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1. Impacts of Climate Change on Marine Foundation Species

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-042023-093037  

   Wernberg, Thomas; Thomsen, Mads S.; Baum, Julia K.; Bishop, Melanie J.; Bruno, John F.; Coleman, Melinda A.; Filbee-Dexter, Karen; Gagnon, Karine; He, Qiang; Murdiyarso, Daniel; et al (January 2024, Annual Review of Marine Science)

   Marine foundation species are the biotic basis for many of the world's coastal ecosystems, providing structural habitat, food, and protection for myriad plants and animals as well as many ecosystem services. However, climate change poses a significant threat to foundation species and the ecosystems they support. We review the impacts of climate change on common marine foundation species, including corals, kelps, seagrasses, salt marsh plants, mangroves, and bivalves. It is evident that marine foundation species have already been severely impacted by several climate change drivers, often through interactive effects with other human stressors, such as pollution, overfishing, and coastal development. Despite considerable variation in geographical, environmental, and ecological contexts, direct and indirect effects of gradual warming and subsequent heatwaves have emerged as the most pervasive drivers of observed impact and potent threat across all marine foundation species, but effects from sea level rise, ocean acidification, and increased storminess are expected to increase. Documented impacts include changes in the genetic structures, physiology, abundance, and distribution of the foundation species themselves and changes to their interactions with other species, with flow-on effects to associated communities, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. We discuss strategies to support marine foundation species into the Anthropocene, in order to increase their resilience and ensure the persistence of the ecosystem services they provide. 

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2. Geographic Variation in Salt Marsh Structure and Function for Nekton: a Guide to Finding Commonality Across Multiple Scales

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00894-y  

   Ziegler, Shelby L.; Baker, Ronald; Crosby, Sarah C.; Colombano, Denise D.; Barbeau, Myriam A.; Cebrian, Just; Connolly, Rod M.; Deegan, Linda A.; Gilby, Ben L.; Mallick, Debbrota; et al (January 2021, Estuaries and Coasts)

   null (Ed.)

   Coastal salt marshes are distributed widely across the globe and are considered essential habitat for many fish and crustacean species. Yet, the literature on fishery support by salt marshes has largely been based on a few geographically distinct model systems, and as a result, inadequately captures the hierarchical nature of salt marsh pattern, process, and variation across space and time. A better understanding of geographic variation and drivers of commonalities and differences across salt marsh systems is essential to informing future management practices. Here, we address the key drivers of geographic variation in salt marshes: hydroperiod, seascape configuration, geomorphology, climatic region, sediment supply and riverine input, salinity, vegetation composition, and human activities. Future efforts to manage, conserve, and restore these habitats will require consideration of how environmental drivers within marshes affect the overall structure and subsequent function for fisheries species. We propose a future research agenda that provides both the consistent collection and reporting of sources of variation in small-scale studies and collaborative networks running parallel studies across large scales and geographically distinct locations to provide analogous information for data poor locations. These comparisons are needed to identify and prioritize restoration or conservation efforts, identify sources of variation among regions, and best manage fisheries and food resources across the globe. Introduction Understanding the drivers of geographic variation in the condition and composition of habitats is crucial to our capacity to generalize management plans across space and time and to clarify and perhaps challenge assumptions of functional equivalence among sites. Broadly defined wetland types such as salt marshes are often assumed to provide similar functions throughout their global range, such as providing nursery habitat for fishery species. However, a growing body of evidence suggests substantial geographic variation in the functioning of salt marsh and other coastal ecosystems (Bradley et al. 2020; Whalen et al. 2020). Variation in ecological patterns and processes within habitat types can alter community structure and dynamics. Local-scale patterns and processes (e.g., patch [10s of meters], local [100s of meters]) can be influenced by processes that occur at larger spatial scales (e.g., regional [kms], global), thereby causing geographic differences in the function and ecosystem service delivery of a given habitat type. Salt marshes (which include vegetated platform, interconnected tidal creeks, fringing mudflats, ponds, and pools) are widely distributed (Fig. 1) and function as valuable nursery habitats by providing key resources for many estuarine species that transition to marine or aquatic habitats as adults (Beck et al. 2001; Minello et al. 2003; Sheaves et al. 2015). However, factors that underlie variability in the delivery of ecological functions are still inadequately understood. Previous studies have explored geographic variation in the function of salt marshes for fish and mobile crustaceans (“nekton”; e.g., Minello et al. 2012, Baker et al. 2013). However, field studies that compare multiple sites across a geographical gradient are typically limited in duration and scale. In addition, the explanatory variables (e.g., elevation, flooding duration, plant structure) collected by smaller scale studies are often inconsistent and therefore limit generalizations across sites. 

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3. Dietary shifts across biogeographic scales alter spatial subsidy dynamics

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2980  

   Ziegler, Shelby_L; Able, Kenneth_W; Fodrie, F_Joel (December 2019, Ecosphere)

   Abstract Over heterogeneous landscapes, organisms and energy move across ecological boundaries and this can have profound effects on overall ecosystem functioning. Both abiotic and biotic factors along habitat boundaries may facilitate or impede key species interactions that drive these energy flows—especially along the land–sea interface. We synthesized the literature detailing estuarine fish diets and habitat characteristics of salt marshes from U.S. East and Gulf coasts to determine patterns and drivers of cross‐boundary trophic transfers at the land–sea interface. Notably, marsh‐platform species (i.e., killifishes, fiddler crabs) appear virtually absent in the diets of transient estuarine fishes in the Gulf of Mexico, while along the South Atlantic and Mid‐Atlantic Bights, marsh‐platform species appear regularly in the diets of many transient estuarine fishes. Tidal amplitude varied across these three biogeographic regions and likely regulates the availability of marsh‐platform species to transient estuarine fishes via both access to the marsh surface for marine predators and emergence of marsh‐resident prey into the adjacent estuary (i.e., higher tidal amplitude increases predator–prey encounter rates). Surprisingly, marsh shoot density was positively correlated with the presence of marsh‐platform species in the diet, but this pattern appears to be mediated by increased tidal amplitude, suggesting the mode and periodicity of abiotic cycles drive diet structure of transient estuarine fishes more so than local habitat structural complexity. Subsequently, these processes likely influence the degree to which “trophic relay” moves energy from the marsh toward the open estuary. Understanding the dynamics that determine energy flows, spatial subsidies, and ultimately, ecosystem‐level productivity, is essential for implementation of holistic ecosystem‐based approaches to conserve and manage complex landscape mosaics. 

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4. Mimicry of emergent traits amplifies coastal restoration success

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17438-4  

   Temmink, Ralph J.; Christianen, Marjolijn J.; Fivash, Gregory S.; Angelini, Christine; Boström, Christoffer; Didderen, Karin; Engel, Sabine M.; Esteban, Nicole; Gaeckle, Jeffrey L.; Gagnon, Karine; et al (December 2020, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Restoration is becoming a vital tool to counteract coastal ecosystem degradation. Modifying transplant designs of habitat-forming organisms from dispersed to clumped can amplify coastal restoration yields as it generates self-facilitation from emergent traits, i.e. traits not expressed by individuals or small clones, but that emerge in clumped individuals or large clones. Here, we advance restoration science by mimicking key emergent traits that locally suppress physical stress using biodegradable establishment structures. Experiments across (sub)tropical and temperate seagrass and salt marsh systems demonstrate greatly enhanced yields when individuals are transplanted within structures mimicking emergent traits that suppress waves or sediment mobility. Specifically, belowground mimics of dense root mats most facilitate seagrasses via sediment stabilization, while mimics of aboveground plant structures most facilitate marsh grasses by reducing stem movement. Mimicking key emergent traits may allow upscaling of restoration in many ecosystems that depend on self-facilitation for persistence, by constraining biological material requirements and implementation costs. 

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5. Plasticity drives the trait variation of a foundation marsh species migrating into coastal forests with sea‐level rise

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4962  

   Kottler, Ezra_J; Hamilton, Matthew_B; Gedan, Keryn_B (August 2024, Ecosphere)

   Abstract Climate‐driven ecosystem shifts occur through turnover in the foundation species which structure the landscape. Therefore, to predict the fate of areas undergoing climate‐driven ecosystem shifts, one approach is to characterize ecological and evolutionary responses of foundation species along dynamic environmental gradients. One such gradient is the ecotone between tidal marshes and maritime forests in coastal areas of the US Mid‐Atlantic region where accelerated sea‐level rise and coastal storms of increased frequency and intensity are driving forest dieback and inland marsh migration. Mid‐Atlantic tidal marshes are structured by marsh grasses which act as foundation species, and these grasses exhibit trait variation across their distribution from established marsh interior to their inland migration front. We conducted a reciprocal transplant experiment withSpartina patens, a dominant high marsh grass and foundation species, between established populations in the high marsh and range edge populations in the forest understory at three Mid‐Atlantic sites. We monitored environmental conditions in marsh and forest understory habitats, measured plant traits (above‐ and belowground biomass, specific leaf area, leaf N and C concentrations) in transplanted and reference non‐transplanted individuals, and used microsatellite markers to determine the genetic identity of transplants to quantify clonality between habitats and sites. Individuals transplanted into the forest understory exhibited a plastic shift in resource allocation to aboveground structures associated with light acquisition, with shifts in transplants making them more morphologically similar to reference individuals sampled from the forest habitat. Clonal diversity and genetic distance among transplants were relatively high at two of three sites, but individuals at all sites exhibited trans‐habitat plasticity regardless of clonal diversity or a lack thereof. Individuals grown in the forest understory showed lower vegetative and reproductive fitness. Nevertheless, the trait plasticity exhibited by this species allowed individuals from the forest that were transplanted into the marsh to recoup significant biomass in only a single growing season. We predict high plasticity will facilitate the persistence of colonizingS. patensindividuals under suboptimal forest shade conditions until forest dieback increases light availability, ultimately promoting continued inland migration of this foundation species under sea‐level rise. 

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