Publications
140 results found
Barquín J, Benda LE, Villa F, et al., 2015, Coupling virtual watersheds with ecosystem services assessment: a 21st century platform to support river research and management, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, Vol: 2, Pages: 609-621, ISSN: 2049-1948
The demand for freshwater is projected to increase worldwide over the coming decades, resulting in severe water stress and threats to riverine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and services. A major societal challenge is to determine where environmental changes will have the greatest impacts on riverine ecosystem services and where resilience can be incorporated into adaptive resource planning. Both water managers and scientists need new integrative tools to guide them toward the best solutions that meet the demands of a growing human population but also ensure riverine biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. Resource planners and scientists could better address a growing set of riverine management and risk mitigation issues by (1) using a ‘virtual watersheds’ approach based on improved digital river networks and better connections to terrestrial systems, (2) integrating virtual watersheds with ecosystem services technology (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services: ARIES), and (3) incorporating the role of riverine biotic interactions in shaping ecological responses. This integrative platform can support both interdisciplinary scientific analyses of pressing societal issues and effective dissemination of findings across river research and management communities. It should also provide new integrative tools to identify the best solutions and trade-offs to ensure the conservation of riverine biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Plebani M, Fussmann KE, Hansen DM, et al., 2015, Substratum-dependent responses of ciliate assemblages to temperature: a natural experiment in Icelandic streams, FRESHWATER BIOLOGY, Vol: 60, Pages: 1561-1570, ISSN: 0046-5070
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- Citations: 7
Woodward G, 2015, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Services in Fresh Waters: Ecological and Evolutionary Implications of Climate Change, Aquatic Functional Biodiversity An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective, Publisher: Academic Press, ISBN: 9780124170209
An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective Andrea Belgrano, Guy Woodward, Ute Jacob ... Remarks References Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Services in Fresh Waters: Ecological and Evolutionary Implications of Climate Change ...
Woodward G, 2015, Freshwater Conservation and Biomonitoring of Structure and Function: Genes to Ecosystems, Aquatic Functional Biodiversity: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective
Bennett EM, Cramer W, Begossi A, et al., 2015, Linking biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being: three challenges for designing research for sustainability, CURRENT OPINION IN ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY, Vol: 14, Pages: 76-85, ISSN: 1877-3435
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- Citations: 470
YvonDurocher G, Dossena M, Trimmer M, et al., 2015, Temperature and the biogeography of algal stoichiometry, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Vol: 24, Pages: 562-570, ISSN: 1466-822X
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Aim</jats:title><jats:p>The average carbon‐to‐nitrogen‐to‐phosphorus ratio (C:N:P) of marine algae is known to be tightly coupled to that of the inorganic pools of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">C</jats:styled-content>, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">N</jats:styled-content> and <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">P</jats:styled-content> in the ocean interior (i.e. the Redfield ratio), and therefore plays a key role in regulating the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">C</jats:styled-content> and <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">N</jats:styled-content> cycles in the ocean. The C:N:P ratio of algae also varies substantially, both within and among taxa, in response to variation in the abiotic environment, raising the possibility that biogeochemical controls on the marine <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">C</jats:styled-content> and <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">N</jats:styled-content> cycles may shift as a result of climate change. However, the role of temperature in driving phenotypic variation in stoichiometry within algal taxa, as well as biogeographic variation in particulate <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">C</jats:styled-content>, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">N</jats:styled-content> and <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">P</jats:styled-content> among oceanic regions, remains largely unresolved.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Location</jats:title><jats:p>Global.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>To assess the extent to which temperature controls algal stoichiometry we perfo
Pawar S, 2015, The Role of Body Size Variation in Community Assembly, Advances in Ecological Research, Vol: 52, Pages: 201-248
Body size determines key behavioral and life history traits across species, as well as interactions between individuals within and between species. Therefore, variation in sizes of immigrants, by exerting variation in trophic interaction strengths, may drive the trajectory and outcomes of community assembly. Here, I study the effects of size variation in the immigration pool on assembly dynamics and equilibrium distributions of sizes and consumer–resource size-ratios using a general mathematical model. I find that because small sizes both, improve the ability to invade and destabilize the community, invasibility and stability pull body size distributions in opposite directions, favoring an increase in both size and size-ratios during assembly, and ultimately yielding a right-skewed size and a symmetric size-ratio distribution. In many scenarios, the result at equilibrium is a systematic increase in body sizes and size-ratios with trophic level. Thus these patterns in size structure are ‘signatures’ of dynamically constrained, non-neutral community assembly. I also show that for empirically feasible distributions of body sizes in the immigration pool, immigration bias in body sizes cannot counteract dynamical constraints during assembly and thus signatures emerge consistently. I test the theoretical predictions using data from nine terrestrial and aquatic communities and find strong evidence that natural communities do indeed exhibit such signatures of dynamically constrained assembly. Overall, the results provide new measures to detect general, non-neutral patterns in community assembly dynamics, and show that in general, body size is dominant trait that strongly influences assembly and recovery of natural communities and ecosystems.
Perkins DM, Bailey RA, Dossena M, et al., 2015, Higher biodiversity is required to sustain multiple ecosystem processes across temperature regimes, GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Vol: 21, Pages: 396-406, ISSN: 1354-1013
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- Citations: 58
Bohan D, Pocock MJO, Woodward G, 2015, Ecosystem Services: From Biodiversity to Society, Part 1 PREFACE, Publisher: ELSEVIER ACADEMIC PRESS INC, ISBN: 978-0-12-803885-7
Brennan A, Woodward G, Seehausen O, et al., 2014, Hybridization due to changing species distributions: adding problems or solutions to conservation of biodiversity during global change?, Evolutionary Ecology Research, Vol: 16, Pages: 475-491, ISSN: 1937-3791
Background: Due to increasing global change, the rate of hybridization seemsto be increasing.Question: Is hybridization adding problems or solutions to the effects of globalchange on biodiversity?Methods: We divided ourselves into two independent groups. Each group listedtopics it thought appropriate. We then compared and combined the lists, extracting anatural structure of the topics. We next divided ourselves into three specializedsubgroups and discussed the topics in more depth. In a final plenary meeting, webrought ideas together, discussed open topics, identified consensus or differences ofopinion, and prepared a preliminary report.Results: Our lists of topics were highly similar, suggesting that we missed only afew topics. We agreed that it is important to consider hybridization in both its geneticand ecological contexts and with explicit attention paid to phylogenetic andbiogeographic history. It is also necessary to distinguish between underlyingprocesses and resulting consequences. Knowledge of the consequences ofhybridization is more developed in genetics than in ecology. We suggest thathybridization adds problems (loss of biodiversity, ecosystem degradation) as well assolutions (new adaptive variation, ecosystem robustness) to global change challenges.Which of these applies in a given case depends on its evolutionary and environmentalcontext, and on the objectives of conservation management. We provide five groupsof questions to stimulate further research.
Gray C, Baird DJ, Baumgartner S, et al., 2014, FORUM Ecological networks: the missing links in biomonitoring science, JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Vol: 51, Pages: 1444-1449, ISSN: 0021-8901
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- Citations: 73
Mace GM, Reyers B, Alkemade R, et al., 2014, Approaches to defining a planetary boundary for biodiversity, Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions, Vol: 28, Pages: 289-297, ISSN: 0959-3780
The idea that there is an identifiable set of boundaries, beyond which anthropogenic change will put the Earth system outside a safe operating space for humanity, is attracting interest in the scientific community and gaining support in the environmental policy world. Rockstrom et al. (2009) identify nine such boundaries and highlight biodiversity loss as being the single boundary where current rates of extinction put the Earth system furthest outside the safe operating space. Here we review the evidence to support a boundary based on extinction rates and identify weaknesses with this metric and its bearing on humanity's needs. While changes to biodiversity are of undisputed importance, we show that both extinction rate and species richness are weak metrics for this purpose, and they do not scale well from local to regional or global levels. We develop alternative approaches to determine biodiversity loss boundaries and extend our analysis to consider large-scale responses in the Earth system that could affect its suitability for complex human societies which in turn are mediated by the biosphere. We suggest three facets of biodiversity on which a boundary could be based: the genetic library of life; functional type diversity; and biome condition and extent. For each of these we explore the science needed to indicate how it might be measured and how changes would affect human societies. In addition to these three facets, we show how biodiversity's role in supporting a safe operating space for humanity may lie primarily in its interactions with other boundaries, suggesting an immediate area of focus for scientists and policymakers.
Lauridsen RB, Edwards FK, Cross WF, et al., 2014, Consequences of inferring diet from feeding guilds when estimating and interpreting consumer-resource stoichiometry, FRESHWATER BIOLOGY, Vol: 59, Pages: 1497-1508, ISSN: 0046-5070
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- Citations: 15
O'Gorman EJ, Benstead JP, Cross WF, et al., 2014, Climate change and geothermal ecosystems: natural laboratories, sentinel systems, and future refugia, Global Change Biology, Vol: 20, Pages: 3291-3299, ISSN: 1365-2486
Understanding and predicting how global warming affects the structure and functioning of natural ecosystems is a key challenge of the 21st century. Isolated laboratory and field experiments testing global change hypotheses have been criticized for being too small-scale and overly simplistic, whereas surveys are inferential and often confound temperature with other drivers. Research that utilizes natural thermal gradients offers a more promising approach and geothermal ecosystems in particular, which span a range of temperatures within a single biogeographic area, allow us to take the laboratory into nature rather than vice versa. By isolating temperature from other drivers, its ecological effects can be quantified without any loss of realism, and transient and equilibrial responses can be measured in the same system across scales that are not feasible using other empirical methods. Embedding manipulative experiments within geothermal gradients is an especially powerful approach, informing us to what extent small-scale experiments can predict the future behaviour of real ecosystems. Geothermal areas also act as sentinel systems by tracking responses of ecological networks to warming and helping to maintain ecosystem functioning in a changing landscape by providing sources of organisms that are preadapted to different climatic conditions. Here, we highlight the emerging use of geothermal systems in climate change research, identify novel research avenues, and assess their roles for catalysing our understanding of ecological and evolutionary responses to global warming.
Woodward G, 2014, Networking agroecology: integrating the diversity of agroecosystem interactions, Advance in Ecological Research
Leitch AR, Leitch IJ, Trimmer M, et al., 2014, Impact of genomic diversity in river ecosystems, Trends in Plant Science, Vol: 19, Pages: 361-366, ISSN: 1360-1385
Woodward G, Dumbrell AJ, Baird DJ, et al., 2014, ADVANCES IN ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH Big Data in Ecology PREFACE, Publisher: ELSEVIER ACADEMIC PRESS INC
Schoener TW, Moya-Larano J, Rowntree J, et al., 2014, ADVANCES IN ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics PREFACE, Publisher: ELSEVIER ACADEMIC PRESS INC, ISBN: 978-0-12-801374-8
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- Citations: 4
Woodward G, Gray C, Baird DJ, 2013, Biomonitoring for the 21st Century: new perspectives in an age of globalisation and emerging environmental threats, LIMNETICA, Vol: 32, Pages: 159-173, ISSN: 0213-8409
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- Citations: 21
Adams GL, Pichler DE, Cox EJ, et al., 2013, Diatoms can be an important exception to temperature-size rules at species and community levels of organization, Global Change Biology, Vol: 19, Pages: 3540-3552, ISSN: 1354-1013
Jenkins GB, Woodward G, Hildrew AG, 2013, Long-term amelioration of acidity accelerates decomposition in headwater streams., Glob Chang Biol, Vol: 19, Pages: 1100-1106, ISSN: 1354-1013
The secondary production of culturally acidified streams is low, with a few species of generalist detritivores dominating invertebrate assemblages, while decomposition processes are impaired. In a series of lowland headwater streams in southern England, we measured the rate of cellulolytic decomposition and compared it with values measured three decades ago, when anthropogenic acidification was at its peak. We hypothesized that, if acidity has indeed ameliorated, the rate of decomposition will have accelerated, thus potentially supporting greater secondary production and the longer food chains that have been observed in some well-studied recovering freshwater systems. We used cellulose Shirley test cloth as a standardized bioassay to measure the rate of cellulolytic decomposition, via loss in tensile strength, for 31 streams in the Ashdown Forest over 7 days in summer 2011 and 49 days in winter 2012. We compared this with data from an otherwise identical study conducted in 1978 and 1979. In a secondary study, we determined whether decomposition followed a linear or logarithmic decay and, as Shirley cloth is no longer available, we tested an alternative in the form of readily available calico. Overall mean pH had increased markedly over the 32 years between the studies (from 6.0 to 6.7). In both the previous and contemporary studies, the relationship between decomposition and pH was strongest in winter, when pH reaches a seasonal minimum. As in the late 1970s, there was no relationship in 2011/2012 between pH and decay rate in summer. As postulated, decomposition in winter was significantly faster in 2011/2012 than in 1978/1979, with an average increase in decay rate of 18.1%. Recovery from acidification, due to decreased acidifying emissions and deposition, has led to an increase in the rate of cellulolytic decomposition. This response in a critical ecosystem process offers a potential explanation of one aspect of the limited biological recovery that has been observ
Ledger ME, Brown LE, Edwards FK, et al., 2013, Drought alters the structure and functioning of complex food webs, Nature Climate Change, Vol: 3, Pages: 223-227, ISSN: 1758-678X
Layer K, Hildrew AG, Woodward G, 2013, Grazing and detritivory in 20 stream food webs across a broad pH gradient., Oecologia, Vol: 171, Pages: 459-471
Acidity is a major driving variable in the ecology of fresh waters, and we sought to quantify macroecological patterns in stream food webs across a wide pH gradient. We postulated that a few generalist herbivore-detritivores would dominate the invertebrate assemblage at low pH, with more specialists grazers at high pH. We also expected a switch towards algae in the diet of all primary consumers as the pH increased. For 20 stream food webs across the British Isles, spanning pH 5.0-8.4 (the acid sites being at least partially culturally acidified), we characterised basal resources and primary consumers, using both gut contents analysis and stable isotopes to study resource use by the latter. We found considerable species turnover across the pH gradient, with generalist herbivore-detritivores dominating the primary consumer assemblage at low pH and maintaining grazing. These were joined or replaced at higher pH by a suite of specialist grazers, while many taxa that persisted across the pH gradient broadened the range of algae consumed as acidity declined and increased their ingestion of biofilm, whose nutritional quality was higher than that of coarse detritus. There was thus an increased overall reliance on algae at higher pH, both by generalist herbivore-detritivores and due to the presence of specialist grazers, although detritus was important even in non-acidic streams. Both the ability of acid-tolerant, herbivore-detritivores to exploit both autochthonous and allochthonous food and the low nutritional value of basal resources might render chemically recovering systems resistant to invasion by the specialist grazers and help explain the sluggish ecological recovery of fresh waters whose water chemistry has ameliorated.
Hudson LN, Emerson R, Jenkins GB, et al., 2013, Cheddar: analysis and visualisation of ecological communities in R, METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, Vol: 4, Pages: 99-104, ISSN: 2041-210X
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- Citations: 78
Stewart RIA, Dossena M, Bohan DA, et al., 2013, Mesocosm Experiments as a Tool for Ecological Climate-Change Research, ADVANCES IN ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH, VOL 48: GLOBAL CHANGE IN MULTISPECIES SYSTEMS, PT 3, Editors: Woodward, OGorman, Publisher: ELSEVIER ACADEMIC PRESS INC, Pages: 71-181, ISBN: 978-0-12-417199-2
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- Citations: 210
O'Gorman EJ, Woodward G, 2013, Editorial Commentary: Monitoring, Manipulation and Modelling of Ecological Responses to Global Change in Multispecies Systems PREFACE, Publisher: ELSEVIER ACADEMIC PRESS INC, ISBN: 978-0-12-417199-2
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- Citations: 1
Ledger ME, Brown LE, Edwards FK, et al., 2013, Extreme Climatic Events Alter Aquatic Food Webs: A Synthesis of Evidence from a Mesocosm Drought Experiment, ADVANCES IN ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH, VOL 48: GLOBAL CHANGE IN MULTISPECIES SYSTEMS, PT 3, Editors: Woodward, OGorman, Publisher: ELSEVIER ACADEMIC PRESS INC, Pages: 343-395, ISBN: 978-0-12-417199-2
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- Citations: 44
Bohan DA, Woodward G, 2013, Editorial Commentary: The Potential for Network Approaches to Improve Knowledge, Understanding, and Prediction of the Structure and Functioning of Agricultural Systems PREFACE, Publisher: ELSEVIER ACADEMIC PRESS INC, ISBN: 978-0-12-420002-9
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- Citations: 2
Bohan DA, Raybould A, Mulder C, et al., 2013, Networking Agroecology: Integrating the Diversity of Agroecosystem Interactions, ADVANCES IN ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH, VOL 49: ECOLOGICAL NETWORKS IN AN AGRICULTURAL WORLD, Editors: Woodward, Bohan, Publisher: ELSEVIER ACADEMIC PRESS INC, Pages: 1-67, ISBN: 978-0-12-420002-9
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- Citations: 53
Woodward G, Brown LE, Edwards FK, et al., 2012, Climate change impacts in multispecies systems: drought alters food web size structure in a field experiment, PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Vol: 367, Pages: 2990-2997, ISSN: 0962-8436
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- Citations: 64
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