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.

Silver lining to coral reef climate cloud

A team of Researchers, led by Merinda Nash from Australian National University (ANU),  have found parts of our coral reefs are more resistant to ocean acidification than first thought.

The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change today (Monday 10th December) and details their analyses of the mineral structure of coralline algae.

Photo by Dr Bayden Russell, University of Adelaide

The team involves Environment Institute member Dr Bayden Russell, who is one of the authors on the paper.

The researchers discovered an extra mineral, dolomite, in coralline algae, which made the organism less susceptible to being dissolved in increasingly acidic oceans.

“A coral reef is like a house – the coral are the bricks, but the coralline algae are the cement that holds it all together,” explains lead author and PhD candidate with the ANU Research School of Physics & Engineering, Merinda Nash.

“Researchers are concerned that when atmospheric carbon levels rise and ocean acidity increases, the magnesium calcite which makes up the coralline algae will dissolve first, threatening the very foundations of the reef.

“However, in a rare piece of good news, we found when we analysed algal samples from Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef that the cell spaces in the algae were filled with dolomite, the same strong mineral that makes up the Dolomite Alps in Italy.”

Read the full media release sent out today by ANU.

Download a copy of the paper.

 

 

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.

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.

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

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.