Biogeochemical implications of biodiversity and community structure across multiple coastal ecosystems

Small-scale experiments and theory suggest that ecological functions provided by communities become more stable with increased species richness. Whether these patterns manifest at regional spatial scales and within species-rich communities (e.g., coral reefs) is largely unknown. We quantified five biogeochemical processes, and an aggregate measure of multifunctionality, in species-rich coastal fish communities to test three questions: (1) Do previously predicted biodiversity-ecosystem-function relationships hold across large spatial scales and in highly diverse communities? (2) Can additional covariates of community structure improve these relationships? (3) What is the role of community biomass and functional group diversity in maintaining biogeochemical processes under various scenarios of species loss across ecosystem types? These questions were tested across a large regional gradient of coral reef, mangrove and seagrass ecosystems. Statistical models demonstrated that species richness and the mean maximum body size per species strongly predicted biogeochemical processes in all ecosystem types, but functional group diversity was only a weak predictor. Simulating three scenarios of species loss demonstrated that conserving community biomass alone increased the ability for communities to maintain ecosystem processes. Multifunctionality of biogeochemical processes was maintained least in simulations that conserved biomass and community structure, underscoring the relative lack of importance of community structure in maintaining multiple simultaneous ecosystem functions in this system. Findings suggest that conserving community biomass alone may be sufficient to sustain certain biogeochemical processes, but when considering conservation of multiple simultaneous biogeochemical processes, management efforts should focus first on species richness

Resultados finales para el parámetro de asimetría ? de neutrones A 0 del experimento UCNA

The UCNA experiment was designed to measure the neutron ?-asymmetry parameter A0 using polarized ultracold neutrons (UCN). UCN produced via downscattering in solid deuterium were polarized via transport through a 7 T magnetic field, and then directed to a 1 T solenoidal electron spectrometer, where the decay electrons were detected in electron detector packages located on the two ends of the spectrometer. A value for A0 was then extracted from the asymmetry in the numbers of counts in the two detector packages. We summarize all of the results from the UCNA experiment, obtained during run periods in 2007, 2008–2009, 2010, and 2011–2013, which ultimately culminated in a 0.67% precision result for A0

Individual Behavior Drives Ecosystem Function and the Impacts of Harvest

Current approaches for biodiversity conservation and management focus on sustaining high levels of diversity among species to maintain ecosystem function. We show that the diversity among individuals within a single population drives function at the ecosystem scale. Specifically, nutrient supply from individual fish differs from the population average \u3e80% of the time, and accounting for this individual variation nearly doubles estimates of nutrients supplied to the ecosystem. We test how management (i.e., selective harvest regimes) can alter ecosystem function and find that strategies targeting more active individuals reduce nutrient supply to the ecosystem up to 69%, a greater effect than body size–selective or nonselective harvest. Findings show that movement behavior at the scale of the individual can have crucial repercussions for the functioning of an entire ecosystem, proving an important challenge to the species-centric definition of biodiversity if the conservation and management of ecosystem function is a primary goal

Nutrient supply from fishes facilitates macroalgae and suppresses corals in a Caribbean coral reef ecosystem

On coral reefs, fishes can facilitate coral growth via nutrient excretion; however, as coral abundance declines, these nutrients may help facilitate increases in macroalgae. By combining surveys of reef communities with bioenergetics modeling, we showed that fish excretion supplied 25 times more nitrogen to forereefs in the Florida Keys, USA, than all other biotic and abiotic sources combined. One apparent result was a positive relationship between fish excretion and macroalgal cover on these reefs. Herbivore biomass also showed a negative relationship with macroalgal cover, suggesting strong interactions of top-down and bottom-up forcing. Nutrient supply by fishes also showed a negative correlation with juvenile coral density, likely mediated by competition between macroalgae and corals, suggesting that fish excretion may hinder coral recovery following large-scale coral loss. Thus, the impact of nutrient supply by fishes may be context-dependent and reinforce either coral-dominant or coral-depauperate reef communities depending on initial community states

Rewiring coral: Anthropogenic nutrients shift diverse coral–symbiont nutrient and carbon interactions toward symbiotic algal dominance

Improving coral reef conservation requires heightened understanding of the mechanisms by which coral cope with changing environmental conditions to maintain optimal health. We used a long‐term (10 month) in situ experiment with two phylogenetically diverse scleractinians (Acropora palmata and Porites porites) to test how coral–symbiotic algal interactions changed under real‐world conditions that were a priori expected to be beneficial (fish‐mediated nutrients) and to be harmful, but non‐lethal, for coral (fish + anthropogenic nutrients). Analyzing nine response variables of nutrient stoichiometry and stable isotopes per coral fragment, we found that nutrients from fish positively affected coral growth, and moderate doses of anthropogenic nutrients had no additional effects. While growing, coral maintained homeostasis in their nutrient pools, showing tolerance to the different nutrient regimes. Nonetheless, structural equation models revealed more nuanced relationships, showing that anthropogenic nutrients reduced the diversity of coral–symbiotic algal interactions and caused nutrient and carbon flow to be dominated by the symbiont. Our findings show that nutrient and carbon pathways are fundamentally “rewired” under anthropogenic nutrient regimes in ways that could increase corals’ susceptibility to further stressors. We hypothesize that our experiment captured coral in a previously unrecognized transition state between mutualism and antagonism. These findings highlight a notable parallel between how anthropogenic nutrients promote symbiont dominance with the holobiont, and how they promote macroalgal dominance at the coral reef scale. Our findings suggest more realistic experimental conditions, including studies across gradients of anthropogenic nutrient enrichment as well as the incorporation of varied nutrient and energy pathways, may facilitate conservation efforts to mitigate coral loss.We provide a long‐term field experiment to test the implications of different nutrient sources, fish excretion and moderate levels of anthropogenic nutrients, for coral health and coral–symbiont interactions. Our study identifies a potentially novel "transition state" whereby despite maintaining high growth rates and creating no apparent negative external effects, anthropogenic nutrient enrichment drives coral–algal interactions to be dominated by the algal symbiont—that is, increased prominence of energy and nutrient flow from the algal symbiont under conditions of Fish + anthropogenic nutrients (NPK) in the figure. We hypothesize that this “rewiring” of the coral–symbiont interactions may render the coral more vulnerable to additional stressors.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162733/2/gcb15230_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162733/1/gcb15230.pd

Anthropogenic versus fish‐derived nutrient effects on seagrass community structure and function

Humans are altering nutrient dynamics through myriad pathways globally. Concurrent with the addition of nutrients via municipal, industrial, and agricultural sources, widespread consumer exploitation is changing consumer‐mediated nutrient dynamics drastically. Thus, altered nutrient dynamics can occur through changes in the supply of multiple nutrients, as well as through changes in the sources of these nutrients. Seagrass ecosystems are heavily impacted by human activities, with highly altered nutrient dynamics from multiple causes. We simulate scenarios of altered nutrient supply and ratios, nitrogen:phosphorus (N:P), from two nutrient sources in seagrass ecosystems: anthropogenic fertilizer and fish excretion. In doing so we tested expectations rooted in ecological theory that suggest the importance of resource dynamics for predicting primary producer dynamics. Ecosystem functions were strongly altered by artificial fertilizer (e.g., seagrass growth increased by as much as 140%), whereas plant/algae community structure was most affected by fish‐mediated nutrients or the interaction of both treatments (e.g., evenness increased by ~140% under conditions of low fish nutrients and high anthropogenic nutrients). Interactions between the nutrient sources were found for only two of six response variables, and the ratio of nutrient supply was the best predictor for only one response. These findings show that seagrass structure and function are well predicted by supply of a single nutrient (either N or P). Importantly, no single nutrient best explained the majority of responses—measures of community structure were best explained by the primary limiting nutrient to this system (P), whereas measures of growth and density of the dominant producer in the system were best explained by N. Thus, while our findings support aspects of theoretical expectations, the complexity of producer community responses belies broad generalities, underscoring the need to manage for multiple simultaneous nutrients in these imperiled coastal ecosystems.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145341/1/ecy2388_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145341/2/ecy2388-sup-0003-AppendixS3.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145341/3/ecy2388-sup-0005-AppendixS5.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145341/4/ecy2388-sup-0006-AppendixS6.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145341/5/ecy2388-sup-0001-AppendixS1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145341/6/ecy2388-sup-0002-AppendixS2.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145341/7/ecy2388.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145341/8/ecy2388-sup-0004-AppendixS4.pd

Nutrient limitation, bioenergetics and stoichiometry: A new model to predict elemental fluxes mediated by fishes

Energy flow and nutrient cycling dictate the functional role of organisms in ecosystems. Fishes are key vectors of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in aquatic systems, and the quantification of elemental fluxes is often achieved by coupling bioenergetics and stoichiometry. While nutrient limitation has been accounted for in several stoichiometric models, there is no current implementation that permits its incorporation into a bioenergetics approach to predict ingestion rates. This may lead to biased estimates of elemental fluxes.Here, we introduce a theoretical framework that combines stoichiometry and bioenergetics with explicit consideration of elemental limitations. We examine varying elemental limitations across different trophic groups and life stages through a case study of three trophically distinct reef fishes. Further, we empirically validate our model using an independent database of measured excretion rates.Our model adequately predicts elemental fluxes in the examined species and reveals species‐ and size‐specific limitations of C, N and P. In line with theoretical predictions, we demonstrate that the herbivore Zebrasoma scopas is limited by N and P, and all three fish species are limited by P in early life stages. Further, we show that failing to account for nutrient limitation can result in a greater than twofold underestimation of ingestion rates, which leads to severely biased excretion rates.Our model improved predictions of ingestion, excretion and egestion rates across all life stages, especially for fishes with diets low in N and/or P. Due to its broad applicability, its reliance on many parameters that are well‐defined and widely accessible, and its straightforward implementation via the accompanying r‐package fishflux, our model provides a user‐friendly path towards a better understanding of ecosystem‐wide nutrient cycling in the aquatic biome.A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162691/5/fec13618_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162691/4/fec13618-sup-0002-AppendixS1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162691/3/fec13618-sup-0001-Summary.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162691/2/fec13618-sup-0003-AppendixS2.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162691/1/fec13618.pd

Interplay among critical temperature, hole content, and pressure in the cuprate superconductors

Within a BCS-type mean-field approach to the extended Hubbard model, a nontrivial dependence of T_c on the hole content per unit CuO_2 is recovered, in good agreement with the celebrated non-monotonic universal behaviour at normal pressure. Evaluation of T_c at higher pressures is then made possible by the introduction of an explicit dependence of the tight-binding band and of the carrier concentration on pressure P. Comparison with the known experimental data for underdoped Bi2212 allows to single out an `intrinsic' contribution to d T_c / d P from that due to the carrier concentration, and provides a remarkable estimate of the dependence of the inter-site coupling strength on the lattice scale.Comment: REVTeX 8 pages, including 5 embedded PostScript figures; other required macros included; to be published in Phys. Rev. B (vol. 54

New result for the neutron β\beta-asymmetry parameter A0A_0 from UCNA

The neutron $\beta$-decay asymmetry parameter $A_0$ defines the correlation between the spin of the neutron and the momentum of the emitted electron, which determines $\lambda=\frac{g_{A}}{g_{V}}$, the ratio of the axial-vector to vector weak coupling constants. The UCNA Experiment, located at the Ultracold Neutron facility at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, is the first to measure such a correlation coefficient using ultracold neutrons (UCN). Following improvements to the systematic uncertainties and increased statistics, we report the new result $A_0 = -0.12054(44)_{\mathrm{stat}}(68)_{\mathrm{syst}}$ which yields $\lambda\equiv \frac{g_{A}}{g_{V}}=-1.2783(22)$. Combination with the previous UCNA result and accounting for correlated systematic uncertainties produces $A_0=-0.12015(34)_{\mathrm{stat}}(63)_{\mathrm{syst}}$ and $\lambda\equiv \frac{g_{A}}{g_{V}}=-1.2772(20)$.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, updated to as-published versio