Widespread habitat loss leads to ecosystem-scale decrease in trophic function.

Natural and anthropogenic disturbances have led to rapid declines in the amount and quality of available habitat in many ecosystems. Many studies have focused on how habitat loss has affected the composition and configuration of habitats, but there have been fewer studies that investigate how this loss affects ecosystem function. We investigated how a large-scale seagrass die-off altered the distribution of energetic resources of three seagrass-associated consumers with varied resource use patterns. Using long-term benthic habitat monitoring data and resource use data from Bayesian stable isotope mixing models, we generated energetic resource landscapes (E-scapes) annually between 2007 and 2019. E-scapes link the resources being used by a consumer to the habitats that produce those resources to calculate a habitat resource index as a measurement of energetic quality of the landscape. Overall, our results revealed that following the die-off there was a reduction in trophic function across all species in areas affected by the die-off event, but the response was species-specific and dependent on resource use and recovery patterns. This study highlights how habitat loss can lead to changes in ecosystem function. Incorporating changes in ecosystem function into models of habitat loss could improve understanding of how species will respond to future change.

E-scape: Consumer-specific landscapes of energetic resources derived from stable isotope analysis and remote sensing.

Energetic resources and habitat distribution are inherently linked. Energetic resource availability is a major driver of the distribution of consumers, but estimating how much specific habitats contribute to the energetic resource needs of a consumer can be problematic. We present a new approach that combines remote sensing information and stable isotope ecology to produce maps of energetic resources (E-scapes). E-scapes project species-specific resource use information onto the landscape to classify areas based on energetic importance. Using our E-scapes, we investigated the relationship between energetic resource distribution and white shrimp distribution and how the scale used to generate the E-scape mediated this relationship. E-scapes successfully predicted the size, abundance, biomass, and total energy of a consumer in salt marsh habitats in coastal Louisiana, USA at scales relevant to the movement of the consumer. Our E-scape maps can be used alone or in combination with existing models to improve habitat management and restoration practices and have potential to be used to test fundamental movement theory.

Cascading effects of climate change on recreational marine flats fishes and fisheries.

Tropical and subtropical coastal flats are shallow regions of the marine environment at the intersection of land and sea. These regions provide myriad ecological goods and services, including recreational fisheries focused on flats-inhabiting fishes such as bonefish, tarpon, and permit. The cascading effects of climate change have the potential to negatively impact coastal flats around the globe and to reduce their ecological and economic value. In this paper, we consider how the combined effects of climate change, including extremes in temperature and precipitation regimes, sea level rise, and changes in nutrient dynamics, are causing rapid and potentially permanent changes to the structure and function of tropical and subtropical flats ecosystems. We then apply the available science on recreationally targeted fishes to reveal how these changes can cascade through layers of biological organization-from individuals, to populations, to communities-and ultimately impact the coastal systems that depend on them. We identify critical gaps in knowledge related to the extent and severity of these effects, and how such gaps influence the effectiveness of conservation, management, policy, and grassroots stewardship efforts.

Primed and cued: long-term acoustic telemetry links interannual and seasonal variations in freshwater flows to the spawning migrations of Common Snook in the Florida Everglades.

BACKGROUND: Spawning migrations are a widespread phenomenon among fishes, often occurring in response to environmental conditions prompting movement into reproductive habitats (migratory cues). However, for many species, individual fish may choose not to migrate, and research suggests that conditions preceding the spawning season (migratory primers) may influence this decision. Few studies have provided empirical descriptions of these prior conditions, partly due to a lack of long-term data allowing for robust multi-year comparisons. To investigate how primers and cues interact to shape the spawning migrations of coastal fishes, we use acoustic telemetry data from Common Snook (Centropomus undecimalis) in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA. A contingent of Snook migrate between rivers and coastal spawning sites, varying annually in both the proportion of the population that migrates and the timing of migration within the spawning season. However, the specific environmental factors that serve as migratory primers and cues remain unknown. METHODS: We used eight years of acoustic telemetry data (2012-2019) from 173 tagged Common Snook to investigate how primers and cues influence migratory patterns at different temporal scales. We hypothesize that (1) interannual differences in hydrologic conditions preceding the spawning season contribute to the number of individuals migrating each year, and (2) specific environmental cues trigger the timing of migrations during the spawning season. We used GLMMs to model both the annual and seasonal migratory response in relation to flow characteristics (water level, rate of change in water level), other hydrologic/abiotic conditions (temperature, salinity), fish size, and phenological cues independent of riverine conditions (photoperiod, lunar cycle). RESULTS: We found that the extent of minimum marsh water level prior to migration and fish size influence the proportion of Snook migrating each year, and that high river water level and daily rates of change serve as primary cues triggering migration timing. CONCLUSION: Our findings illustrate how spawning migrations are shaped by environmental factors acting at different temporal scales and emphasize the importance of long-term movement data in understanding these patterns. Research providing mechanistic descriptions of conditions that promote migration and reproduction can help inform management decisions aimed at conserving ecologically and economically important species.

A general pattern of trade-offs between ecosystem resistance and resilience to tropical cyclones.

Tropical cyclones drive coastal ecosystem dynamics, and their frequency, intensity, and spatial distribution are predicted to shift with climate change. Patterns of resistance and resilience were synthesized for 4138 ecosystem time series from n = 26 storms occurring between 1985 and 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere to predict how coastal ecosystems will respond to future disturbance regimes. Data were grouped by ecosystems (fresh water, salt water, terrestrial, and wetland) and response categories (biogeochemistry, hydrography, mobile biota, sedentary fauna, and vascular plants). We observed a repeated pattern of trade-offs between resistance and resilience across analyses. These patterns are likely the outcomes of evolutionary adaptation, they conform to disturbance theories, and they indicate that consistent rules may govern ecosystem susceptibility to tropical cyclones.

Implications of macroalgae blooms to the spatial structure of seagrass seascapes: The case of the Anadyomene spp. (Chlorophyta) bloom in Biscayne Bay, Florida.

Macroalgal blooms are becoming an increasing problem in coastal regions worldwide and have been associated with a widespread decline of seagrass habitats. It is critical to measure macroalgal bloom (MB) impacts at broad spatial scales since seagrass seascape characteristics can influence feedback processes that regulate the resilience of seagrass ecosystems. We assessed the broad-scale spatial impacts of an MB formed by Anadyomene spp. on the seagrass seascapes in Biscayne Bay (Miami, US) using a multi-scale seascape approach. By integrating field and remote sensing data, our multi-scale approach showed significant reductions in seagrass foliage cover and a seascape structure transformation across the bloom extent. The landscape cover and patch extensiveness declined after the MB peak. Other spatial pattern metrics also showed that the seagrass seascape structure got fragmented. We demonstrated that a persistent MB could transform the structure of seagrass seascapes, hindering the resilience of seagrass habitats.

Quantitative assessment of a data-limited recreational bonefish fishery using a time-series of fishing guides reports.

Recreational fisheries can be prone to severe declines, yet these fisheries, particularly catch-and-release, are often data-limited, constraining our ability to conduct stock assessments. A combination of catch and effort indices derived from fisheries-dependent data (FDD) gathered from fishing logbooks could be a powerful approach to inform these data gaps. This study demonstrates the utility of using different catch metrics such as indices of abundance, species richness associated with reported catch, and the success rate of targeted trips, to assess historical shifts in the trajectory of the data-limited bonefish (Albula vulpes) fishery in Florida Bay, an economically-important recreational fishery within the Caribbean Basin. We used FDD from fishing guide reports submitted to Everglades National Park to determine temporal patterns in the bonefish population over the past 35 years. These reports indicated a decline in recreational catches in Florida Bay since the late 1980s, with an accelerated decline starting in the late 1990s-early 2000s. Analyses showed an overall 42% reduction in bonefish catches. Trends in the proportion of positive trips (i.e., the probability of catching success) followed the declining catch patterns, suggesting major population changes starting in 1999-2000. As bonefish catches declined, species richness in bonefish trips increased by 34%, suggesting a decrease in bonefish abundance and/or shift in fishing effort (e.g., giving-up time, changes in preferred species). Results provide additional resolution to a pattern of decline for bonefish in South Florida and highlight the value of reconstructing time-series for the development of hypotheses about the potential driving mechanisms of species decline. Further, the data-limited nature of most recreational fisheries, and the increase in a use of catch-and-release as a fisheries management strategy point to the need to develop further data integration tools to assess population trends and the sustainability of these fishery resources.