FIONA TOMAS results 27
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Halophila stipulacea is one of the first Lessepsian migrants to colonize the Mediterranean Sea (in 1894) after the opening of the Suez Canal. Since then, it has progressively expanded its distribution westward across the basin. Here, we report for the first time the presence of H. stipulacea in Palma Bay (Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain), representing the westernmost known occurrence of the species in the Mediterranean Sea....
Seagrass wasting disease prevalence and lesion area increase with invertebrate grazing across the northeastern PacificNARA Subscribed
Disease is a key driver of community and ecosystem structure, especially when it strikes foundation species. In the widespread marine foundation species eelgrass ( Zostera marina ), outbreaks of wasting disease have caused large‐scale meadow collapse in the past, and the causative pathogen, Labyrinthula zosterae , is commonly found in meadows globally. Research to date has mainly focused on abiotic environmental drivers of sea...
A Latitudinal Cline in the Taxonomic Structure of Eelgrass Epifaunal Communities is Associated With Plant Genetic DiversityNARA Subscribed
Aim Biogenic structural complexity increases mobile animal richness and abundance at local, regional and global scales, yet animal taxa vary in their response to complexity. When these taxa also vary functionally, habitat structures favouring certain taxa may have consequences for ecosystem function. We characterised global patterns of epifaunal invertebrates in eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) beds that varied in structural and ge...
An unexpected meadow of the warm-water alga Penicillus capitatus was found thriving in sandy bottoms between 16 and 21 m depth in Mallorca, Balearic Islands. Plant densities and benthic coverage were very high when compared to most Mediterranean meadows of this species. As it is common in tropical meadows of this species, all the individuals were found in a Penicillus morphological state, whereas most Mediterranean individuals...
Learning takes time: Biotic resistance by native herbivores increases through the invasion processNARA Subscribed
As invasive species spread, the ability of local communities to resist invasion depends on the strength of biotic interactions. Evolutionarily unused to the invader, native predators or herbivores may be initially wary of consuming newcomers, allowing them to proliferate. However, these relationships may be highly dynamic, and novel consumer–resource interactions could form as familiarity grows. Here, we explore the developmen...
Disease surveillance by artificial intelligence links eelgrass wasting disease to ocean warming across latitudesNARA Subscribed
Ocean warming endangers coastal ecosystems through increased risk of infectious disease, yet detection, surveillance, and forecasting of marine diseases remain limited. Eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) meadows provide essential coastal habitat and are vulnerable to a temperature‐sensitive wasting disease caused by the protist Labyrinthula zosterae . We assessed wasting disease sensitivity to warming temperatures across a 3500 km st...
The introduction and successful expansion of tropical species into temperate systems is being exacerbated by climate change, and it is particularly important to identify the impacts that those species may have, especially when habitat-forming species are involved. Seagrass meadows are key shallow coastal habitats that provide critical ecosystem services worldwide, and they are threatened by the arrival of non-native macroalgae...
Common, low-frequency, rare, and ultra-rare coding variants contribute to COVID-19 severityNARA Subscribed
The combined impact of common and rare exonic variants in COVID-19 host genetics is currently insufficiently understood. Here, common and rare variants from whole-exome sequencing data of about 4000 SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals were used to define an interpretable machine-learning model for predicting COVID-19 severity. First, variants were converted into separate sets of Boolean features, depending on the absence or the pr...
The role of competition and herbivory in biotic resistance against invaders: a synergistic effectNARA Subscribed
Invasive species pose a major threat to global diversity, and once they are well established their eradication typically becomes unfeasible. However, certain natural mechanisms can increase the resistance of native communities to invaders and can be used to guide effective management policies. Both competition and herbivory have been identified as potential biotic resistance mechanisms that can limit plant invasiveness, but it...
Herbivory has long been considered an important component of biotic resistance against macroalgae invasions in marine habitats. However, most of the studies on herbivory of invasive algae refer only to consumption by strictly herbivorous organisms, whereas consumption by omnivorous species has been largely ignored and rarely quantified. In this study, we assess whether the commonest omnivorous sparid species in the Mediterrane...
Joint effects of patch edges and habitat degradation on faunal predation risk in a widespread marine foundation speciesNARA Subscribed
Human activities degrade and fragment coastal marine habitats, reducing their structural complexity and making habitat edges a prevalent seascape feature. Though habitat edges frequently are implicated in reduced faunal survival and biodiversity, results of experiments on edge effects have been inconsistent, calling for a mechanistic approach to the study of edges that explicitly includes indirect and interactive effects of ha...
Aim Studies on latitudinal patterns in plant defence have traditionally overlooked the potential effect that resource availability may have in shaping plant defence. Likewise, latitudinal patterns of tolerance traits have rarely been studied, yet they can be a critical component of plant defence. Therefore, the aim of our study was to examine latitudinal variation in the production of tolerance and resistance traits against he...
Community structure and function in ecosystems are dependent on top‐down and bottom‐up factors, which vary across local, regional, and temporal scales. In estuaries of the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast, eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) ecosystems are exposed to latitudinally varying oceanographic inputs in the form of ocean upwelling. Previous research suggests that ocean upwelling is critical to eelgrass and ulvoid macroalgae abund...
Latitude, temperature, and habitat complexity predict predation pressure in eelgrass beds across the Northern HemisphereNARA Subscribed
Latitudinal gradients in species interactions are widely cited as potential causes or consequences of global patterns of biodiversity. However, mechanistic studies documenting changes in interactions across broad geographic ranges are limited. We surveyed predation intensity on common prey (live amphipods and gastropods) in communities of eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) at 48 sites across its Northern Hemisphere range, encompassin...
Future warmer seas: increased stress and susceptibility to grazing in seedlings of a marine habitat‐forming speciesNARA Subscribed
Increases in seawater temperature are expected to have negative consequences for marine organisms. Beyond individual effects, species‐specific differences in thermal tolerance are predicted to modify species interactions and increase the strength of top‐down effects, particularly in plant–herbivore interactions. Shifts in trophic interactions will be especially important when affecting habitat‐forming species such as seagrasse...
Responses of seagrass to anthropogenic and natural disturbances do not equally translate to its consumersNARA Subscribed
Coastal communities are under threat from many and often co‐occurring local (e.g., pollution, eutrophication) and global stressors (e.g., climate change), yet understanding the interactive and cumulative impacts of multiple stressors in ecosystem function is far from being accomplished. Ecological redundancy may be key for ecosystem resilience, but there are still many gaps in our understanding of interspecific differences wit...