Benthic communities under anthropogenic pressure show resilience across the Quaternary

Abstract

The Southeast Pacific is characterized by rich upwelling systems that have sustained and been impacted by human groups for at least 12 ka. Recent fishing and aquaculture practices have put a strain on productive coastal ecosystems from Tongoy Bay, in north-central Chile. We use a temporal baseline to determine whether potential changes to community structure and composition over time are due to anthropogenic factors, natural climatic variations or both. We compiled a database (n = 33 194) with mollusc species abundances from the Mid-Pleistocene, Late Pleistocene, Holocene, dead shell assemblages and live-sampled communities. Species richness was not significantly different, neither were diversity and evenness indices nor rank abundance distributions. There is, however, an increase in relative abundance for the cultured scallop Argopecten, while the previously dominant clam Mulinia is locally very rare. Results suggest that impacts from both natural and anthropogenic stressors need to be better understood if benthic resources are to be preserved. These findings provide the first Pleistocene temporal baseline for the south Pacific that shows that this highly productive system has had the ability to recover from past alterations, suggesting that if monitoring and management practices continue to be implemented, moderately exploited communities from today have hopes for recovery.

A decline in molluscan carbonate production driven by the loss of vegetated habitats encoded in the Holocene sedimentary record of the Gulf of Trieste

“…In the first case, they can mark a temporal loss in molluscan production due to changes in water quality and light penetration. Major losses in the extent of oyster reefs and scallop grounds, and reductions in the diversity of molluscan communities over the past decades and centuries were documented worldwide in marine siliciclastic environments (Edgar & Samson, ; Poirier et al ., ; Wilberg et al ., ; Thurstan et al ., ; Alleway & Connell, ; Martinelli et al ., ; Rick et al ., ). However, changes in carbonate production before and after major anthropogenic impacts in temperate carbonate environments remain less explored than in the tropics (Perry et al ., ; Cramer et al ., ; Albano et al ., ; Smith et al ., ; Gilad et al ., ).…”

Tracing Origin and Collapse of Holocene Benthic Baseline Communities in the Northern Adriatic Sea

“…In view of the long-lasting human influence and in the absence of longterm stratigraphic records, it is difficult to reconstruct ecological baselines defining the ecosystem prior to major anthropogenic changes, and to disentangle the effects of long-term ecological drivers such as the postglacial sea-level rise or climatic oscillations from human interference (Kidwell 2015;Martinelli et al 2017;Casebolt and Kowalewski 2018).…”

A conservation palaeobiological approach to assess faunal response of threatened biota under natural and anthropogenic environmental change

“…During glacial lowstands, the Black Sea became isolated from the open ocean, freshened, and Pontocaspian biota occupied the entire basin (Krijgsman et al, 2019). Today, Pontocaspian biota in the Black Sea basin are restricted to relatively small areas in lagoons, estuaries and deltas with salinity gradients along the coasts of Romania, Ukraine and Russia (including the Sea of Azov; Mordukhai- Boltovskoi, 1979;Anistratenko et al, 2011). Of these restricted areas, the RSL offers the largest area of Pontocaspian habitat.…”