Anthropogenic impacts affect nearly every living species. The habitats and ranges of many taxa are now so modified that modern distribution information alone is insufficient to determine what conditions they can persist in. As climate change and other anthropogenic impacts increase, clear information on species’ needs and tolerances simultaneously becomes even more critical for conservation and harder to obtain. Historic records and paleontological data can provide key insights into organisms’ past requirements, resilience, and adaptive capacity, which can be used to identify specific areas of vulnerability and to inform conservation policies and strategies. Here we review the evolutionary history and paleobiogeography of North and South American river otters to investigate how geography and environmental change have driven river otter evolution in the Americas, and shaped the ecology, threats, and conservation status of each of the extant species in these clades. Members of the two extant American otter genera, Lontra and Pteronura, overlap in geographic and ecological niche space, and their shared history provides an opportunity for an evolutionarily-grounded examination of relative rarity, specialization, and level of conservation concern. Integrated paleobiological, historical, and modern ecological data indicates that American otters are less habitat-specific than previously thought. We found that changes in waterway connectivity impacts speciation and population connectivity, and likely plays a role in population health and persistence in times of stress. All American river otters exhibit sensitivity to anthropogenic habitat modifications but can coexist with humans in urbanized environments with proper support. This deeper-time perspective suggests that otter conservation in regard to both habitat alteration and climate change may strongly benefit from supporting riverine ecosystem productivity and connectivity in both wild and urban settings.
{"title":"Examining the Biogeographic History and Evolution of Otters in the Americas to Identify Conservation Solutions","authors":"Danaan DeNeve Weeks, E. Lindsey","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.rvlg8686","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.rvlg8686","url":null,"abstract":"Anthropogenic impacts affect nearly every living species. The habitats and ranges of many taxa are now so modified that modern distribution information alone is insufficient to determine what conditions they can persist in. As climate change and other anthropogenic impacts increase, clear information on species’ needs and tolerances simultaneously becomes even more critical for conservation and harder to obtain. Historic records and paleontological data can provide key insights into organisms’ past requirements, resilience, and adaptive capacity, which can be used to identify specific areas of vulnerability and to inform conservation policies and strategies. Here we review the evolutionary history and paleobiogeography of North and South American river otters to investigate how geography and environmental change have driven river otter evolution in the Americas, and shaped the ecology, threats, and conservation status of each of the extant species in these clades. Members of the two extant American otter genera, Lontra and Pteronura, overlap in geographic and ecological niche space, and their shared history provides an opportunity for an evolutionarily-grounded examination of relative rarity, specialization, and level of conservation concern. Integrated paleobiological, historical, and modern ecological data indicates that American otters are less habitat-specific than previously thought. We found that changes in waterway connectivity impacts speciation and population connectivity, and likely plays a role in population health and persistence in times of stress. All American river otters exhibit sensitivity to anthropogenic habitat modifications but can coexist with humans in urbanized environments with proper support. This deeper-time perspective suggests that otter conservation in regard to both habitat alteration and climate change may strongly benefit from supporting riverine ecosystem productivity and connectivity in both wild and urban settings.","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125236210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Luis V. Torres, M. Kowalewski, R. Portell, Tobias B. Grun
Fossils from surficial death assemblages and shallow cores are an important archive used in the field of conservation paleobiology. Understanding the taphonomic filters and time-averaging that affect modern biomineralized taxa is crucial for using their fossil record as a source of geohistorical data. Through comparative analysis of the live-dead patterns of echinoids and mollusks, we aim to assess multiple hypotheses regarding differences between the two taxa in terms of preservation potential and fossil record resolution. In this pilot study, six sediment samples (five surface [0-10cm] and one subsurface [30-40cm]) were collected in a shallow, subtidal habitat off the coast of Cedar Key, Florida. These samples were sieved for mollusks and echinoids. Specimens were segregated by taxa and classified into live, whole dead, and fragments. Results were consistent among surface samples, which showed that, by weight, an average of 8% of all mollusk specimens and 55% of all echinoid specimens were live collected. Fragmentation rate by weight was notable higher for echinoids than for mollusks: 77% for mollusks and >99% for echinoids. The subsurface sample lacked complete echinoid tests, but complete mollusks shells, mollusk fragments and echinoid fragments remained common. These results support the hypothesis that echinoid tests degrade more quickly than mollusk shells, making them less likely to be preserved as part of time-averaged assemblages formed under low net-accumulation rates. Echinoid fragments do not seem to follow this pattern, and instead seem to preserve similarly to mollusks. The results suggest that geohistorical records provided by echinoids and mollusks may be fundamentally distinct from one another in terms of temporal resolution and completeness of the fossil record.
{"title":"Conservation Paleobiology and Taphonomy: Differential Preservation and Time-Averaging of Echinoids and Mollusks","authors":"Luis V. Torres, M. Kowalewski, R. Portell, Tobias B. Grun","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.rbof6753","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.rbof6753","url":null,"abstract":"Fossils from surficial death assemblages and shallow cores are an important archive used in the field of conservation paleobiology. Understanding the taphonomic filters and time-averaging that affect modern biomineralized taxa is crucial for using their fossil record as a source of geohistorical data. Through comparative analysis of the live-dead patterns of echinoids and mollusks, we aim to assess multiple hypotheses regarding differences between the two taxa in terms of preservation potential and fossil record resolution. In this pilot study, six sediment samples (five surface [0-10cm] and one subsurface [30-40cm]) were collected in a shallow, subtidal habitat off the coast of Cedar Key, Florida. These samples were sieved for mollusks and echinoids. Specimens were segregated by taxa and classified into live, whole dead, and fragments. Results were consistent among surface samples, which showed that, by weight, an average of 8% of all mollusk specimens and 55% of all echinoid specimens were live collected. Fragmentation rate by weight was notable higher for echinoids than for mollusks: 77% for mollusks and >99% for echinoids. The subsurface sample lacked complete echinoid tests, but complete mollusks shells, mollusk fragments and echinoid fragments remained common. These results support the hypothesis that echinoid tests degrade more quickly than mollusk shells, making them less likely to be preserved as part of time-averaged assemblages formed under low net-accumulation rates. Echinoid fragments do not seem to follow this pattern, and instead seem to preserve similarly to mollusks. The results suggest that geohistorical records provided by echinoids and mollusks may be fundamentally distinct from one another in terms of temporal resolution and completeness of the fossil record.","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129638748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biotic indices are often used to assess ecological condition using the abundance-weighted stress tolerances of taxa. Applying such indices to recent fossil records – e.g., time-averaged death assemblages (DAs) – is a promising method to (1) characterize conditions from before monitoring began, and (2) detect otherwise unappreciated strain using discordance with the living assemblage (LA). However, the robustness of regionally-specific biotic indices when applied to paleoecological data is under-explored. Here, I assess the power of three indices: Southern California’s Benthic Response Index (BRI), ATZI’s Marine Benthic Index (AMBI), and BENTIX. Our test material is (a) a 50-year-long dataset of macrobenthos from the Palos Verdes shelf in Southern California, sampled annually at 44 sites to monitor the effects of treated wastewater effluent, and (b) bivalve DAs from the 2008 survey. The time series was parsed into temporal bins based on wastewater treatment phases, and we calculated indices for the whole fauna, bivalve LAs, and bivalve DAs. All indices demonstrated that benthic conditions improved with remediation, and the greatest changes were close to the outfall source. Values generated for bivalves were strongly correlated to those of the whole fauna, indicating that bivalves are a strong surrogate for macrobenthic condition (second only to polychaetes when compared among other clades). Indices for bivalve DAs – which include shells >100s yrs old on this shelf – indicated less strain than was observed in early communities (1970s-80s) and either agreed with or overestimated the strain in more recent communities (2000s-10s). This live-dead discordance suggests that time-averaging causes DAs to retain a signal from pre-pollution benthic conditions that the shelf benthos is now re-attaining. Bivalve DAs, combined with long-term benthic time series data, can reveal both the existence and direction of change in ecological strain relative to historic conditions.
{"title":"Monitors with Memories: Death Assemblages Record a Century of Wastewater Pollution and Remediation","authors":"Broc S. Kokesh","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.arcl8610","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.arcl8610","url":null,"abstract":"Biotic indices are often used to assess ecological condition using the abundance-weighted stress tolerances of taxa. Applying such indices to recent fossil records – e.g., time-averaged death assemblages (DAs) – is a promising method to (1) characterize conditions from before monitoring began, and (2) detect otherwise unappreciated strain using discordance with the living assemblage (LA). However, the robustness of regionally-specific biotic indices when applied to paleoecological data is under-explored. Here, I assess the power of three indices: Southern California’s Benthic Response Index (BRI), ATZI’s Marine Benthic Index (AMBI), and BENTIX. Our test material is (a) a 50-year-long dataset of macrobenthos from the Palos Verdes shelf in Southern California, sampled annually at 44 sites to monitor the effects of treated wastewater effluent, and (b) bivalve DAs from the 2008 survey. The time series was parsed into temporal bins based on wastewater treatment phases, and we calculated indices for the whole fauna, bivalve LAs, and bivalve DAs. All indices demonstrated that benthic conditions improved with remediation, and the greatest changes were close to the outfall source. Values generated for bivalves were strongly correlated to those of the whole fauna, indicating that bivalves are a strong surrogate for macrobenthic condition (second only to polychaetes when compared among other clades). Indices for bivalve DAs – which include shells >100s yrs old on this shelf – indicated less strain than was observed in early communities (1970s-80s) and either agreed with or overestimated the strain in more recent communities (2000s-10s). This live-dead discordance suggests that time-averaging causes DAs to retain a signal from pre-pollution benthic conditions that the shelf benthos is now re-attaining. Bivalve DAs, combined with long-term benthic time series data, can reveal both the existence and direction of change in ecological strain relative to historic conditions.","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114841615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the United States, the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is an economically, culturally, and ecologically important oyster species that ranges from Maine to Texas. Eastern oyster populations are managed by a variety of federal, state, and local governments as well as non-governmental organizations. In addition, the long history of oyster harvesting and coastal land use change in the United States, and asynchronous fluctuations in abundance across the species range due to diverse pressures (e.g., hydrological changes, pollution, disease, overharvesting), combined with often scarce historical monitoring records documenting the timing and magnitude of the changes, have challenged oyster applied professionals for well over a century. The Oysters Past Working Group (OPWG) brings together academic researchers (paleoecologists, archaeologists, and historical ecologists) and applied professionals, representing federal, state, and local government and non-governmental organizations tasked with conserving, managing, and/or restoring oyster populations and habitat. The primary goals of the OPWG are to: 1) identify priority research directions for academic researchers by evaluating the information needs among applied professionals and the types of information from the past that may be able to address them; 2) create a guidance document on best practices for applying information from the past to oyster management; and 3) build trust and commitment to promote longer-lasting and sustained collaboration between academic researchers and applied professionals.
{"title":"Integrating Information from the Past into Oyster Management","authors":"G. Dietl, Stephen R. Durham","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.gmei9892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.gmei9892","url":null,"abstract":"In the United States, the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is an economically, culturally, and ecologically important oyster species that ranges from Maine to Texas. Eastern oyster populations are managed by a variety of federal, state, and local governments as well as non-governmental organizations. In addition, the long history of oyster harvesting and coastal land use change in the United States, and asynchronous fluctuations in abundance across the species range due to diverse pressures (e.g., hydrological changes, pollution, disease, overharvesting), combined with often scarce historical monitoring records documenting the timing and magnitude of the changes, have challenged oyster applied professionals for well over a century. The Oysters Past Working Group (OPWG) brings together academic researchers (paleoecologists, archaeologists, and historical ecologists) and applied professionals, representing federal, state, and local government and non-governmental organizations tasked with conserving, managing, and/or restoring oyster populations and habitat. The primary goals of the OPWG are to: 1) identify priority research directions for academic researchers by evaluating the information needs among applied professionals and the types of information from the past that may be able to address them; 2) create a guidance document on best practices for applying information from the past to oyster management; and 3) build trust and commitment to promote longer-lasting and sustained collaboration between academic researchers and applied professionals.","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"134 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115941216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Live-dead fidelity analysis, one of the key approaches of conservation paleobiology, aims to measure the congruence between living communities and sympatric death assemblages. Typically, data involve compositional matrices with counts of specimens grouped by variables (typically taxa) and observations (typically sampling units). The most common targets of live-dead comparisons are diversity fidelity (especially alpha diversity and evenness) and compositional fidelity (faunal agreement). A beta version of a new package dedicated to analyzing and visualizing live-dead fidelity is available on GitHub (R package: “PaleoFidelity”). The package allows for measuring diversity fidelity (dead-live offset in sample-standardized species richness), evenness fidelity (dead-live offset in Hulbert’s Pie evenness), and compositional fidelity estimated by correlation (Spearman, Kendall, and Pearson) and similarity (Bray, Chao, etc.) measures. The package includes a resampling model for assessing expected values of correlation and similarity measures under the null model of perfect live-dead congruence. In addition, tests and confidence intervals based on resampling protocols are provided to allow for statistical assessment of fidelity patterns. Finally, PaleoFidelity includes plot functions for visualizing live-dead congruence in diversity or faunal composition. The current version of the package can be installed in R or R Studio using the following statement: devtools::install_github(‘mjkowalewski/PaleoFidelity’, build_vignettes = TRUE).
{"title":"Paleofidelity: An R Package for Measuring and Visualizing Live-Dead Fidelity","authors":"M. Kowalewski","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.ffbf2967","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.ffbf2967","url":null,"abstract":"Live-dead fidelity analysis, one of the key approaches of conservation paleobiology, aims to measure the congruence between living communities and sympatric death assemblages. Typically, data involve compositional matrices with counts of specimens grouped by variables (typically taxa) and observations (typically sampling units). The most common targets of live-dead comparisons are diversity fidelity (especially alpha diversity and evenness) and compositional fidelity (faunal agreement). A beta version of a new package dedicated to analyzing and visualizing live-dead fidelity is available on GitHub (R package: “PaleoFidelity”). The package allows for measuring diversity fidelity (dead-live offset in sample-standardized species richness), evenness fidelity (dead-live offset in Hulbert’s Pie evenness), and compositional fidelity estimated by correlation (Spearman, Kendall, and Pearson) and similarity (Bray, Chao, etc.) measures. The package includes a resampling model for assessing expected values of correlation and similarity measures under the null model of perfect live-dead congruence. In addition, tests and confidence intervals based on resampling protocols are provided to allow for statistical assessment of fidelity patterns. Finally, PaleoFidelity includes plot functions for visualizing live-dead congruence in diversity or faunal composition. The current version of the package can be installed in R or R Studio using the following statement: devtools::install_github(‘mjkowalewski/PaleoFidelity’, build_vignettes = TRUE).","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133307283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As we enter the Anthropocene, unprecedented climatic and landscape changes are leading to global extinctions and the reorganization of many species’ ranges. Understanding how species ranges have changed through time can contextualize long-term interactions between geography and ecology, offer insight into how they may change in the future, and inform conservation of vulnerable species. Species distribution models (SDMs) can be an important method for examining these range shifts, both in the future and through the past, by providing hypotheses about the responses of species’ ranges to certain scenarios. Here, I present several avenues for exploring hypotheses on range shifts using the megaSDM R package. This package facilitates realistic spatiotemporal SDM analyses by incorporating dispersal probabilities, creating time-step maps of range change dynamics, and efficiently handling large datasets and intensive subsampling techniques, while still allowing model-specific tuning. Using megaSDM, with the ongoing expansion of the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) as an example, I show how dispersal rate constraints can be incorporated into predictions of range shifts through time, introducing the concept of “invadable suitability”. Comparing dispersal-constrained to unconstrained models, I establish the importance of considering the dispersal ability of a species when projecting its range through time. Finally, I demonstrate the effects of transient range dynamics (e.g., a momentary range contraction in a period of prolonged expansion) on modelled species distributions, showing that these dynamics can be accounted for by incorporating many incremental time steps. These improvements in SDMs allow us to test and refine hypotheses that forecast or hindcast species range shifts. They are small but important steps towards treating conservation as a dynamic, rather than static, field and bringing a paleontological perspective to the preservation of life on Earth.
{"title":"Megasdm: Modelling Species Ranges in The Past And Future","authors":"Benjamin R. Shipley, B. Dilkina, Jenny L. McGuire","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.zwwl8127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.zwwl8127","url":null,"abstract":"As we enter the Anthropocene, unprecedented climatic and landscape changes are leading to global extinctions and the reorganization of many species’ ranges. Understanding how species ranges have changed through time can contextualize long-term interactions between geography and ecology, offer insight into how they may change in the future, and inform conservation of vulnerable species. Species distribution models (SDMs) can be an important method for examining these range shifts, both in the future and through the past, by providing hypotheses about the responses of species’ ranges to certain scenarios. Here, I present several avenues for exploring hypotheses on range shifts using the megaSDM R package. This package facilitates realistic spatiotemporal SDM analyses by incorporating dispersal probabilities, creating time-step maps of range change dynamics, and efficiently handling large datasets and intensive subsampling techniques, while still allowing model-specific tuning. Using megaSDM, with the ongoing expansion of the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) as an example, I show how dispersal rate constraints can be incorporated into predictions of range shifts through time, introducing the concept of “invadable suitability”. Comparing dispersal-constrained to unconstrained models, I establish the importance of considering the dispersal ability of a species when projecting its range through time. Finally, I demonstrate the effects of transient range dynamics (e.g., a momentary range contraction in a period of prolonged expansion) on modelled species distributions, showing that these dynamics can be accounted for by incorporating many incremental time steps. These improvements in SDMs allow us to test and refine hypotheses that forecast or hindcast species range shifts. They are small but important steps towards treating conservation as a dynamic, rather than static, field and bringing a paleontological perspective to the preservation of life on Earth.","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"2013 8","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132575570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sediment-dwelling echinoids, such as clypeasteroids (sand dollars and sea biscuits) and spatangoids (heart urchins), are important ecosystem engineers found in many soft-bottom habitats around the Florida Keys. Several studies, conducted over the last five decades, have documented their spatial distribution and diversity in various areas of the Florida Keys. This study focuses on the central part of the Florida Keys, an area that has been subject to diverse human impacts including tourism, fishing, boating, and diving leading to pollution, eutrophication, and intrusion of non-native species. All these stressors can potentially undermine the ecosystem’s composition and health, including sediment-dwelling echinoids. To assess the current state of echinoid populations, 27 sites located along the central part of the Florida Keys have been surveyed by SCUBA (2020-2021) for presence of live specimens and dead skeletal remains of clypeasteroid and spatangoid echinoids. A total of 17 out of 27 sites were inhabited by sediment-dwelling echinoids of the species Clypeaster rosaceus, Clypeaster subdepressus, Encope michelini, Leodia sexiesperforata, Meoma ventricosa, and Plagiobrissus grandis. Up to five species co-occurred at single sites, although most sites harbored only one or two species, and at all sites a single species was dominant in terms of relative abundance. The most widespread and abundant species in the surveyed area were Clypeaster rosaceus, Leodia sexiesperforata, and Meoma ventricosa. A comparison of live specimens with skeletal echinoid remains indicates that dead tests are typically much rarer than live specimens. However, the spatial distribution and abundance of dead remains tracks live occurrences: when dead remains are found, live specimens are always observed. The comparison of the new survey reported here with past studies and database records suggests that the faunal composition of sediment-dwelling echinoid assemblages has not changed notably over the past 50 years.
{"title":"Distribution and Diversity of Sediment-Dwelling Echinoids of the Central Florida Keys","authors":"Tobias B. Grun, M. Kowalewski","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.pved5065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.pved5065","url":null,"abstract":"Sediment-dwelling echinoids, such as clypeasteroids (sand dollars and sea biscuits) and spatangoids (heart urchins), are important ecosystem engineers found in many soft-bottom habitats around the Florida Keys. Several studies, conducted over the last five decades, have documented their spatial distribution and diversity in various areas of the Florida Keys. This study focuses on the central part of the Florida Keys, an area that has been subject to diverse human impacts including tourism, fishing, boating, and diving leading to pollution, eutrophication, and intrusion of non-native species. All these stressors can potentially undermine the ecosystem’s composition and health, including sediment-dwelling echinoids. To assess the current state of echinoid populations, 27 sites located along the central part of the Florida Keys have been surveyed by SCUBA (2020-2021) for presence of live specimens and dead skeletal remains of clypeasteroid and spatangoid echinoids. A total of 17 out of 27 sites were inhabited by sediment-dwelling echinoids of the species Clypeaster rosaceus, Clypeaster subdepressus, Encope michelini, Leodia sexiesperforata, Meoma ventricosa, and Plagiobrissus grandis. Up to five species co-occurred at single sites, although most sites harbored only one or two species, and at all sites a single species was dominant in terms of relative abundance. The most widespread and abundant species in the surveyed area were Clypeaster rosaceus, Leodia sexiesperforata, and Meoma ventricosa. A comparison of live specimens with skeletal echinoid remains indicates that dead tests are typically much rarer than live specimens. However, the spatial distribution and abundance of dead remains tracks live occurrences: when dead remains are found, live specimens are always observed. The comparison of the new survey reported here with past studies and database records suggests that the faunal composition of sediment-dwelling echinoid assemblages has not changed notably over the past 50 years.","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130053360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As paleoecologists we often claim that our science is relevant to conservation, but relatively few management plans are steered by paleoecological insights. One of our common justifications that paleoecology should feature in conservation is to determine what is ‘natural’. Intergenerational perceptions of naturalness are shaped by our experiences of ecosystems continuously and progressively influenced by human-induced stresses – the concept of shifting baselines. Those stresses have been present since the last ice-age in the tropical Andes, when fire regimes and megafaunal extinctions pre-dated the onset of the Holocene. Whereas human-induced ecological change is only evident for 200 years on the Galapagos Islands. But both instances are consistent that they show that low numbers of people, probably not even living in permanent settlements wrought lasting ecological changes and extinctions. Cascading effects of tortoise loss were seen on Galapagos vegetation that directly or indirectly led to extinctions among endemic plants. Making paleoecology relevant to conservation requires finding levels of taxonomic and temporal resolution that are relevant to land managers and providing concrete recommendations for restoration.
{"title":"Bridging the Divide from Paleoecology to Neoecology","authors":"M. Bush","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.zifq5560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.zifq5560","url":null,"abstract":"As paleoecologists we often claim that our science is relevant to conservation, but relatively few management plans are steered by paleoecological insights. One of our common justifications that paleoecology should feature in conservation is to determine what is ‘natural’. Intergenerational perceptions of naturalness are shaped by our experiences of ecosystems continuously and progressively influenced by human-induced stresses – the concept of shifting baselines. Those stresses have been present since the last ice-age in the tropical Andes, when fire regimes and megafaunal extinctions pre-dated the onset of the Holocene. Whereas human-induced ecological change is only evident for 200 years on the Galapagos Islands. But both instances are consistent that they show that low numbers of people, probably not even living in permanent settlements wrought lasting ecological changes and extinctions. Cascading effects of tortoise loss were seen on Galapagos vegetation that directly or indirectly led to extinctions among endemic plants. Making paleoecology relevant to conservation requires finding levels of taxonomic and temporal resolution that are relevant to land managers and providing concrete recommendations for restoration.","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"206 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132327146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Erin M. Dillon, D. McCauley, Brigida de Gracia, J. Cybulski, A. O’Dea
Shark populations have declined over the last half century, but the patterns of change vary across space. Long-term records of shark abundance are limited, making it challenging to determine how local environmental conditions influence pre-exploitation shark baselines and their susceptibility to human impacts. We use shark scales (dermal denticles) preserved in coral reef sediments to reconstruct shark communities during the mid-Holocene and today across the Isthmus of Panama. We interpret these data alongside records of primary productivity, habitat, and fish abundance to explore energy flow to higher trophic levels on each coast. The Tropical Eastern Pacific is a productive system driven by seasonal upwelling with a long history of shark exploitation. The Caribbean coast, on the other hand, is oligotrophic and environmentally stable, with lower rates of harvesting. We find that denticle accumulation rates, a proxy for shark abundance, are an order of magnitude greater in Pacific Panama (Gulf of Panama) than in Caribbean Panama (Bocas del Toro). Primary productivity and fish abundance are also higher in Pacific Panama, helping to support these large predator populations. Denticle accumulation rates declined by 71% since the mid-Holocene in Caribbean Panama, including a selective loss of pelagic sharks. In contrast, modern denticle accumulation rates in Pacific Panama are comparable to their range of variability during the mid-Holocene, and the composition of denticle assemblages remained similar through time—suggesting that sharks in the Gulf of Panama have persisted despite intensive fishing. We postulate that the region’s high productivity might underlie its high shark abundance and apparent resilience by increasing available resources for predators. Our findings shed light on the role of energy in shaping natural variability in shark baselines and recovery potential. They also highlight the importance of incorporating oceanographic context into shark management.
{"title":"Reconstructing Millennial-Scale Variability in Reef Shark Communities Across The Isthmus of Panama","authors":"Erin M. Dillon, D. McCauley, Brigida de Gracia, J. Cybulski, A. O’Dea","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.qkui8894","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.qkui8894","url":null,"abstract":"Shark populations have declined over the last half century, but the patterns of change vary across space. Long-term records of shark abundance are limited, making it challenging to determine how local environmental conditions influence pre-exploitation shark baselines and their susceptibility to human impacts. We use shark scales (dermal denticles) preserved in coral reef sediments to reconstruct shark communities during the mid-Holocene and today across the Isthmus of Panama. We interpret these data alongside records of primary productivity, habitat, and fish abundance to explore energy flow to higher trophic levels on each coast. The Tropical Eastern Pacific is a productive system driven by seasonal upwelling with a long history of shark exploitation. The Caribbean coast, on the other hand, is oligotrophic and environmentally stable, with lower rates of harvesting. We find that denticle accumulation rates, a proxy for shark abundance, are an order of magnitude greater in Pacific Panama (Gulf of Panama) than in Caribbean Panama (Bocas del Toro). Primary productivity and fish abundance are also higher in Pacific Panama, helping to support these large predator populations. Denticle accumulation rates declined by 71% since the mid-Holocene in Caribbean Panama, including a selective loss of pelagic sharks. In contrast, modern denticle accumulation rates in Pacific Panama are comparable to their range of variability during the mid-Holocene, and the composition of denticle assemblages remained similar through time—suggesting that sharks in the Gulf of Panama have persisted despite intensive fishing. We postulate that the region’s high productivity might underlie its high shark abundance and apparent resilience by increasing available resources for predators. Our findings shed light on the role of energy in shaping natural variability in shark baselines and recovery potential. They also highlight the importance of incorporating oceanographic context into shark management.","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126814158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Global warming and human impacts continue to be devastating for coral reef systems. Jamaican reefs have been adversely affected by a variety of threats including hurricanes, coral bleaching, disease, and algal overgrowth, the impact of which has been exacerbated by global climate change, overfishing, and urchin disease. Despite the dire situation, with proper protection, algal coral phase shifts can be reversed. One area that is being protected is the East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area (EPSFCA). The EPSFCA is monitored by the Alligator Head Foundation (AHF), which houses a coral nursery, mangrove nursery, and leads monitoring and restoration practices. Although reefs in Jamaica, such as Discovery Bay, were well studied in the 1970s-early 2000s, many ecological studies have not extended to other regions around the island. In particular, the unique reefs of Northeast Jamaica lack data necessary for conservation efforts; no baseline information on community composition had been collected until the establishment of the AHF. To obtain an ecological baseline, this project synthesizes environmental data (nutrient levels, temperature, light) with community assemblage data (fish counts, benthic substrate assessments, and invertebrate counts) from EPSFCA reefs. These sites will be compared using ordinations. To address a longer timeframe of reef evolution, this project will use similar techniques on a fossil reef to see how Caribbean reefs have changed over thousands of years. An analysis of EPSFCA reefs from 2017-2019 found that many sites are distinct, but most reefs show signs of degradation (e.g., high algal cover). Much of the variation between sites can be explained by the abundance of turf algae and the corals Colopophyllia natans, Agaricia grahamae, and Acropora cervicornis. The goal of this project is to combine the EPSFCA data with environmental information to provide a road map for where conservation efforts are likely to support recovery.
{"title":"Community Abundance and Environmental Monitoring to Support Coral Reef Management in East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area, Jamaica","authors":"Claire Williams, D. Gordon-Smith, Pearl Bergan","doi":"10.58782/flmnh.iitn6005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.58782/flmnh.iitn6005","url":null,"abstract":"Global warming and human impacts continue to be devastating for coral reef systems. Jamaican reefs have been adversely affected by a variety of threats including hurricanes, coral bleaching, disease, and algal overgrowth, the impact of which has been exacerbated by global climate change, overfishing, and urchin disease. Despite the dire situation, with proper protection, algal coral phase shifts can be reversed. One area that is being protected is the East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area (EPSFCA). The EPSFCA is monitored by the Alligator Head Foundation (AHF), which houses a coral nursery, mangrove nursery, and leads monitoring and restoration practices. Although reefs in Jamaica, such as Discovery Bay, were well studied in the 1970s-early 2000s, many ecological studies have not extended to other regions around the island. In particular, the unique reefs of Northeast Jamaica lack data necessary for conservation efforts; no baseline information on community composition had been collected until the establishment of the AHF. To obtain an ecological baseline, this project synthesizes environmental data (nutrient levels, temperature, light) with community assemblage data (fish counts, benthic substrate assessments, and invertebrate counts) from EPSFCA reefs. These sites will be compared using ordinations. To address a longer timeframe of reef evolution, this project will use similar techniques on a fossil reef to see how Caribbean reefs have changed over thousands of years. An analysis of EPSFCA reefs from 2017-2019 found that many sites are distinct, but most reefs show signs of degradation (e.g., high algal cover). Much of the variation between sites can be explained by the abundance of turf algae and the corals Colopophyllia natans, Agaricia grahamae, and Acropora cervicornis. The goal of this project is to combine the EPSFCA data with environmental information to provide a road map for where conservation efforts are likely to support recovery.","PeriodicalId":106523,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132669477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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