Assessing ecological community health in coastal estuarine systems impacted by multiple stressors

Ellis, Joanne I.; Hewitt, Judi E.; Clark, Dana; Taiapa, Caine; Patterson, Murray; Sinner, Jim; Hardy, D. Elmo; Thrush, Simon F.

doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2015.09.003

Cited by 37 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Anderson et al (2004) also showed significant differences in estuarine benthic invertebrate communities that varied according to location within high, medium, and low sediment deposition areas. Many of our benthic macroinvertebrate sites experienced up to 1 m of fine silt deposition, likely affecting the viability of the habitat for some species (Ellis et al 2015). Oligochaetes and chironomids (larvae in the Order Diptera), early benthic colonizers, dominated the macroinvertebrate community during dam removal, which is consistent with results from other disturbance studies (Simenstad and Thom 1996, Ritter et al 2005, Correia et al 2012, Dittmann et al 2015.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Many of our benthic macroinvertebrate sites experienced up to 1 m of fine silt deposition, likely affecting the viability of the habitat for some species (Ellis et al. ). Oligochaetes and chironomids (larvae in the Order Diptera), early benthic colonizers, dominated the macroinvertebrate community during dam removal, which is consistent with results from other disturbance studies (Simenstad and Thom , Ritter et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coastal habitat and biological community response to dam removal on the Elwha River

Foley

Warrick

Ritchie

et al. 2017

Ecological Monographs

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Habitat diversity and heterogeneity play a fundamental role in structuring ecological communities. Dam emplacement and removal can fundamentally alter habitat characteristics, which, in turn, can affect associated biological communities. Beginning in the early 1900s, the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams in Washington, USA, withheld an estimated 30 million Mg of sediment from river, coastal, and nearshore habitats. During the staged removal of these dams, the largest dam removal project in history, over 14 million Mg of sediment were released from the former reservoirs. Our interdisciplinary study in coastal habitats, the first of its kind, shows how the physical changes to the river delta and estuary habitats during dam removal were linked to responses in biological communities. Sediment released during dam removal resulted in over a meter of sedimentation in the estuary and over 400 m of expansion of the river mouth delta landform. These changes increased the amount of supratidal and intertidal habitat, but also reduced the influx of seawater into the pre‐removal estuary complex. The effects of these geomorphic and hydrologic changes cascaded to biological systems, reducing the abundance of macroinvertebrates and fish in the estuary and shifting community composition from brackish to freshwater‐dominated species. Vegetation did not significantly change on the delta, but pioneer vegetation increased during dam removal, coinciding with the addition of newly available habitat. Understanding how coastal habitats respond to large‐scale human stressors, and in some cases the removal of those stressors, is increasingly important as human uses and restoration activities increase in these habitats.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal habitat and biological community response to dam removal on the Elwha River

Foley

Warrick

Ritchie

et al. 2017

Ecological Monographs

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“…), reflecting direct and often rapid responses to sediment deposition, water turbidity, nutrient inputs, and exposure to heavy metals and other contaminants, compared to other fauna such as fish that can migrate in response to disturbance (Ellis et al. ). Macrofauna are also useful indicators as they are often directly linked with the provision of ecosystem functions such as food provisioning (for fish, birds, and humans), and nutrient cycling and storage, serving as representative surrogates for ecosystem health in coastal soft‐sediment systems (Ellis et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Macrofauna are also useful indicators as they are often directly linked with the provision of ecosystem functions such as food provisioning (for fish, birds, and humans), and nutrient cycling and storage, serving as representative surrogates for ecosystem health in coastal soft‐sediment systems (Ellis et al. ). It is therefore important to include the animal communities, particularly of the large ecosystem engineer species, in the analysis as their interactions and behaviors within the sediment (bioirrigation, bioadvection, bioturbation, feeding, excretion, etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating changes in estuarine ecosystem functioning under future scenarios

Hillman

Stephenson

Thrush

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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Estuaries are subject to disturbance by land-based sediment and nutrient inputs, resulting in changes to the ecosystems and the functions and services that they support. Spatial mapping tools that identify how functional hotspots in the estuary may shift in location and intensity under different disturbance scenarios highlight to managers the trajectory of change and the value of active management and restoration, but to date these tools are only available in the most intensively researched ecosystems. Using empirical data derived from long-term monitoring and multi-habitat field experiments we developed future scenarios representing different impacts of environmental degradation on estuarine ecosystem functions that are important for supporting ecosystem services. We used the spatial prioritization software Zonation in a novel fashion to assess effects of different disturbance scenarios on critical soft-sediment ecosystem processes (nutrient fluxes and sediment erodibility measures) that are influenced by macrofaunal communities and local environment conditions. We compared estimates of current conditions with three scenarios linked to changes in land-use and resulting downstream impacts on estuarine ecosystems to determine how disturbance influences the distribution of high value areas for ecosystem function. Scenarios investigated the implications of habitat degradation associated with sediment deposition and declines in large sediment-dwelling animal abundance whose behavior has important influences on ecosystem function. Our analyses demonstrate decreases in the majority of ecosystem processes under scenarios associated with disturbances. These results suggest that it is important to restore biodiversity and ecosystem function and that the application of Zonation in this context offers a simple, rapid and costeffective way of identifying priority actions and locations for restoration, and how these shift due to multiple impacts.

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“…Furthermore, rapid intensification of agriculture in some locations, particularly for dairying, has increased nitrogen yields and caused eutrophication of freshwater and coastal waters throughout New Zealand (Heggie & Savage, ). Heavy metals and other chemical contaminants are also transported to coastal environments following discharges from urbanized, industrial, agricultural, and horticultural catchments (Ellis et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mountains‐to‐the‐sea conservation: An island perspective

Collier

Pilditch

Lundquist

2019

Aquatic Conservation

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1. Island nations such as New Zealand provide valuable insights into conservation challenges posed by strongly connected and recently developed or exploited freshwater and marine ecosystems.2. The narrow land mass, high rainfall, and steep terrain of New Zealand, like many other island nations, mean that land-based stressors are rapidly transferred to freshwater habitats and propagated downstream to coastal environments via short, fast-flowing river systems.3. Freshwater and marine environments are linked through faunal life histories; for example, diadromous fishes, many of which are considered threatened or at risk of extinction, and require cross-ecosystem conservation to ensure survival of critical life stages and persistence of source populations. Recent invasions of marine and freshwater environments by non-indigenous spe-cies reveal rapid impacts on a naïve biota and highlight conservation conundrums caused by management aimed at enhancing native biodiversity by improving habitat connectivity. Understanding and managing interconnected freshwater and marine ecosystems isa key concept for local indigenous communities, and highlights socio-cultural connectivity and sustainable local harvesting of traditional resources as key elements of contemporary marine and freshwater conservation planning in New Zealand.

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Assessing ecological community health in coastal estuarine systems impacted by multiple stressors

Cited by 37 publications

References 54 publications

Coastal habitat and biological community response to dam removal on the Elwha River

Coastal habitat and biological community response to dam removal on the Elwha River

Investigating changes in estuarine ecosystem functioning under future scenarios

Mountains‐to‐the‐sea conservation: An island perspective

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