atlantic compared to the Pacific populations raises concern and opportunity about how Atlantic eelgrass might respond to rapidly warming coastal oceans.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-08-2023
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 23-02-2022
Abstract: While considerable evidence exists of biogeographic patterns in the intensity of species interactions, the influence of these patterns on variation in community structure is less clear. Studying how the distributions of traits in communities vary along global gradients can inform how variation in interactions and other factors contribute to the process of community assembly. Using a model selection approach on measures of trait dispersion in crustaceans associated with eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) spanning 30° of latitude in two oceans, we found that dispersion strongly increased with increasing predation and decreasing latitude. Ocean and epiphyte load appeared as secondary predictors Pacific communities were more overdispersed while Atlantic communities were more clustered, and increasing epiphytes were associated with increased clustering. By examining how species interactions and environmental filters influence community structure across biogeographic regions, we demonstrate how both latitudinal variation in species interactions and historical contingency shape these responses. Community trait distributions have implications for ecosystem stability and functioning, and integrating large-scale observations of environmental filters, species interactions and traits can help us predict how communities may respond to environmental change.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 10-12-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.12.10.519859
Abstract: Currents are unique drivers of oceanic phylogeography and so determine the distribution of marine coastal species, along with past glaciations and sea level changes. Here, we reconstruct the worldwide colonization history of eelgrass ( Zostera marina L.), the most widely distributed marine flowering plant or seagrass from its origin in the Northwest Pacific, based on nuclear and chloroplast genomes. We identified two ergent Pacific clades with evidence for admixture along the East Pacific coast. Multiple west to east (trans-Pacific) colonization events support the key role of the North Pacific Current. Time-calibrated nuclear and chloroplast phylogenies yielded concordant estimates of the arrival of Z. marina in the Atlantic through the Canadian Arctic, suggesting that eelgrass-based ecosystems, hotspots of bio ersity and carbon sequestration, have only been present since ∼208 Kya (thousand years ago). Mediterranean populations were founded ∼53 Kya while extant distributions along western and eastern Atlantic shores coincide with the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (∼20 Kya). The recent colonization and 5-to 7-fold lower genomic ersity of Atlantic compared to the Pacific populations raises concern and opportunity about how Atlantic eelgrass might respond to rapidly warming coastal oceans.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-12-2019
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.13013
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-03-2012
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 26-10-2020
Abstract: Consumption transfers energy and materials through food chains and fundamentally influences ecosystem productivity. Therefore, mapping the distribution of consumer feeding intensity is key to understanding how environmental changes influence bio ersity, with consequent effects on trophic transfer and top–down impacts through food webs. Our global comparison of standardized bait consumption in shallow coastal habitats finds a peak in feeding intensity away from the equator that is better explained by the presence of particular consumer families than by latitude or temperature. This study complements recent demonstrations that changes in bio ersity can have similar or larger impacts on ecological processes than those of climate.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 14-06-2013
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2011
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-06-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41597-020-0551-2
Abstract: Benthic fauna refers to all fauna that live in or on the seafloor, which researchers typically ide into size classes meiobenthos (32/64 µm–0.5/1 mm), macrobenthos (250 µm–1 cm), and megabenthos ( cm). Benthic fauna play important roles in bioturbation activity, mineralization of organic matter, and in marine food webs. Evaluating their role in these ecosystem functions requires knowledge of their global distribution and biomass. We therefore established the BenBioDen database, the largest open-access database for marine benthic biomass and density data compiled so far. In total, it includes 11,792 georeferenced benthic biomass and 51,559 benthic density records from 384 and 600 studies, respectively. We selected all references following the procedure for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and report biomass records as grams of wet mass, dry mass, or ash-free dry mass, or carbon per m 2 and as abundance records as in iduals per m 2 . This database provides a point of reference for future studies on the distribution and biomass of benthic fauna.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-04-2021
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.3316
No related grants have been discovered for Mathieu Cusson.