New Paper: Predicting the Distribution of Commercially Important Invertebrate Stocks under Future Climate

A new paper involving Environment Institute members Bayden Russell, Sean Connell, Camille Mellin (also Australian Institute of Marine Science), Barry Brook, Owen Burnell and Damien Fordham has recently been published in the journal PLOS One.

The journal titled ‘Predicting the Distribution of Commercially Important Invertebrate Stocks under Future Climate’ projected the future distribution and numbers of two commercially harvested abalone species (blacklip abalone, Haliotis rubra and greenlip abalone, H. laevigata) inhabiting coastal South Australia, using multiple species distribution models (SDM) and for decadal time slices through to 2100.The projections are based on two contrasting global greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. The results provide a practical first approximation of the potential impact of climate-induced change on the two species of marine invertebrates in the same fishery.

Read the paper to find out more about these results.

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New Paper: Context-Dependency in the Effects of Nutrient Loading and Consumers on the Availability of Space in Marine Rocky Environments

A new paper written by Environment Institute members Fabio Bulleri (also from the University of Pisa and the University of Sassari, Italy), Bayden Russell and Sean Connell has recently been published in the journal PLoS one.

Bayden Russell & Sean Connell, two of the authors of the paper

The paper, titled ‘Context-Dependency in the Effects of Nutrient Loading and Consumers on the Availability of Space in Marine Rocky Environments’ experimentally assessed the importance of grazing pressure and nutrient availability on the development of macroalgal assemblages and the maintenance of unoccupied space in habitats differing in physical conditions, across regions of contrasting productivity.

Read the paper to find out what their results showed.

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New Paper: Stability of Strong Species Interactions Resist the Synergistic Effects of Local and Global Pollution in Kelp Forests

A new paper written by Laura Falkenberg, PhD student in the School of Earth and Environmental Science at The University of Adelaide, as well as  Environment Institute members  Bayden Russell and Sean Connell, has recently been published in the Journal PLoS ONE.

Laura Falkenberg

The paper, titled ‘Stability of Strong Species Interactions Resist the Synergistic Effects of Local and Global Pollution in Kelp Forests’ tested whether a foundation species (kelp) would continue to inhibit a key competitor (turf-forming algae) under moderately increased local (nutrient) and near-future forecasted global pollution (CO2).

Read and dowload the paper to find out more and read about the findings.

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New Paper: Seaweed Communities in Retreat from Ocean Warming

Several Environment Institute Researchers have been involved with a new study which has found that the warming ocean climate is causing seaweed communities, on which fauna survive, to retreat to the brink of the continent and possibly extinction.

Bayden Russell

The results were published in the latest edition of Current Biology, and Dr Bayden Russell, Dr Fred Gurgel, Professor Corey Bradshaw and Assoc. Professor Sean Connell are among the authors of this paper led by Assistant Professor Thomas Wernberg from The University of Western Australia.

Read the paper

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How climate change may degrade marine ecosystems

With research into the effects of climate change rapidly advancing it is appropriate to reflect on both the achievements and future directions of this research. An international team of researchers, lead by the Environment Institute’s Bayden Russell and Sean Connell, has done just that.

Their findings, published this month, outline the necessary steps to improve our understanding of the how climate change may degrade marine ecosystems and what (if any) actions we may be able to take to ameliorate these impacts.

Using kelp forests in South Australia as a case-study, they further highlight the necessity of targeting species which maintain ecosystem functioning in future research into the impacts of climate change.

To read the full journal, click here.

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