Nova Mieszkowska

The Marine Biological Association of the UK & University of Liverpool · Mieszkowska Laboratory & School of Earth, Ocean & Ecological Sciences

We present a genome assembly from an individual Patella vulgata (the common limpet; Mollusca; Gastropoda; Patellogastropoda; Patellidae). The genome sequence is 695.4 megabases in span. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 9 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 14.93 kilobases in length. Gene annot...

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is an authoritative tool in biodiversity conservation. Whilst IUCN criteria have been applied successfully to groups such as birds and mammals, a Red List assessment of British seaweeds in 2021 revealed that the categories to which seaweed species were assigned were dependent on how the criteria were applied....

We present a genome assembly from an individual Phorcus lineatus (the thick topshell; Mollusca; Gastropoda; Trochida; Trochidae). The genome sequence is 958 megabases in span. Most of the assembly (99.9%) is scaffolded into 18 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 19.1 kilobases in length.

These Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) contain guidance on how to process the various taxa that fall under the ‘Marine Metazoa’ category within the scope of the Darwin Tree of Life (DToL) project. The guidance specifically refers to the tissue samples needed for DNA barcoding (which takes place at the Natural History Museum (NHM) and at the Mar...

We present a genome assembly from an individual Lepidonotus clava (scale worm; Annelida; Polychaeta; Phyllodocida; Polynoidae). The genome sequence is 1,044 megabases in span. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 18 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 15.6 kilobases in length.

Climate change is impacting marine seascapes against a backdrop of multiple anthropogenic stressors. These current impacts are projected to increase in the future with increasing warming, acidification, oxygen loss, and sea level rise. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been established to protect features in the ocean, traditionally with a focus t...

Distributional shifts in species ranges provide critical evidence of ecological responses to climate change. Assessments of climate‐driven changes typically focus on broad‐scale range shifts (e.g. poleward or upward), with ecological consequences at regional and local scales commonly overlooked. While these changes are informative for species prese...

Anthropogenic climate change along with the more frequent extreme weather it prompts, are having direct and indirect effects on distributions and abundance of species with consequence for community structure-especially if habitat providers are lost. Rocky shores have long been recognized as tractable experimental arenas for ecology contributing to...

Diatoms are a group of microalgae that are important primary producers in a range of open ocean, freshwater, and intertidal environments. The latter can experience substantial long- and short-term variability in temperature, from seasonal variations to rapid temperature shifts caused by tidal immersion and emersion. As temperature is a major determ...

The vision of the Earth BioGenome Project ¹ is to complete reference genomes for all of the planet’s ~2M described eukaryotic species in the coming decade. To contribute to this global endeavour, the Darwin Tree of Life Project (DToL ² ) was launched in 2019 with the aim of generating complete genomes for the ~70k described eukaryotic species that...

Aim Gorgonian forests are among the most complex of subtidal habitats in the Mediterranean Sea, supporting high biodiversity and providing diverse ecosystem services. Despite their iconic status, the geographical distribution and condition of gorgonian species is poorly known. Using multiple online data sources, our primary aims were to compile, ma...

Estuarine and coastal waters are acknowledged centres for anthropogenic impacts. Superimposed on the complex natural interactions between land, rivers and sea are the myriad consequences of human activity – a spectrum ranging from locally polluting effluents to some of the severest consequences of global climate change. For practitioners, academics...

We present a genome assembly from an individual Steromphala cineraria (the grey topshell; Mollusca; Gastropoda; Trochida; Trochidae). The genome sequence is 1,270 megabases in span. The majority of the assembly (99.23%) is scaffolded into 18 chromosomal pseudomolecules.

Diatoms are a group of microalgae that are important primary producers in a range of open ocean, freshwater and intertidal environments. The latter can experience significant long- and short-term variability in temperature, from seasonal variations to rapid temperature shifts caused by tidal immersion and emersion. As temperature is a major determi...

We present a genome assembly from an individual Steromphala cineraria (the grey topshell; Mollusca; Gastropoda; Trochida; Trochidae). The genome sequence is 1,270 megabases in span. The majority of the assembly (99.23%) is scaffolded into 18 chromosomal pseudomolecules.

Aim Identifying niche shifts is key for forecasting future species distributions. Non-indigenous species (NIS) are one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, and understanding how niche shifts affect the spread of NIS is fundamental. Here, we modelled the native and introduced niches, as well as the potential geographical extent of a widely distr...

Drastic losses of kelp forest habitat have already occurred in the southern part of the OSPAR area with significant declines at several locations elsewhere. Considering the sensitivity of this complex and highly productive habitat to cumulative effects of multiple pressures, and the increasing threat posed by climate change, the nominated kelp fore...

This Background Document on Kelp Forest habitat has been developed by OSPAR following the inclusion of this habitat on the OSPAR List of threatened and/or declining species and habitats (OSPAR Agreement 2008-6). The inclusion of the feature on the list was supported by an analysis against the Texel-Faial criteria (OSPAR Agreement 2019-03), as prese...

Data that can be used to monitor biodiversity through time are essential for conservation and management. The reef-forming worm, Sabellaria alveolata (L. 1767) is currently classed as ‘Data deficient’ due to an imbalance in the spread of data on its distribution. Little is known about the distribution of this species around Ireland. Using data arch...

Annual surveys of the abundance of intertidal invertebrates and macroalgae have been made at between 70 and 100 rocky intertidal time-series sites around the United Kingdom coastline since 2002 under the MarClim project. The data provide a unique opportunity to investigate the impacts of both pervasive climate change and their punctuation by extrem...

Poleward migrations of coastal marine species are occurring due to anthropogenic climate change. Temperature is a known driver of species distributions, however, the specific influence of temperature responsible for ecological disruption are diverse and often species-specific. If we are to predict future impacts of climate change it is imperative w...

Aim: To investigate some of the environmental variables underpinning the past and present distribution of an ecosystem engineer near its poleward range edge. Location: >500 locations spanning >7,400 km around Ireland. Results: Through plotting 981 records of presence and absence, we revealed a discontinuous distribution with discretely bounded sub...

The current global redistribution of biota is often attributed to two main drivers: contemporary climate change (CCC) and non-indigenous species (NIS). Despite evidence of synergetic effects, however, studies assessing long-term effects of CCC conditions on NIS fitness remain rare. We examined the interactive effects of warming, ocean acidification...

Rocky shore species live on the edge of both land and sea, dealing with the twice-daily ebb and flow of the tide that results in large changes in their environment and creates stressful place to inhabit. As most intertidal creatures and seaweeds are fixed to the rock or can only move small distances, they are at the mercy of climate change and the...

Species concepts formalize evolutionary and ecological processes, but often conflict with one another when considering the mechanisms that ultimately lead to species delimitation. Evolutionary biologists are, however, recognizing that the conceptualization of a species is separate and distinct from the delimitation of species. Indeed, if species ar...

For much of the 20th century, the Mersey in North West England was one of the worst polluted estuaries in Europe. Water from a range of polluting industries plus domestic sewage was discharged into the Mersey Catchment and Estuary. Recovery came through a concerted clean-up campaign and tightening environmental regulations, partly driven by Europea...

Realistic predictions of climate change effects on natural resources are central to adaptation policies that try to reduce these impacts. However, most current forecasting approaches do not incorporate species-specific, process-based biological information, which limits their ability to inform actionable strategies. Mechanistic approaches, incorpor...

Aim Understanding patterns in the abundance of species across thermal ranges can give useful insights into the potential impacts of climate change. The abundant‐centre hypothesis suggests that species will reach peak abundance at the centre of their thermal range where conditions are optimal, but evidence in support of this hypothesis is mixed and...

Changes in rocky shore community composition as responses to climatic fluctuations and anthropogenic warming can be shown by changes in average species thermal affinities. In this study we derived thermal affinities for European Atlantic rocky intertidal species by matching their known distributions to patterns in average annual sea surface tempera...

Clonal behavior has been hypothesized to provide an escape from allometric metabolic scaling that limits the maximum mass achieved by a single individual. Here, we demonstrate the capacity of a wide-spread, non-native sea anemone to buffer its colony biomass accumulation rate across environments by modulating ramet body size through environmentally...

Interactions in the Marine Benthos - edited by Stephen J. Hawkins August 2019

Twenty‐years of genetic studies of marine invaders have shown that successful invaders are often characterized by native and introduced populations displaying similar levels of genetic diversity. This pattern is presumably due to high propagule pressure and repeated introductions. The opposite pattern is reported in this study of the brown seaweed,...

In coastal waters around the world, the dominant primary producers are benthic macrophytes, including seagrasses and macroalgae, that provide habitat structure and food for diverse and abundant biological communities and drive ecosystem processes. Seagrass meadows and macroalgal forests play key roles for coastal societies, contributing to fishery...

Marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are facing unprecedented pressures in the Anthropocene, with climate change being a primary stressor. To understand the biological response mechanisms along coastlines, the international scientific community requires coordinated action, integrating obervations through observatory networks and spatially...

Rapid anthropogenic climate change is a major threat to ocean biodiversity, creating a fast-moving target for marine conservation. Strategic conservation planning, and more recently marine spatial planning (MSP) are among the most promising management tools to operationalize and enforce marine conservation. As yet, climate change is seldom incorpor...

Intertidal habitats in the northeastern Atlantic face stressful environmental impacts from semi-diurnal tides that result in both immersion and emersion of organisms to oceanic and atmospheric conditions respectively. As well as daily and seasonal temperature changes, the effects of global climate change are affecting intertidal habitats to changes...

Aim The introduction of non‐indigenous species ( NIS ) via man‐made corridors connecting previously disparate oceanic regions is increasing globally. However, the environmental and anthropogenic factors facilitating invasion dynamics and their interactions are still largely unknown. This study compiles and inputs available data for the NIS bivalve...

Our knowledge of non-native algae in benthic estuarine habitats is relatively poor, especially compared to algal introductions along open shores or on floating structures. Gracilaria vermiculophylla is a widespread macroalgal invader in the temperate estuaries of the Northern Hemisphere, and, here, we expand its documented range within northeastern...

The Torrey Canyon was wrecked in 1967 with 117,000 tons of crude oil on board. The Plymouth Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association (MBA) of the UK was mobilized to deal with this environmental catastrophe. Many of the rocky shores affected by the spill and unaffected control sites had been studied by staff from the MBA, with A.J. and E.C....

The first real-Time evidence of the rotation of the operculum of the trochid gastropod Phorcus lineatus has been obtained by marking the operculum of live individuals and recording the angular orientation of the operculum in relation to the apertural tooth using time-lapse microscopy. Short-Term monitoring of the rotation of opercula of juvenile P....

Marine ecosystems are subject to anthropogenic change at global, regional and local scales. Global drivers interact with regional- and local-scale impacts of both a chronic and acute nature. Natural fluctuations and those driven by climate change need to be understood to diagnose local- and regional-scale impacts, and to inform assessments of recov...

At a proximal level, the physiological impacts of global climate change on ectothermic organisms are manifest as changes in body temperatures. Especially for plants and animals exposed to direct solar radiation, body temperatures can be substantially different from air temperatures. We deployed biomimetic sensors that approximate the thermal charac...

Anthropogenic climate change is causing unprecedented rapid responses in marine communities, with species across many different taxonomic groups showing faster shifts in biogeographic ranges than in any other ecosystem. Spatial and temporal trends for many marine species are difficult to quantify, however, due to the lack of long-term datasets acro...

A comprehensive expert consultation was conducted in order to assess the status, trends and the most important drivers of change in the abundance and geographical distribution of kelp forests in European waters. This consultation included an on-line questionnaire, results from a workshop and data provided by a selected group of experts working on k...

Rocky shore species live on the edge of both land and sea, dealing with the twice-daily ebb and flow of the tide that results in large changes in their environment and creates a stressful place to inhabit. As most intertidal creatures and seaweeds are fixed to the rock or can only move small distances, they are at the mercy of climate change and th...

Capturing Our Coast leads on from the success of the Big Sea Survey, a citizen science project piloted in the North-East UK. Volunteers are given standardised training and ongoing support in order to return robust data on rocky shore ecosystems across the UK. Replicable protocols allow data to be collected on sets of species chosen specifically to...

A focus on ‘global biodiversity hotspots’ (GBH) was first proposed as a strategy for conserving the maximum number of species at least cost. Marine GBH have since been defined variously in relation to irreplaceability and vulnerability, resulting in questions about their identification. In addition, other issues raise concerns as to whether focusin...

Temperate reefs are superb tractable systems for testing hypotheses in ecology and evolutionary biology. Accordingly there is a rich history of research stretching back over 100 years, which has made major contributions to general ecological and evolutionary theory as well as providing better understanding of how littoral systems work by linking pa...

Biogenic reefs are important for habitat provision and coastal protection. Long-term datasets on the distribution and abundance of Sabellaria alveolata (L.) are available from Britain. The aim of this study was to combine historical records and contemporary data to (1) describe spatiotemporal variation in winter temperatures, (2) document short-ter...

There is growing evidence that climate change could affect marine benthic systems. This review provides information of climate change‐related impacts on the marine benthos in the North Atlantic. We cover a number of related research aspects, mainly in connection to two key issues. First, is the relationship between different physical aspects of cli...