Elise F Granek

• PhD in Zoology (Marine Ecology focus)
• Portland State University

Among emerging contaminants, microplastics (MPs) are of particular concern due to their ubiquity across environments and the unique challenges posed by attempted removal. In-line washing machine filters are one potential tool for preemptively preventing a category of MPs from entering waterways. A sample of registered voters and environmental inter...

Sea star wasting syndrome (SSWS) has affected numerous species of sea star, with populations of Pycnopodia helianthoides (Brandt, 1835) left most at risk. As their populations are struggling to recover, it is important to gain a better understanding of the impacts that the multiple stressors in their habitats can have on their populations. Contamin...

Microplastics (MPs) and other anthropogenic particles (APs) are pervasive environmental contaminants found throughout marine and aquatic environments. We quantified APs in the edible tissue of black rockfish, lingcod, Chinook salmon, Pacific herring, Pacific lamprey, and pink shrimp, comparing AP burdens across trophic levels and between vessel-ret...

Municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent is a primary source of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) to the marine environment, as most of these compounds are not fully removed during the treatment process. Continual discharge from WWTPs into coastal areas may act as a stressor by continually exposing organisms to a suite...

In the western US, freshwater mussels (Order Unionida) contribute valuable ecosystem functions to riverine systems, yet have declined across their range following widespread degradation of freshwater habitat and parallel declines in salmonids, host fish for larval western pearlshell mussels ( Margaritifera falcata ). The status of M. falcata popula...

Microfibers are the most prevalent microplastics in most terrestrial, freshwater, and marine biota as well as in human tissues and have been collected from environmental compartments across most ecosystems and species sampled worldwide. These materials, made of diverse compound types, range from semi-synthetic and treated natural fibers to syntheti...

Identification of non-point sources of watershed pollution such as pesticide runoff is challenging due to spatial and temporal variation in landscape patterns of land use and environmental conditions. Regional case study monitoring investigations can document region-specific conditions and processes to inform managers about pesticide movement throu...

Contaminants are ubiquitous in the environment, often reaching aquatic systems. Combinations of forestry use pesticides have been detected in both water and aquatic organism tissue samples in coastal systems. Yet, most toxicological studies focus on the effects of these pesticides individually, at high doses, and over acute time periods, which, whi...

Management of established non‐native plants is challenging because removal is expensive and can produce negative consequences, yet establishment can create novel ecosystems. Red mangrove propagules were introduced to Moloka'i, Hawai'i, in 1902 to mitigate the effects of soil erosion and have since spread along the coast and to adjacent islands crea...

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in wastewater discharge can be stressors to estuarine species. We transplanted juvenile Pacific oysters at varying distances within sites near wastewater treatment plant outfalls or oyster aquaculture control sites to assess small scale spatial variation in contaminant uptake and oyster condition. Oysters...

Consideration of social and cultural dimensions in coastal and marine planning has increased and ecosystem services provide important framing to investigate values and priorities associated with these systems. Research efforts in coastal communities offer insights on social dimensions of ocean and coastal management decisions, but questions remain...

Plastic pollution requires, among a suite of other interventions, education to inspire behavioral change and reduce consumption of single-use items. We designed and installed an ocean plastics exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon, USA. We evaluated visitor engagement and the effects of the exhibit on their reported single-use pla...

Terrestrial land use activities present cross-ecosystem threats to riverine and marine species and processes. Specifically, pesticide runoff can disrupt hormonal, reproductive, and developmental processes in aquatic organisms, yet non-point source pollution is difficult to trace and quantify. In Oregon, U.S.A., state and federal forestry pesticide...

Over the past several decades marine conservation policy has supported the implementation of protected areas in ocean and coastal environments to restrict some elements of human use for ecological benefits. The appropriate extent of protection and the allowable uses are often the subject of public debate about marine protected area policy. Local co...

Microplastics (MPs) are anthropogenic contaminants found in coastal and marine environments worldwide. Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula), important for local indigenous culture, economy, gastronomy and food security along the United States West Coast, are subjected to myriad environmental stressors including predation, storm events, disease, tox...

Production and use of pharmaceuticals in the United States is high and continues to grow. This, combined with poor wastewater removal rates for drugs in excreted waste, and improper pharmaceutical disposal leads to the presence of pharmaceuticals in fresh- and marine waters and wildlife. In the United States, safe drug take-back boxes, or dropboxes...

In the original publication of the article, two of the contributors’ names (Darrell Brown, Kim Heavener) were missing in the acknowledgement section. The correct acknowledgement is provided below.

Community-based projects with inclusive stakeholder engagement are increasingly important to achieve robust outcomes in the science and management of ‘wicked’ urban ecosystem service challenges. We summarize lessons learned from a transdisciplinary, team-based doctoral education program that engaged students in research on such multi-stakeholder, c...

Microplastics are ubiquitous in marine systems; however, knowledge of the effects of these particles on marine fauna is limited. Ocean‐borne plastic debris accumulates in littoral ecosystems worldwide, and invertebrate infauna inhabiting these systems can ingest small plastic particles and fibers, mistaking them for food. We examined the effect of...

Microplastics are an ecological stressor with implications for ecosystem and human health when present in seafood. We quantified microplastic types, concentrations, anatomical burdens, geographic distribution, and temporal differences in Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) and Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula) from 15 Oregon coast, U.S.A. sites....

Commercial fisheries yield essential foods, sustain cultural practices, and provide widespread employment around the globe. Commercially harvested species face a myriad of anthropogenic threats including degraded habitats, changing climate, overharvest, and pollution. Microplastics are pollutants of increasing concern, which are pervasive in the en...

Over 40 years of regulations in the United States have failed to protect human and environmental health. We contend that these failures result from the flawed governance over the continued production, use, and disposal of toxic chemicals. To address this failure, we need to identify the broader social, political, and technological processes produci...

The formation of novel ecosystems by non-native species poses management challenges that are both socially and ecologically complex. Negative attitudes towards non-native species can complicate management in cases where non-native species provide ecosystem service benefits. Due to their intentional introduction over a century ago, non-native mangro...

Dam removals in the United States continue to accelerate in pace and scope, but no national analyses have examined how removed dams compare with existing dam stock. Here, we review and analyse the best available national data on dams from the National Inventory of Dams (NID), dam removals from American Rivers, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Na...

Scientists, policy makers, and managers use ecosystem services and biodiversity metrics to inform management goals of novel ecosystems. Fragmented knowledge of the ecosystem services provided by novel ecosystems contributes to disagreement over these systems and how they should be managed. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of re...

Predators exert considerable top-down pressure on ecosystems by directly consuming prey or indirectly influencing their foraging behaviors and habitat use. Prey is, therefore, forced to balance predation risk with resource reward. A growing list of anthropogenic stressors such as rising temperatures and ocean acidification has been shown to influen...

As of 2008, approximately 48% of Americans use prescription drugs within any given 30-day period. Many pharmaceutical compounds are not fully metabolized by the human body, nor fully removed by wastewater treatment systems, before release into the environment. As a result, a vast array of pharmaceuticals has been detected in marine and freshwater o...

Ecosystem-services scholarship has largely focused on monetary valuation and the material contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. Increasingly, research is calling for a deeper understanding of how less tangible, nonmaterial values shape management and stakeholder decisions. We propose a framework that characterizes a suite of sociocultura...

As of 2008, approximately 48% of Americans use prescription drugs within any given 30-day period. Many pharmaceutical compounds are not fully metabolized by the human body, nor fully removed by wastewater treatment systems, before release into the environment. As a result, a vast array of pharmaceuticals has been detected in marine and freshwater o...

Ecosystem-services scholarship has largely focused on monetary valuation and the material contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. Increasingly, research is calling for a deeper understanding of how less tangible, nonmaterial values shape management and stakeholder decisions. We propose a framework that characterizes a suite of sociocultura...

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are contaminants of emerging concern that are increasing in use and have demonstrated negative effects on aquatic organisms. There is a growing body of literature reporting the effects of PPCPs on freshwater organisms, but studies on the effects of PPCPs to marine and estuarine organisms are limite...

Environmental stressors shape community composition and ecosystem functioning. Contaminants such as pharmaceuticals are of increasing concern as an environmental stressor due to their persistence in surface waters worldwide. Limited attention has been paid to the effects of pharmaceuticals on marine life, despite widespread detection of these conta...

The ecosystem services concept has proliferated in the scientific literature over the past two decades. This chapter provides an overview of the current understanding regarding ecosystem services of streams and rivers, with a focus on the effects of scale and consideration of tradeoffs. It examines how ecosystem services generally vary with the fac...

Management of small-scale fisheries in developing countries is a challenging endeavor with debates over which actors are most effective. This study identifies and describes the roles of community, government, and other actors in management of small-scale fisheries in the Comoros (Western Indian Ocean). Actor roles in management as well as social pe...

Ecosystem services are provided by riverine ecosystems in the form of provisioning, supporting, regulating and cultural benefits to both ecosystems and the human societies that depend upon them. River ecosystems vary greatly in scale, from headwater streams to vast river deltas, and the relative importance of various types of ecosystem services chan...

Mangroves dominate the intertidal zone of sheltered (muddy) coastlines of tropical, sub-tropical and warm temperate oceans. The word ‘mangrove’ is used to refer to both a specific vegetation type and the unique habitat (also called tidal forest, swamp, wetland, or mangal) in which it exists (Tomlinson 1986; Saenger, 2003; Duke et al., 2007; Spaldin...

Mangroves dominate the intertidal zone of sheltered (muddy) coastlines of tropical, sub-tropical and warm temperate oceans. The word ‘mangrove’ is used to refer to both a specific vegetation type and the unique habitat (also called tidal forest, swamp, wetland, or mangal) in which it exists (Tomlinson 1986; Saenger, 2003; Duke et al., 2007; Spaldin...

Case studies for UN 2015 Global Sustainable Development Report Chapter 3:The oceans, seas, marine resources and human well-being nexus

Coastal mangrove forests along tropical shorelines serve as an important interface between land and sea. They provide a physical buffer protecting the coastline from erosion and act as sediment "traps" catching terrestrial sediment, thus preventing smothering of subtidal coral reefs. Coastal development that removes mangrove habitat may impact adja...

Changing climatic, demographic, and land use conditions are projected to alter the provisioning of ecosystem services in estuarine, coastal, and nearshore marine ecosystems, necessitating mitigation and adaptation policies and management. The current paradigm of research efforts occurring in parallel to, rather than in collaboration with, decision...

Influenced by natural climatic, geological, and evolutionary changes, landscapes and the ecosystems within are continuously changing. In addition to these natural pressures, anthropogenic drivers have increasingly influenced ecosystems. Whether affected by natural or anthropogenic processes, ecosystems, ecological communities, and ecosystem functio...

Effective management of highly biodiverse and threatened reefs requires the identification of human activities driving declines on the particular reef to be managed. The island nation of the Comoros is a model setting to investigate effects of human activities on diverse and threatened coral reefs, with abundant and diverse marine life, local depen...

Commercial fishing is responsible for declines in both the abundance and biomass of many marine species (Ward and Myers 2005). The Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) Sustainable Seafood Certification Program focuses on fishery modifications to reduce such impacts on marine species and ecosystems. On the Nicoya Peninsula in northwestern Costa Rica,...

Background/Question/Methods Mangroves play a key ecological role in nearshore ecosystems and provide a number of ecosystem services to surrounding communities. Mangrove rehabilitation from both natural regeneration and planting of propagules has had limited success necessitating further research into the factors limiting successful reestablishmen...

Background/Question/Methods Humans reap benefits from ecological systems like coral reefs through both resource use and preservation, yet we find it difficult to balance our resource use with maintenance of ecological integrity. We addressed this issue looking specifically at coral reefs of the Comoros, investigating the impacts of eight anthropo...

This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities that can arise when implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) in tropical nations. EBM creates a new series of challenges, problems, and opportunities that must be considered in light of existing governance and management frameworks in a local context. The paper presents five case st...

Coastal zone ecosystems sit between larger terrestrial and marine environments and, therefore, are strongly affected by processes occurring in both systems. Marine coastal zone systems provide a range of benefits to humans, and yet many have been significantly degraded as a result of direct and indirect human impacts. Management efforts have been h...

Making trade-offs between ecological services and other contributors to human well-being is a difficult but critical process that requires valuation. This allows both better recognition of the ecological, social, and economic trade-offs and also allows us to bill those who use up or destroy ecological services and reward those that produce or enhan...

Caffeine, a biologically active drug with many known molecular targets, is recognized as a contaminant of marine systems. Although the concentrations of caffeine reported from aquatic systems are low (ng/l-μg/l), harmful ecological effects not detected by traditional toxicity tests could occur as a result of caffeine contamination. We used Hsp70, a...

Ecosystem-based management is logistically and politically challenging because ecosystems are inherently complex and management decisions affect a multitude of groups. Coastal ecosystems, which lie at the interface between marine and terrestrial ecosystems and provide an array of ecosystem services to different groups, aptly illustrate these challe...

Coastal mangrove forests were historically considered as a source of organic matter (OM) for adjacent marine systems due to high net primary production; yet recent research suggesting little uptake through the food web because of low nutritional quality, challenges the concept of trophic linkage between mangrove forests and coral reefs. To examine...

Natural processes tend to vary over time and space, as well as between species. The ecosystem services these natural processes provide are therefore also highly variable. It is often assumed that ecosystem services are provided linearly (unvaryingly, at a steady rate), but natural processes are characterized by thresholds and limiting functions. In...

Mangrove forests, important tropical coastal habitats, are in decline worldwide primarily due to removal by humans. Changes to mangrove systems can alter ecosystem properties through direct effects on abiotic factors such as temperature, light and nutrient supply or through changes in biotic factors such as primary productivity or species compositi...

Globally, the number of recreational fishers is sizeable and increasing in many countries. Associated with this trend is the potential for negative impacts on fish stocks through exploitation or management measures such as stocking and introduction of non-native fishes. Nevertheless, recreational fishers can be instrumental in successful fisheries...

We are concerned about the assertion in the Report by E. B. Barbier et al. that vegetation reduces coastal damage during extreme events (“Coastal ecosystem-based management with nonlinear ecological functions and values,” 18 January, p. [321][1]). Although the intended point was that ecosystem

A common assumption is that ecosystem services respond linearly to changes in habitat size. This assumption leads frequently to an "all or none" choice of either preserving coastal habitats or converting them to human use. However, our survey of wave attenuation data from field studies of mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass beds, nearshore coral reef...

Globally threatened mangrove forest habitat is often considered an important buffer protecting coastlines from wave and storm impacts and coastal erosion. However, there is little empirical data quantifying the protective effects of mangroves during storms, primarily because of the difficulty of predicting where and when a storm will intersect the...

As the process of marine-protected-area design and implementation evolves, the incorporation of new tools will advance our ability to create and maintain effective protected areas. We reviewed characteristics and approaches that contribute to successful global marine conservation efforts. One successful characteristic emphasized in most case studie...

Many developing countries experience habitat degradation and unsustainable natural resource exploitation, with biodiversity and habitat conservation efforts often impeded by political instability and limited funding. Challenges in previous conservation efforts coupled with the current rate of marine habitat degradation and species declines warrant...

In the first comprehensive reviews since 1969, two high-level reports on the status of U.S. marine ecosystems and resources have been released: that of the nongovernmental Pew Oceans Commission in 2003 and that of the congressionally mandated U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy in 2004. Although the two com-missions differed in the breadth and depth of...

Pteropus livingstonii, P. voeltzkowi, and P. rodricensis are three critically endangered fruit bats from western Indian Ocean islands for which multidisciplinary conservation programs have been established that include environmental education programs (EEPs). We describe these EEPs in terms of the strategies used to achieve them and evaluate the ed...

Trewhella Will J.; Rodriguez-Clark Kathryn M.; Corp Nadia; Entwistle Abigail; Garrett Simon R. T.; Granek Elise F.; Lengel Kimberly L.; Raboude Mary J.; Reason Paola F.; Sewall Brent J.

Rousettusobliviosus is a megachiropteran bat endemic to the Comoros Islands in the western Indian Ocean. The species is broadly distributed on Grande Comore, Mohéli, and Anjouan, but appears to be absent from Mayotte. Roost sites were found to be both shallow and deep caves, in dark locations with infrequent human disturbance. Colony size ranged fr...

Livingstone's fruit bats, Pteropus livingstonii, (Pteropodidae: Chiroptera) are endemic to only two islands, Moheli and Anjouan of the Comoros Islands in the West Indian Ocean. With an estimated population of less than 2000 individuals, P. livingstonii is listed as Critically Endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Re...

Successful conservation requires development of case-specific approaches appropriate to address existing conservation threats. We discuss a local marine conservation initiative in the Pulai River Estuary in southern Malay Peninsula. The estuarine ecosystem, characterized by mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs, is highly productive and contain...