The role of marine macrophytes in providing essential ecosystem services: Their relative contribution and how services are impacted by eutrophication
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Most coastal ecosystems are dominated by marine macrophytes that deliver a range of ecologically and economically important services such as carbon and nitrogen cycling and storage, and habitat provision to a range of associated species. The relative contribution of these services among different vegetated habitats, however, and their alteration due to anthropogenic stressors is little known. In this thesis, I first examined the within and between ecosystem structure and services of eelgrass (Zostera marina) and rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) beds in Atlantic Canada. Both habitats significantly enhanced the overall abundance and diversity of associated species, whereas differences in the spe-cies assemblages were attributed to differences in canopy structure within and between habitats. Changes in the canopy structure of the foundation species will affect associated food webs and ecosystem services. Next, I used large-scale field surveys to examine the effects of eutrophication on the structure and services of eelgrass beds. As eutrophication increased, plant dominance shifted from eelgrass to macroalgae and phytoplankton at a regional scale. The faunal community showed increases in filter feeders, detritivores and some herbivores, while sensitive species declined. These faunal changes can be linked to enhanced food availability and predation refuge offered by increased phytoplankton and opportunistic macroalgae. However, the loss of eelgrass and sensitive species highlight the negative consequences of eutrophication on eelgrass ecosystems and the services they provide. I also reviewed the global carbon and nitrogen storage and habitat services of mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass meadows and macroalgal beds. Despite only occupying 0.7% of the ocean area, together these ecosystems make up 12% of the oceanic carbon stock thereby playing an important role in global carbon and nitrogen storage. Moreover, these macrophyte habitats enhanced species richness and abundance of associated fauna and juvenile fishes. Overall, my findings indicate that each macrophyte habitat has its strengths yet all are essential in providing the full range of ecosystem services. Increasing human impacts along the coasts, however, are threatening macrophyte ecosystems worldwide, and their further decline will impair the provision of important services and human well-being. Lastly, I discuss the implications of my work for management and conservation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".