Predator-prey role reversal in a marine benthic ecosystem

Two closely located islands on the west coast of South Africa support widely different benthic communities. The biota at Malgas Island is dominated by seaweeds and by rock lobsters that consume settling mussels, thereby preventing the establishment of the mussels. They also prey on whelks, although one speces, Burnupena papyracea, is protected from predation by a commensal bryozoan that covers its shell. Marcus Island has extensive mussel beds, but rock lobsters and seaweeds are virtually absent; whelks (mostly Burnupena spp.) occur at high densities. Rock lobsters transferred to Marcus Island were overwhelmed and consumed by the whelks, reversing the normal predatorprey relation between the two species. These two contrasting communities persisted during 4 years and may represent multiple states of the same ecosystem. This effective change of roles between a prey species and its chief predator may provide an intrinsic mechanism to maintain these states following the initial exclusion of the predator.     

Evolution of paleozoic marine invertebrate communities

Communities of Paleozoic shelf invertebrates underwent varied rates of change in faunal composition. Notable changes took place during Late Devonian-Early Mississippian time and were most noticeable in ofishore brachiopod-dominated communities. Near-shore molluscan communities remained relatively stable throughout the Paleozoic.     

Margin to craton expansion of late ordovician benthic marine invertebrates

A biostratigraphic survey of 57 Late Ordovician marine shelly invertebrates from the Climacograptus manitoulinensis zone of eastern Canada supports suggestions that throughout the Early Phanerozoic benthic marine speciations occurred preferentially in marginal marine environments. The species subsequently spread onto the craton. There is no obvious positive correlation between the times of first appearance of new associations or novel communities along the continental margin and the first appearance on the craton of the species making up these communities. Taxonomic similarities between marine communities that occupied both marginal and cratonic regimes may reflect a more static local ecology than the evolutionary dynamics of a piecemeal species-by-species reassembly.     

低山林地改植茶园对溪流大型底栖无脊椎动物群落的影响

受到低山林地改植茶园影响的溪流各水体理化指标数值都比参照溪流高1倍左右.与参照溪流相比,林地改植茶园对相邻溪流底栖动物群落结构的影响表现在节肢动物物种比例下降(47.54%),EPT丰富度和昆虫纲物种丰富度显著下降(P<0.05).水体营养指标的升高可能是导致低山林地改植茶园溪流大型底栖无脊椎动物多样性下降的直接原因.低山茶林(茶园与溪流之间有成片林地间隔)对溪流影响小于低山茶园,说明沿岸带林地对减缓茶园对相邻溪流的牛态影响有积极作用.低山茶园、低山茶林、农田和参照溪流3个季节的群落相似性的非度量多维尺度分析表明,溪流群落相似性主要与干扰类型密切相关,干扰对溪流底栖动物群落组成的影响要大于底栖动物群落组成的季节性变化.     

Onshore-offshore patterns in the evolution of phanerozoic shelf communities

Cluster analysis of Cambrian-Ordovician marine benthic communities and community-trophic analysis of Late Cretaceous shelf faunas indicate that major ecological innovations appeared in nearshore environments and then expanded outward across the shelf at the expense of older community types. This onshoreinnovation, offshore-archaic evolutionary pattern is surprising in light of the generally, higher species turnover rates of offshore clades. This pattern probably results from differential extinction rates of onshore as compared to offshore clades, or from differential origination rates of new ecological associations or evolutionary novelties in nearshore environments.     

Phanerozoic Earth system evolution and marine biodiversity

The Phanerozoic fossil record of marine animal diversity covaries with the amount of marine sedimentary rock. The extent to which this covariation reflects a geologically controlled sampling bias remains unknown. We show that Phanerozoic records of seawater chemistry and continental flooding contain information on the diversity of marine animals that is independent of sedimentary rock quantity and sampling. Interrelationships among variables suggest long-term interactions among continental flooding, sulfur and carbon cycling, and macroevolution. Thus, mutual responses to interacting Earth systems, not sampling biases, explain much of the observed covariation between Phanerozoic patterns of sedimentation and fossil biodiversity. Linkages between biodiversity and environmental records likely reflect complex biotic responses to changing ocean redox conditions and long-term sea-level fluctuations driven by plate tectonics.     

Species duration and evolution: benthic foraminifera on the atlantic continental margin of north america

Average species durations were estimated for 131 commonly occurring modern species. The duration of species occurring at depths of less than 200 meters is 16 million years, while for those at greater than 200 meters and at all depths it is 25 to 26 million years. Species (less than 200 meters) distributed from Florida to Newfoundland and from Florida to Cape Hatteras have about the same durations (18 to 20 million years). The duration for species restricted to north of Cape Hatteras is only 7 million years. The data suggest that evolutionary rates are greater in shallower than in deeper depths and greatest in the shallower northern area.     

Biological communities at the Florida escarpment resemble hydrothermal vent taxa

Dense biological communities of large epifaunal taxa similar to those found along ridge crest vents at the East Pacific Rise were discovered in the abyssal Gulf of Mexico. These assemblages occur on a passive continental margin at the base of the Florida Escarpment, the interface between the relatively impermeable hemipelagic clays of the distal Mississippi Fan and the jointed Cretaceous limestone of the Florida Platform. The fauna apparently is nourished by sulfide rich hypersaline waters seeping out at near ambient temperatures onto the sea floor.     

Climate-driven range expansion and morphological evolution in a marine gastropod

Little is known about the phenotypic consequences of global climate change, despite the excellent Pleistocene fossil record of many taxa. We used morphological measurements from extant and Pleistocene populations of a marine gastropod (Acanthinucella spirata) in conjunction with mitochondrial DNA sequence variation from living populations to determine how populations responded phenotypically to Pleistocene climatic changes. Northern populations show little sequence variation as compared to southern populations, a pattern consistent with a recent northward range expansion. These recently recolonized northern populations also contain shell morphologies that are absent in extant southern populations and throughout the Pleistocene fossil record. Thus, contrary to traditional expectations that morphological evolution should occur largely within Pleistocene refugia, our data show that geographical range shifts in response to climatic change can lead to significant morphological evolution.     

Speciation and stasis in marine ostracoda: climatic modulation of evolution

Morphologic and paleozoogeographic analysis of Cenozoic marine Ostracoda from the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific indicates that climatic change modulates evolution by disrupting long-term stasis and catalyzing speciation during sustained, unidirectional climatic transitions and, conversely, by maintaining morphologic stasis during rapid, high-frequency climatic oscillations. In the middle Pliocene, 4 to 3 million years ago, at least six new species of Puriana suddenly appeared as the Isthmus of Panama closed, changing oceanographic circulation and global climate. Since then morphologic stasis has characterized ancestral and descendant species during many glacial-interglacial cycles. The frequency and duration of climatic events have more impact on ostracode evolution than the magnitude of climatic changes.     

Ecological effects of a major oil spill on panamanian coastal marine communities

In 1986 more than 8 million liters of crude oil spilled into a complex region of mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs just east of the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. This was the largest recorded spill into coastal habitats in the tropical Americas. Many population of plants and animals in both oiled and unoiled sites had been studied previously, thereby providing an unprecedented measure of ecological variation before the spill. Documenation of the spread of oil and its biological begun immediately. Intertidal mangroves, algae, and associated invertebrates were covered by oil and died soon after. More surprisingly, there was also extensive mortality of shallow subtidal reef corals and infauna of seagrass beds. After 1.5 years only some organisms in areas exposed to the open sea have recovered.     

基于底栖大型无脊椎动物BI指数法的大浑太流域水质生物评价

采用底栖大型无脊椎动物BI指数法对大浑太流域14个点位进行了水质评价,评价结果与理化监测结果基本吻合。共监测到底栖大型无脊椎动物3门7纲12目25科62属90种,以水生昆虫为主,其次为环节动物、软体动物和甲壳动物。BI指数在2.56～8.82之间,评价结果清洁的点位6个,均位于河流上游地区;良好的点位2个,位于河流中上游地区;轻污染的点位2个;中污染的点位3个;重污染的点位1个。中污染和重污染点位均位于河流下游及河口地区。     

滨海新区填海造陆的地形地貌环境演变影响分析

填海造陆对海岸环境的影响主要体现在改变海岸线长度与形态及直接吹填沙导致近海海底地形地貌变化[1],这些变化影响着海岸带规划管理和可持续发展,具有重要的理论和现实意义。本文利用滨海新区遥感影像及其海图资料,对该区域近30年海岸线变迁、围填海演变及海底地形信息进行了提取,并对其具体进程和驱动因素进行了研究。研究表明：30年间,滨海新区海岸线变迁是向海洋推进,且推进的趋势越来越明显,岸线长度增长趋势愈发明显,变迁面积较大。针对填海造陆引起围堤基底冲刷问题,笔者提出了可供参考的解决方案。     

海洋环境噪声的分类及其对海洋动物的影响

海洋环境条件特殊,地形复杂,海洋声学的研究进展相对缓慢。本文中对海洋环境噪声按频率范围进行了分类,包括极低频噪声、超低频及甚低频噪声和高频噪声,并探讨了海洋环境噪声对水产养殖动物及野生海洋动物（尤其是海洋哺乳动物）的影响,展望了海洋声学研究的前景。