The role of herbivores in a near future ocean: positive and negative effects of climate change on herbivore ecological function
Earth’s climate is characterised by abrupt change through its history, yet human induced climate change is warming and acidifying our oceans at unprecedented rates. Such alterations in the seawater’s chemical and physical properties are anticipated to disrupt a multitude of ecological processes lead...
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ftunivadelaidedl:oai:digital.library.adelaide.edu.au:2440/120495 2023-05-15T17:50:55+02:00 The role of herbivores in a near future ocean: positive and negative effects of climate change on herbivore ecological function Ferreira, Camilo Moitinho Nagelkerken, Ivan Connell, Sean D. School of Biological Sciences 2018 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2440/120495 en eng http://hdl.handle.net/2440/120495 Weedy algae positive interactions bottom-up top-down ocean acidification ocean warming mesocosm C02 vents functional groups environmental resistance Thesis 2018 ftunivadelaidedl 2023-02-06T07:15:44Z Earth’s climate is characterised by abrupt change through its history, yet human induced climate change is warming and acidifying our oceans at unprecedented rates. Such alterations in the seawater’s chemical and physical properties are anticipated to disrupt a multitude of ecological processes leading to potential reductions in productivity and biodiversity of marine systems. Functional groups such as marine herbivores are renowned for meditating competition between benthic organisms, affecting the physical structure and primary production in marine systems, countervailing the deleterious effects of global and local disturbances. Within this context, it is important to not only understand how herbivorous species respond to climate change, but also how their overall functional role are affected and how this might have cascading effects on other species. In this thesis, I reveal that whilst populations of many species are forecast to collapse due to the effects of future climate, some herbivorous species may capitalize on environmental change and boost their densities by increasing the carrying capacity of the environment by actively modifying the habitat under an otherwise stressful condition. I also show that the modifications performed by herbivorous species trough the strengthening of positive interaction under ocean acidification can assist other species to densify, stimulating species coexistence and ecosystem function, and perhaps mitigate the deleterious effect of CO2 enrichment expected at population and community level. Therefore, under ocean warming the functional role of herbivores is eroded releasing opportunistic algae from trophic control which can potentially lead marine systems to undergo structural modification. I show that loss of this functional role, reduces the capacity of the system to control the expansion of opportunistic algae. The identification of the circumstances as to whether herbivores functional role in marine systems will strengthen or decrease provides insights into the impacts ... Thesis Ocean acidification The University of Adelaide: Digital Library |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The University of Adelaide: Digital Library |
op_collection_id |
ftunivadelaidedl |
language |
English |
topic |
Weedy algae positive interactions bottom-up top-down ocean acidification ocean warming mesocosm C02 vents functional groups environmental resistance |
spellingShingle |
Weedy algae positive interactions bottom-up top-down ocean acidification ocean warming mesocosm C02 vents functional groups environmental resistance Ferreira, Camilo Moitinho The role of herbivores in a near future ocean: positive and negative effects of climate change on herbivore ecological function |
topic_facet |
Weedy algae positive interactions bottom-up top-down ocean acidification ocean warming mesocosm C02 vents functional groups environmental resistance |
description |
Earth’s climate is characterised by abrupt change through its history, yet human induced climate change is warming and acidifying our oceans at unprecedented rates. Such alterations in the seawater’s chemical and physical properties are anticipated to disrupt a multitude of ecological processes leading to potential reductions in productivity and biodiversity of marine systems. Functional groups such as marine herbivores are renowned for meditating competition between benthic organisms, affecting the physical structure and primary production in marine systems, countervailing the deleterious effects of global and local disturbances. Within this context, it is important to not only understand how herbivorous species respond to climate change, but also how their overall functional role are affected and how this might have cascading effects on other species. In this thesis, I reveal that whilst populations of many species are forecast to collapse due to the effects of future climate, some herbivorous species may capitalize on environmental change and boost their densities by increasing the carrying capacity of the environment by actively modifying the habitat under an otherwise stressful condition. I also show that the modifications performed by herbivorous species trough the strengthening of positive interaction under ocean acidification can assist other species to densify, stimulating species coexistence and ecosystem function, and perhaps mitigate the deleterious effect of CO2 enrichment expected at population and community level. Therefore, under ocean warming the functional role of herbivores is eroded releasing opportunistic algae from trophic control which can potentially lead marine systems to undergo structural modification. I show that loss of this functional role, reduces the capacity of the system to control the expansion of opportunistic algae. The identification of the circumstances as to whether herbivores functional role in marine systems will strengthen or decrease provides insights into the impacts ... |
author2 |
Nagelkerken, Ivan Connell, Sean D. School of Biological Sciences |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Ferreira, Camilo Moitinho |
author_facet |
Ferreira, Camilo Moitinho |
author_sort |
Ferreira, Camilo Moitinho |
title |
The role of herbivores in a near future ocean: positive and negative effects of climate change on herbivore ecological function |
title_short |
The role of herbivores in a near future ocean: positive and negative effects of climate change on herbivore ecological function |
title_full |
The role of herbivores in a near future ocean: positive and negative effects of climate change on herbivore ecological function |
title_fullStr |
The role of herbivores in a near future ocean: positive and negative effects of climate change on herbivore ecological function |
title_full_unstemmed |
The role of herbivores in a near future ocean: positive and negative effects of climate change on herbivore ecological function |
title_sort |
role of herbivores in a near future ocean: positive and negative effects of climate change on herbivore ecological function |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2440/120495 |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/2440/120495 |
_version_ |
1766157857882898432 |