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Fire has long been recognised as a natural force in structuring Northern Hemisphere salt marshes, yet little is known about the impact of fire on molluscs and native vegetation dynamics of Southern Hemisphere coastal salt marshes. Following a fire at Ash Island, Hunter River New South Wales, Australia in the summer 2012, we assessed patterns of rec...
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... richness also varied inconsistently between unburnt and burnt habitats and between sites (Table 2; Fig. 2). For example, there was significantly greater abundance and richness of gastropods in unburnt than burnt Native Rush at site 2 but not at site 1 (Fig. 2b,f) and three was significantly greater gastropod abundance and richness in unburnt chenopod vegetation at site 1 but abundance was only significantly greater in unburnt compared with burnt chenopod vegetation at site 2 (Fig. 2d,h). ...Similar publications
Marine habitat-forming species create structurally complex habitats that host macroinvertebrate communities characterized by remarkable abundance and species richness. These habitat-forming species also play a fundamental role in creating favourable environmental conditions that promote biodiversity. The deployment of artificial structures is becom...
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... Indeed, in China (He et al. 2017) and the United States (Silliman et al. 2005 severe drought has weakened marsh plants (e.g., Spartina alterniflora and Suaeda salsa), increased top-down control by common grazers, and led to runaway die-offs of marsh ecosystems due to the interaction of drought and overgrazing (Silliman & Bertness 2002, Silliman et al. 2005. While fire has been used as a salt marsh management tool to prevent woody plant invasion and manage cattle impacts (Williams-Jara et al. 2022), the increasing intensity and frequency of wildfires and bushfires are of growing concern because of the fires' physical impacts on plant condition (Glasby et al. 2023), soil structure (Smith 2001), and invertebrate communities (Ross et al. 2019). ...
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, corals, 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.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Marine Science, Volume 16 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... There is a long history of burning by humans to manage species composition in saltmarshes (Nyman & Chabreck 1995;Mitchell et al. 2006), as has been practiced in freshwater wetlands in Australia for millennia (McGregor et al. 2010). Bushfire impacts have been reported in various saltmarshes in Australia, but these have typically been relatively small-scale isolated events in a single estuary (Ross & Adam 2013;Ross et al. 2019), and measurement of recovery is uncommon (but see Ross et al. 2019). Compared to saltmarshes, mangrove forests in temperate regions such as NSW have a low diversity of vegetation and are much less likely to burn, although there have been some isolated incidents, including burning caused by lightning strikes (Ross & Adam 2013). ...
... There is a long history of burning by humans to manage species composition in saltmarshes (Nyman & Chabreck 1995;Mitchell et al. 2006), as has been practiced in freshwater wetlands in Australia for millennia (McGregor et al. 2010). Bushfire impacts have been reported in various saltmarshes in Australia, but these have typically been relatively small-scale isolated events in a single estuary (Ross & Adam 2013;Ross et al. 2019), and measurement of recovery is uncommon (but see Ross et al. 2019). Compared to saltmarshes, mangrove forests in temperate regions such as NSW have a low diversity of vegetation and are much less likely to burn, although there have been some isolated incidents, including burning caused by lightning strikes (Ross & Adam 2013). ...
... Burnt saltmarshes (especially grassy species like Sporobolus virginicus and the rush Juncus kraussii) were observed to be re-sprouting a few months after the fires. Other studies have documented complete recovery of Juncus within 6-12 months of a fire and at least partial recovery of Sporobolus (Isacch et al. 2004;Ross et al. 2019). It is important to note, however, that bushfire can also impact the epibenthic invertebrates such as gastropods which live amongst saltmarsh plants, and these may take considerably longer than 12 months to recover (Ross et al. 2019). ...
There is now considerable evidence that, as the climate continues to warm, bushfires are becoming more common and severe, particularly in regions such as south‐eastern Australia. The extraordinary Australian bushfires over the summer of 2019/2020 resulted in the burning of habitats such as highland peat swamps and intertidal estuarine wetlands over unprecedented spatial scales. Across New South Wales, these bushfires affected 183 ha of saltmarshes and 23 ha of mangroves in 19 estuaries. The percentage of fire‐affected saltmarsh ranged from 51% to 81% in the worst impacted estuaries, although typically ≤15% of mapped saltmarsh was damaged. Just over 50% of mangroves were burnt in Wonboyn Lake (although this constituted <0.2 ha), whereas in all other estuaries, ≤5% of mangroves were burnt. At the state‐wide scale, the likelihood of saltmarshes being affected by fire was unrelated to adjacent terrestrial vegetation; however, mangroves adjacent to burnt wet sclerophyll forest were more likely to burn than not. Burnt mangroves were almost exclusively associated with extreme or high severity fires in adjacent terrestrial vegetation, yet saltmarshes were also impacted in some cases by moderate or low‐intensity fires. Many species of saltmarsh plants had re‐sprouted or germinated after 6–24 months, but the extent of any recovery or changes in species composition were not quantified. The majority of fire‐affected mangrove trees appeared to be dead 24 months after the fires, despite observations of epicormic growth on some trees after six months. Bushfire impacts to estuarine wetlands are likely to become more frequent and results from our work can help target hazard reduction burning that might be considered for minimising damage to mangroves. More work is required to better understand potential longer term impacts and the capacity for natural recovery of estuarine wetlands from bushfires.
... Whilst Gamay has not experienced an extreme weather event such as what occurred on the west coast, weather associated with El Niño events was found to affect the condition of canopy forming kelps, which in turn negatively influenced the abundance of an associated herbivorous gastropod (Ettinger-Epstein and Kingsford 2008). Extreme weather events have also been shown to cause significant erosion to sandy beaches in Gamay (Gallop et al. 2020, Vila-Concejo et al. 2020) and can cause fires in saltmarsh and mangrove forests (Ross et al. 2019). Climate change could also affect seagrasses via more frequent and intense heat waves (especially if coupled with high turbidity that can lead to oxygen stress; Zimmerman 2021), but also increased frequency of high intensity storms. ...
We systematically reviewed published literature, Traditional Ecological Knowledge and consulted with local scientists to synthesise all published knowledge of Gamay’s (Botany Bay, Sydney) aquatic ecosystem, identifying key knowledge gaps and future research opportunities for this urban waterway.
... In constraining global thermal events using clumped isotope △47, the CeO bonds in the CaCO 3 lattice can be altered by heat-induced solid-state reordering, which could change the clumped isotope composition when the heating temperature is higher than 100°C (Henkes et al., 2014;Stolper and Eiler, 2015;Ingalls, 2019). For natural fires, it has been found that mollusk species richness and abundance can be reduced as a result of wildfires and prescribed burning (Severns, 2005;Ross et al., 2019). In addition to the acknowledged changes in the microstructure of shells, variation in δ 18 O of different magnitude and the resistance to alteration of radiocarbon dating ( 14 C) results during SPT have been observed (Larsen, 2015;Milano et al., 2016;Müller et al., 2017;Lindauer et al., 2018). ...
The carbon isotopic composition of land snail shells (δ¹³Cshell) potentially reflects changes in vegetation composition and thus precipitation. To better assess the response of δ¹³Cshell to East Asian monsoon (EAM) precipitation in different regions, we investigated the δ¹³C of modern snail shells and the corresponding surface soil and vegetation in Hainan Island, in the tropical monsoon region of China. This region spans a large mean annual rainfall gradient (1250–2300 mm), but it has a very small range of mean annual temperature (~2 °C). We found that the most depleted δ¹³Cshell value (−18.5‰) reported in this study is more negative than previously reported in the literature, and that δ¹³Cshell in Hainan Island mainly reflects the δ¹³C of C3 plants, indicating the C3 dietary preference of snails. After confirming that δ¹³Cshell is a reliable precipitation proxy in Hainan Island, we produced a new general equation between δ¹³Cshell and precipitation, combining our data from Hainan Island with that from previous studies in the EAM region: δ¹³Cshell = −0.0025 (±0.0002) MAP – 9.0841 (±0.23) (n = 131, r = −0.73, p < 0.01). A comparison of the slope of the linear equation for Hainan Island (δ¹³Cshell = −0.003 (± 0.0007) MAP - 7.5619 (± 1.27), n = 18, r = −0.74, p < 0.01) with that of Bao et al. (2019), with a larger temperature range (>10 °C), enabled us to validate that temperature in the EAM region has little effect on δ¹³Cshell compared to precipitation. We also conducted a theoretical evaluation of the effect of temperature on δ¹³Cshell using a flux balance model, which confirmed that the δ¹³Cshell–precipitation proxy is insensitive to temperature variations, considering temperature effects on the fractionation coefficient and the δ¹³C of C3 plants, where C3 plants are the dominant plant type. Our results potentially enable the quantitative reconstruction of paleo-precipitation via the δ¹³Cshell of snail fossils in the sedimentary deposits of the EAM region.
... Fire prevalence and its associated effects can vary across biomes and geographical regions. The effects of fire on soil and organisms have been extensively examined for many biomes such as savannahs [2,19], boreal forests in North America [20,21] and grasslands [22,23]. While the role of fire on organisms at a global scale has been extensively addressed [24,25], more studies are needed to fully understand the role of fire in shaping organism population dynamics in different biomes [25]. ...
... Of all the organisms considered mollusc (mostly snails) abundance and richness was negatively affected by fire to the greatest extent, contrary to findings by other researchers who have shown that prescribed fires (via the creation of novel microhabitats) can have positive effects on snail populations [118]. Negative effects of snail mortality after burning have been documented in field experiments [119] and studies [22]. The negative effects of fires on molluscs may be associated with high snail mortality which results from increased desiccation or food supply. ...
Globally, wildfires and prescribed fires are becoming more prevalent and are known to affect plant and animals in diverse ecosystems. Understanding the responses of animal communities to fire is a central issue in conservation and a panacea to predicting how fire regimes may affect communities and food webs. Here, a global meta-analysis of 2581 observations extracted from 208 empirical studies were used to investigate the effect of fire on aboveground and belowground fauna (e.g., bacteria, fungi, small mammals, arthropods). Overall, results revealed that fire had a negative effect on biomass, abundance, richness, evenness, and diversity of all faunas. Similarly, when considering wildfires and prescribed fires the data revealed that both fire regimes have negative effects on fauna. Similarly, fire had negative impacts on aboveground and aboveground fauna across most biomes and continents of the world. Moreover, there was little evidence of changes in pH, moisture and soil depth on soil organisms suggesting that other factors may drive community changes following a fire disturbance. Future research in fire ecology should consider the effects of fire across several species and across larger geospatial scales. In addition, fire effects on faunal community structure must be studied under contrasting global fire regimes and in light of the effects of climate change.
... Succulent sub-shrubs like S. pacifica are much less studied with regards to fire response, and it's unclear if they respond like herbaceous species, woody species, or something in-between. Succulents can show longer recovery times than herbaceous species in salt marshes (Brown et al., 2019;Ross et al., 2019), although succulents can successfully re-establish by seeding in non-wetland arid ecosystems (e. g., van der Merwe et al., 2016). We do not think that re-growth from old rootstocks was responsible for rapid recovery observed in the current study, but rather that new plants from seed rapidly grew after the impounded wetland soil was exposed in early spring. ...
Hydrology and salinity regimes of many impounded wetlands are manipulated to provide seasonal habitats for migratory waterfowl, with little-known consequences for ecosystem structure and function. Managed hydrology can alter ecosystems by directly changing soil properties and processes and by influencing plant community dynamics. Additionally, management history may influence ecosystem response to disturbance, including fires. To better understand how wetland management regime influences ecosystem response to disturbance, we quantified elevation, soil nitrogen concentrations and process rates, and plant community structure and diversity in a natural experiment following the 2018 Branscombe Fire. We measured paired burned-unburned patches in both tidally-influenced and managed, seasonally-impounded wetlands in Suisun Marsh, California, USA. Unburned ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling differed by wetland management history; unburned impounded wetlands were ∼1 m lower in elevation and plant community composition was dominated by succulents whereas the unburned tidal wetland was dominated by graminoids. Unburned impounded wetland soil nitrogen cycling (potential nitrification and denitrification) rates were <28% of those measured in unburned tidal wetland soils and soil extractable nitrate, ammonium, and dissolved inorganic phosphorus concentrations were also substantially lower in unburned impounded than unburned tidal wetlands. Despite these differences in pre-disturbance (i.e., unburned) conditions, all soil processes recovered to baseline levels within 6 months after surface fire, and we found no evidence of plant community change 1 year after fire in either wetland management type. Overall, water management history exerted stronger control on ecosystem processes and structure than surface fire disturbance. Low extractable soil nitrate and potential denitrification rates may indicate limitation of soil nitrogen removal in impounded wetlands, with implications for downstream environmental quality and eutrophication across managed landscapes.
... There is a paucity of information on the impact of bushfire in coastal wetlands on fauna and flora in Australia (Ross et al. 2019). The observations reported here demonstrate that the eggs of some mosquitoes are tolerant to the impacts of bushfire; this tolerance may be due to eggs being laid in microhabitats that provide a buffer against the thermal stress associated with bushfire. ...
The response of mosquitoes to bushfire is poorly understood. During the 2019–20 summer, many regions of Australia were impacted by devastating bushfires. An area of estuarine and brackish-water wetlands alongside the Georges River, Sydney, New South Wales, was burned in January 2020. Mosquito populations within the area were monitored as part of the local authority's mosquito management program, providing a unique opportunity to record the response of key mosquitoes of pest and public health concern to bushfire. Ground pools within a tidally influenced swamp oak forest dominated by Casuarina glauca and associated wetlands dominated by Phragmites australis and Bolboschoenus spp. had been identified as suitable habitat for a range of mosquitoes, including Aedes alternans, Ae. vigilax, and Verrallina funerea. Surveys of immature stages of mosquitoes within recently burned habitats inundated by tides demonstrated that mosquito eggs survived the direct and indirect impacts of fire and immature stages successfully completed development as reflected in concomitant changes in adult mosquito populations following the bushfire. This unique observation has implications for mosquito management following bushfire in Australia and internationally.
... In constraining global thermal events using clumped isotope △47, the CeO bonds in the CaCO 3 lattice can be altered by heat-induced solid-state reordering, which could change the clumped isotope composition when the heating temperature is higher than 100°C (Henkes et al., 2014;Stolper and Eiler, 2015;Ingalls, 2019). For natural fires, it has been found that mollusk species richness and abundance can be reduced as a result of wildfires and prescribed burning (Severns, 2005;Ross et al., 2019). In addition to the acknowledged changes in the microstructure of shells, variation in δ 18 O of different magnitude and the resistance to alteration of radiocarbon dating ( 14 C) results during SPT have been observed (Larsen, 2015;Milano et al., 2016;Müller et al., 2017;Lindauer et al., 2018). ...
Southeast Australian saltmarshes are endangered ecological communities under threat from various anthropogenic factors including climate change. As climate change drives sea‐level rise mangrove encroachment and saltmarshes are squeezed at their landward edge, our lack of knowledge of the ecological interactions and any associations between saltmarsh vegetation and fauna becomes concerning, especially given the importance of saltmarsh for fisheries and as a blue carbon habitat. This study investigated the association of saltmarsh vegetation and the abundance and movement of gastropods in a typical coastal saltmarsh at Patonga, New South Wales, Australia. Densities of the gastropods including Phallomedusa solida, Ophicardelus spp. and Littoraria luteola were significant in vegetated Salicornia quinqueflora and least in unvegetated saltmarsh and areas where mangroves had encroached. Experiments that translocated Ophicardelus spp. and manipulated cover revealed that these patterns were actively maintained by Ophicardelus spp., which dispersed up to 40 cm and 1.4 m after 3 and 24 h, respectively, away from unvegetated saltmarsh and mangroves. The results of this study suggest that both habitat and cover influence the abundance and movement of gastropod dynamics in southeastern saltmarsh. Given future anticipated saltmarsh loss, further investigations are needed on the unknown functional role of gastropods in saltmarsh ecosystems.
Coastal wetlands face the growing problem of altered fire regimes that compromise ecosystem structures and functions, as well as the ecosystem services from which society benefits. In this review of the state of fire management research in coastal wetlands, we identified 81 publications on the topic over the last 35 years. Most studies analyzed the relationships between fire and ecosystems using geospatial tools and were conducted in swamps, marshes, savannas, mangroves, dunes and hammock forests. Productive activities in the coastal zone like agriculture, cattle ranching, and hunting as well as the increased demand of water for human consumption directly or indirectly favor a rise in both the frequency and intensity of fires in coastal wetlands. In addition to the local impacts of this altered regime, there are synergistic effects with alterations in the hydrological regime, land use changes and atmospheric changes that increase the susceptibility to unwanted fire in these ecosystems. We emphasize the need to move towards focuses that adopt a socio-ecological and interdisciplinary perspective to conserve and restore the fire regimes in coastal wetlands.