Monitoring plastic pollution through the bottom to the top of aquatic food webs

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Dynamics of Decapoda larvae communities in a southwest Iberian estuary: Understanding the impact of different thermal regimes

Publication . Monteiro, Marta; Cruz, Joana; Azeiteiro, Ulisses; Marques, Sónia Cotrim; Baptista, Vânia; Teodosio, Maria

Environmental conditions play a pivotal role in shaping the dynamics of meroplanktonic communities, which represent a vital life stage, crucial for successful recruitment. Specifically, temperature can impact the survival and duration of larval development in decapod crustacean species. The objective of this study is to analyze the community of decapod larvae in the Guadiana estuary, located in southwest Iberia. The analysis focuses on the community's taxonomic composition, temporal variability, and the influence of environmental factors. Particularly, the study emphasizes investigating the impacts of different thermal regimes on the abundance of these assemblages. A comprehensive zooplankton sampling program was conducted at a single station in the lower estuary, from 2014 to 2022. The decapod larvae assemblages are dominated by Upogebia spp., followed by Diogenes pugilator, Panopeus africanus, Afropinnotheres monodi, and Polybius henslowii species. The results of structural equation modeling unveiled a strong influence of water temperature and salinity on the community, while chlorophyll-a concentration, river runoff, and the large-scale climatic mode North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) revealed no impact on the abundance of these assemblages. Overall, the community and the main taxa displayed a positive linear trend in response to increased salinity. However, the effect of increasing temperature varied among species. In the current climatic scenario, water temperature emerges as a critical factor in predicting seasonal variation of the assemblages' abundances, exhibiting a marked seasonality during spring and summer. Predictive models used to investigate future scenarios, Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6 and RCP 8.5, defined by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), where the temperature is expected to rise 2 degrees C and 4.3 degrees C by 2100, suggest the possibility for an alteration in assemblages' composition, where the abundances of D. pugilator, the second most abundant species, tend to decrease abruptly. Reported evidence, coupled with the typical Mediterranean climate of the region, where extreme climatic events, like marine heatwaves, are becoming more frequent, the high connectivity with the Mediterranean Sea, where invasion by non-indigenous species is increasing, also connected with changes in freshwater discharges, may trigger significant alterations in species dominance and abundance, with ecological and socio-economic implications.

2023-11Journal article

Restricted access

Distribution and composition of Decapod larvae assemblages on the Berlengas archipelago and Peniche coast (western coast of Portugal)

Publication . Monteiro, Marta; Miranda Azeiteiro, Ulisses Miranda M.; Cruz, Joana; Maia, Simão; Leandro, Sérgio Miguel F.M.; Marques, Sónia Cotrim

For the first time, the decapod larval community in the Berlenga and coastal Peniche region have been investigated in detail, from a short-term time series (2015 - 2020). Sampling was conducted in two locations, at Berlengas archipelago, and near the coast, at Peniche. The communities found at both stations were revealed to be 80% different in terms of species composition, but species of Brachyura, Caridea, and Anomura were the most abundant in both locations. A marked seasonality, with abundance peaks during summer and autumn, was found for the assemblages near the coast, but absent in the assemblages of the Berlenga region. This suggests that factors other than the environmental variables examined in this study may play a crucial role in shaping the assemblages more offshore. Water temperature, upwelling index, salinity, and chlorophyll-a were the main factors dictating species abundance, especially at Peniche. This emphasizes the significant role of the Iberian upwelling productivity, which in turn influences decapod communities. Also, the progressive warming of coastal water will most likely have a negative impact on the decapod meroplanktonic life forms, with further consequences on recruitment and adult life stages.

2024-01Journal article

Restricted access

Assessing the invasion risk of the cnidaria Blackfordia virginica Mayer, 1910: a threat to the Baltic Sea ecosystem?

Publication . Serandour, Baptiste; Leroy, Boris; Blenckner, Thorsten; Mittermayer, Felix; Clemmesen, Catriona; Cruz, Joana; Nowaczyk, Antoine; Winder, Monika

The ecological role, bloom extent and long-term dynamics of jellyfishes are mostly overlooked due to sampling limitations, leading to the lack of continuous long-term datasets. A rise in frequency and magnitude of jellyfish invasion around the world is shedding new light on these organisms. In this study, we estimate the current and future distribution of the introduced jellyfish Blackfordia virginica in the Baltic Sea. We determine the combination of favorable levels of temperature and salinity for this species by analyzing presence/absence data from areas outside the Baltic Sea and project the distribution of suitable habitat in the Baltic Sea across different scenarios with variable climate forcing and eutrophication levels. Our results show that suitability increases with rising temperature and optimal salinity range from 13 to 20 for this species. In addition, a relatively large area of the Baltic Sea represents favorable abiotic conditions for B. virginica, enhancing the concerns on its potential range expansion. Spatial analysis illustrates that the coastal areas of the southern Baltic Sea are particularly at risk for the invasion of the species. The observation of the projection of habitat suitability across time highlights that future Baltic Sea environmental conditions increase suitability levels for B. virginica and suggest a potential expansion of its distribution in the future.

2025-03-22Journal article

Open access