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Home
Understanding Change In Benthic Marine Systems.

Home
Understanding Change In Benthic Marine Systems.

Related Experiment Video

The Benthic Exchange of O2, N2 and Dissolved Nutrients Using Small Core Incubations

The Benthic Exchange of O2, N2 and Dissolved Nutrients Using Small Core Incubations

Published on: August 3, 2016

Understanding change in benthic marine systems.

Craig R Johnson¹, Steve Dudgeon²

¹Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 129, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001, and.

Annals of Botany

|December 11, 2023

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Ecological communities can exist in multiple stable states or long transient stages. Characteristic length scales (CLS) help distinguish these states and manage ecosystem changes, though continuous and discontinuous shifts remain challenging to differentiate.

Keywords:

Alternative stable states Phaeophyceae Rhodophyceae catastrophe theory characteristic length scales fucoids kelps long transient multiple stable states phase shift

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Environmental Science
Complex Systems

Background:

Human activities increasingly alter ecosystems, driving interest in understanding and managing ecological changes.
Interpreting ecosystem state changes is difficult, especially in rapidly changing environments where equilibrium-based theories may not apply.

Approach:

Reviewed concepts of long-transient stages and phase shifts between community states (smooth, continuous, discontinuous).
Identified challenges in distinguishing states, quantifying variability sources (noise, wiggle, trends), and interpreting evidence.
Proposed a novel approach using critical length scales to address these challenges, illustrated with marine benthic ecosystem examples.

Key Points:

Ecological communities can exhibit multiple stable configurations and prolonged transient stages.

The characteristic length scale (CLS) metric uniquely identifies community 'basins of attraction'.

CLS helps differentiate phase shifts from long transients and offers potential for proactive management.

Conclusions:

CLS variability and time series data can inform management strategies to mitigate phase shifts and preserve ecosystem services.
Distinguishing continuous from discontinuous phase shifts remains a challenge due to a lack of unique dynamic signatures.