In light of rapid shifts in biodiversity associated with human impacts, there is an urgent need to understand how changing patterns in biodiversity impact ecosystem function. Functional redundancy is hypothesized to promote ecological resilience and stability, as ecosystem function of communities with more redundant species (those that perform similar functions) should be buffered against the loss of individual species. While functional redundancy is being increasingly quantified, few studies have linked differences in redundancy across communities to ecological outcomes. We conducted a review and meta‐analysis to determine whether empirical evidence supports the asserted link between functional redundancy and ecosystem stability and resilience. We reviewed 423 research articles and assembled a data set of 32 studies from 15 articles across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Overall, the mean correlation between functional redundancy and ecological stability/resilience was positive. The mean positive effect of functional redundancy was greater for studies in which redundancy was measured as species richness within functional groups (vs. metrics independent of species richness), but species richness itself was not correlated with effect size. The results of this meta‐analysis indicate that functional redundancy may positively affect community stability and resilience to disturbance, but more empirical work is needed including more experimental studies, partitioning of richness and redundancy effects, and links to ecosystem functions.

The presence and abundance of non-indigenous, and/or harmful or toxic dinoflagellate species in ballast sediments is examined for 65 cargo ships visiting ports on the East coast of Canada, as part of the Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network (CAISN). Ships visiting several ports in the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were sampled during three summers (2007, 2008, 2009). These ships included general cargo, bulk carriers and oil tankers, and they represented two major categories: ships undergoing continental and trans-oceanic voyages. Our results show that potentially viable dinoflagellate cysts are present in ballast sediments of all the categories of ships arriving to the East coast of Canada. The concentrations of all types of dinoflagellate cysts are higher in continental ships without ballast water exchange (BWE) than in ships with BWE, including trans-oceanic ships, which presented lower risk of introduction of non-indigenous species (NIS) of dinoflagellates. We identified 14 non-indigenous dinoflagellate cyst species not yet reported from Canadian coasts, including 4 potentially harmful/toxic species, representing a possibility of new introductions. These introductions of toxic NIS could represent a problem for marine Canadian ecosystems, with potentially disastrous effects on fish communities, aquaculture and human health. This potential risk may be facilitated with climate change.

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Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), marine areas in which human activities are restricted, are implemented worldwide to protect the marine environment. However, with a large proportion of these MPAs being no more than paper parks, it is important to be able to evaluate MPA success, determined by improvements to biophysical, socio-economic and governance conditions. In this study a systematic literature review was conducted to determine the most frequently used indicators of MPA success. These were then applied to a case study to demonstrate how success can be evaluated. The fifteen most frequently used indicators included species abundance, level of stakeholder participation and the existence of a decision-making and management body. Using the indicator framework with a traffic light system, we demonstrate how an MPA can be evaluated in terms of how well it performs against the indicators using secondary data from the literature. The framework can be used flexibly. For example, where no MPA data currently exist, the framework can be populated by qualitative data provided by local stakeholder knowledge. This system provides a cost-effective and straightforward method for managers and decision-makers to determine the level of success of any MPA and identify areas of weakness. However, given the variety of motivations for MPA establishment, this success needs to be determined in the context of the original management objectives of the MPA with greater weighting being placed on those objectives where appropriate.

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