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Seascape ecology is a scientific discipline that deals with the causes and ecological consequences of spatial pattern in the marine environment, drawing heavily on conceptual and analytical frameworks developed in terrestrial landscape ecology. [1]
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Seascape ecology is a scientific discipline that deals with the causes and ecological consequences of spatial pattern in the marine environment, drawing heavily on conceptual and analytical frameworks developed in terrestrial landscape ecology. [1]
Seascape ecology, the application of landscape ecology concepts to the marine environment [2] has been slowly emerging since the 1970s, [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] yielding new ecological insights and showing growing potential to support the development of ecologically meaningful science-based management practices. [8] [9] [10] [11] For marine systems, the application of landscape ecology came about through a recognition that many of the concepts developed in the theory of island biogeography [12] [13] and the study of patch dynamics (precursors to modern landscape ecology) could be applicable to a range of marine environments from plankton patches [14] to patch reefs, [15] inter-tidal mussel beds [16] and seagrass meadows. [17] [18]
Progress in the ecological understanding of spatial patterning was not confined to shallow seafloor environments. For the open ocean, advances in ocean observing systems since the 1970s have allowed scientists to map, classify, quantify and track dynamic spatial structure in the form of eddies, surface roughness, currents, runoff plumes, ice, temperature fronts and plankton patches using oceanographic technologies – a theme increasingly referred to as pelagic seascape ecology. [19] [20] [21] Subsurface structures too, such as internal waves, thermoclines, haloclines, boundary layers and stratification resulting in distinct layering of organisms, is increasingly being mapped and modelled in multiple dimensions.
Like landscape ecologists, seascape ecologists are interested in the spatially explicit geometry of patterns and the relationships between pattern, ecological processes and environmental change. A central tenet in landscape ecology is that patch context matters, where local conditions are influenced by attributes of the surroundings. For instance, the physical arrangement of objects in space, and their location relative to other things, influences how they function. [22]
A landscape ecologist will ask different questions focused at different scales than other scientists, such as: What are the ecological consequences of different shaped patches, patch size, quality, edge geometry, spatial arrangement and diversity of patches across the landscape? At what scale(s) is structure most influential? How do landscape patterns influence the way that animals find food, evade predators and interact with competitors? How does human activity alter the structure and function of landscapes?
Several guiding principles that exist at the core of landscape ecology have made major contributions to terrestrial landscape planning and conservation, but in marine systems our understanding is still in its infancy. The first book on seascape ecology was published in December 2018. [23]
Seascapes are defined broadly as spatially heterogeneous and dynamic spaces that can be delineated at a wide range of scales in time and space. With regard to seascapes defined by sampling units, a 1 m2 quadrant can be a valid seascape sample unit (SSU), just as can a 1 km2 analytical window in a geographical information system. The wide diversity of possible focal scales in marine ecology means that the term seascape cannot be used as an indication of scale, or a level of organization.
The sea exhibits complex spatial patterning that can be mapped and quantified, such as gradients in plant communities across tidal saltmarshes or the intricate mosaics of patches typical of coral reefs. [24] In the open ocean too, dynamic spatial structure in the form of water currents, eddies, temperature fronts and plankton patches can be measured readily. [25] [26] Physical processes such as storms dramatically influence spatial patterning in the environment and human activity can also directly create patch structure, modify mosaic composition and even completely remove elements of the seascape. Furthermore, climate-change induced shifts in species related to water temperature change and sea level rise are driving a gradual reconfiguration of the geography of species and habitats.
The patterns revealed by remote sensing devices are most often mapped and represented using two types of model: (1) collections of discrete patches forming mosaics e.g. as represented in two-dimensional benthic habitat map, or (2) continuously varying gradients in three-dimensional terrain models e.g. in remotely sensed Bathymetric data. [27] [28] In landscape ecology, patches can be classified into a binary patch-matrix model based on island biogeography theory where a focal habitat patch type (e.g. seagrasses) is surrounded by an inhospitable matrix (e.g. sand), or a patch-mosaic of interconnected patches, where the interactions of the parts influence the ecological function of the whole mosaic. Both patch and gradient models have provided important insights into the spatial ecology of marine species and biodiversity.
Scale, the spatial or temporal dimensions of a phenomenon, is central to seascape ecology and the topic permeates all applications of a seascape ecology approach from conceptual models through to design of sampling, analyses and interpretation of results. [29] Species and life-stage responses to patchiness and gradients in environmental structure are likely to be scale dependent, therefore, scale selection is an important task in any ecological study. Seascape ecology acknowledges that decisions made for scaling ecological studies influence our perspective and ultimately our understanding of ecological patterns and processes. [30] Historically, marine scientists have played a significant role in communicating the importance of scale in ecology [31]
In 1963, a physical oceanographer, Henry Stommel, published a conceptual diagram that was to have a profound effect on all of the environmental sciences. [32] The diagram [33] depicted variation in sea level height at spatial scales from centimeters to that of the planet and at time scales from seconds to tens of millennia. [34] The oceanographer John Steele (1978) adapted the Stommel diagram to depict the spatial and temporal scales of patchiness in phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish.
Measuring habitat structure at multiple scales is typical in seascape ecology, particularly where a single meaningful scale is not known or not meaningful to the ecological process of interest. Multi-scale measurements have been used to discover the scale at which populations are associated with key habitat features. [35] [36] With regard to scaling seascapes, one approach is to select spatial and temporal scales to be ecologically meaningful to the organism’s movements or other processes of interest. [37]
The absence of information, or the lack of continuous observation on the way animals use space through time, can all too often result in insufficient consideration of seascape context potentially resulting in misleading conclusions on the primary drivers of ecological patterns and processes. Pittman and McAlpine (2003) [38] offer a multi-scale framework for scaling ecological studies that integrates hierarchy theory with movement ecology and the concept of ecological neighborhoods. [39] Here the focal scale is guided by the spatial and temporal scales relevant to an ecological process of interest. The focal scale is nested within a spatial hierarchy that incorporates patterns and processes at both finer and broader scales [40]
Understanding seascape ecology is important in the study of juvenile fish development, particularly when examining estuaries. Prior investigations into nursery function have predominantly focused on individual habitats or specific species, lacking a comprehensive understanding of the intricate relationships within and among diverse habitat patches. [41] [42] [43] This is of concern due to the frequent oncogenic shifts[ clarification needed ] observed in many juvenile species, which causes them to use multiple habitats throughout their developmental phases. Various habitats, including mangrove roots, macroalgae, seagrasses, and others, offer distinct services and resources crucial for the development of juvenile fish. The failure to consider the entirety of habitats occupied during development may impede ecologists and resource managers in effectively evaluating the conservation value and priority of estuarine regions.
Ecology is the study of the relationships among living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps with the closely related sciences of biogeography, evolutionary biology, genetics, ethology, and natural history.
Theoretical ecology is the scientific discipline devoted to the study of ecological systems using theoretical methods such as simple conceptual models, mathematical models, computational simulations, and advanced data analysis. Effective models improve understanding of the natural world by revealing how the dynamics of species populations are often based on fundamental biological conditions and processes. Further, the field aims to unify a diverse range of empirical observations by assuming that common, mechanistic processes generate observable phenomena across species and ecological environments. Based on biologically realistic assumptions, theoretical ecologists are able to uncover novel, non-intuitive insights about natural processes. Theoretical results are often verified by empirical and observational studies, revealing the power of theoretical methods in both predicting and understanding the noisy, diverse biological world.
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area. Phytogeography is the branch of biogeography that studies the distribution of plants. Zoogeography is the branch that studies distribution of animals. Mycogeography is the branch that studies distribution of fungi, such as mushrooms.
Ecological classification or ecological typology is the classification of land or water into geographical units that represent variation in one or more ecological features. Traditional approaches focus on geology, topography, biogeography, soils, vegetation, climate conditions, living species, habitats, water resources, and sometimes also anthropic factors. Most approaches pursue the cartographical delineation or regionalisation of distinct areas for mapping and planning.
Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader than the term flora which refers to species composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but vegetation can, and often does, refer to a wider range of spatial scales than that term does, including scales as large as the global. Primeval redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnum bogs, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated gardens and lawns; all are encompassed by the term vegetation.
Landscape ecology is the science of studying and improving relationships between ecological processes in the environment and particular ecosystems. This is done within a variety of landscape scales, development spatial patterns, and organizational levels of research and policy. Concisely, landscape ecology can be described as the science of "landscape diversity" as the synergetic result of biodiversity and geodiversity.
Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp, which covers a large part of the world's coastlines. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Earth. Although algal kelp forest combined with coral reefs only cover 0.1% of Earth's total surface, they account for 0.9% of global primary productivity. Kelp forests occur worldwide throughout temperate and polar coastal oceans. In 2007, kelp forests were also discovered in tropical waters near Ecuador.
A metapopulation consists of a group of spatially separated populations of the same species which interact at some level. The term metapopulation was coined by Richard Levins in 1969 to describe a model of population dynamics of insect pests in agricultural fields, but the idea has been most broadly applied to species in naturally or artificially fragmented habitats. In Levins' own words, it consists of "a population of populations".
Evolutionary ecology lies at the intersection of ecology and evolutionary biology. It approaches the study of ecology in a way that explicitly considers the evolutionary histories of species and the interactions between them. Conversely, it can be seen as an approach to the study of evolution that incorporates an understanding of the interactions between the species under consideration. The main subfields of evolutionary ecology are life history evolution, sociobiology, the evolution of interspecific interactions and the evolution of biodiversity and of ecological communities.
Spatial ecology studies the ultimate distributional or spatial unit occupied by a species. In a particular habitat shared by several species, each of the species is usually confined to its own microhabitat or spatial niche because two species in the same general territory cannot usually occupy the same ecological niche for any significant length of time.
In landscape ecology, landscape connectivity is, broadly, "the degree to which the landscape facilitates or impedes movement among resource patches". Alternatively, connectivity may be a continuous property of the landscape and independent of patches and paths. Connectivity includes both structural connectivity and functional connectivity. Functional connectivity includes actual connectivity and potential connectivity in which movement paths are estimated using the life-history data.
Marine larval ecology is the study of the factors influencing dispersing larvae, which many marine invertebrates and fishes have. Marine animals with a larva typically release many larvae into the water column, where the larvae develop before metamorphosing into adults.
Cross-boundary subsidies are caused by organisms or materials that cross or traverse habitat patch boundaries, subsidizing the resident populations. The transferred organisms and materials may provide additional predators, prey, or nutrients to resident species, which can affect community and food web structure. Cross-boundary subsidies of materials and organisms occur in landscapes composed of different habitat patch types, and so depend on characteristics of those patches and on the boundaries in between them. Human alteration of the landscape, primarily through fragmentation, has the potential to alter important cross-boundary subsidies to increasingly isolated habitat patches. Understanding how processes that occur outside of habitat patches can affect populations within them may be important to habitat management.
Patch dynamics is an ecological perspective that the structure, function, and dynamics of ecological systems can be understood through studying their interactive patches. Patch dynamics, as a term, may also refer to the spatiotemporal changes within and among patches that make up a landscape. Patch dynamics is ubiquitous in terrestrial and aquatic systems across organizational levels and spatial scales. From a patch dynamics perspective, populations, communities, ecosystems, and landscapes may all be studied effectively as mosaics of patches that differ in size, shape, composition, history, and boundary characteristics.
Giacomo Bernardi is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California Santa Cruz. He earned his B.A., M.S., and Ph.D. at the University of Paris and did post-doctoral work from 1991 to 1994 at Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University.
Landscape limnology is the spatially explicit study of lakes, streams, and wetlands as they interact with freshwater, terrestrial, and human landscapes to determine the effects of pattern on ecosystem processes across temporal and spatial scales. Limnology is the study of inland water bodies inclusive of rivers, lakes, and wetlands; landscape limnology seeks to integrate all of these ecosystem types.
Alan Reece Longhurst was a British-born Canadian oceanographer who invented the Longhurst-Hardy Plankton Recorder, and is widely known for his contributions to the primary scientific literature, together with his numerous monographs, most notably the "Ecological Geography of the Sea". He led an effort that produced the first estimate of global primary production in the oceans using satellite imagery, and also quantified vertical carbon flux through the planktonic ecosystem via the biological pump. In later life he offered several critical reviews of several aspects of fishery management science and climate change science.
The St. Croix East End Marine Park (STXEEMP) was established to "protect territorially significant marine resources, and promote sustainability of marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, sea grass beds, wildlife habitats and other resources, and to conserve and preserve significant natural areas for the use and benefit of future generations." It is the U.S. Virgin Islands’ first territorially designated and managed marine protected area (MPA).
Landscape genetics is the scientific discipline that combines population genetics and landscape ecology. It broadly encompasses any study that analyses plant or animal population genetic data in conjunction with data on the landscape features and matrix quality where the sampled population lives. This allows for the analysis of microevolutionary processes affecting the species in light of landscape spatial patterns, providing a more realistic view of how populations interact with their environments. Landscape genetics attempts to determine which landscape features are barriers to dispersal and gene flow, how human-induced landscape changes affect the evolution of populations, the source-sink dynamics of a given population, and how diseases or invasive species spread across landscapes.
A marine coastal ecosystem is a marine ecosystem which occurs where the land meets the ocean. Marine coastal ecosystems include many very different types of marine habitats, each with their own characteristics and species composition. They are characterized by high levels of biodiversity and productivity.