Extensive development and construction in marine and coastal systems is driving a
phenomenon known as “ocean sprawl”. Ocean sprawl removes or transforms marine …

Sediment dwelling, microscopic primary producers, that occupy sediments in the photic
zone, are commonly referred to as microphytobenthos (MPB). The MPB are essential …

Stopping declines in biodiversity is critically important, but it is only a first step toward
achieving more ambitious conservation goals. The absence of an objective and practical …

Predicting the consequences of species loss is critically important, given present threats to
biological diversity such as habitat destruction, overharvesting and climate change. Several …

Global climate change will undoubtedly be a pressure on coastal marine ecosystems,
affecting not only species distributions and physiology but also ecosystem functioning. In the …

Size is a fundamental organismal trait and an important driver of ecosystem functions.
Although large individuals may dominate some functions and provide important habitat …

Do large organisms occupy higher trophic levels? Predators are often larger than their prey
in food chains, but empirical evidence for positive body mass–trophic level scaling for entire …

Whether species coculture can overcome the shortcomings of crop monoculture requires
additional study. Here, we show how aquatic animals (ie carp, crabs, and softshell turtles) …

The importance of different functional traits of macrobenthos in benthic processes of the
Southern Bight of the North Sea was investigated to estimate the effects of density declines …

The expectation that long-term, broad-scale changes in the relative abundance of species,
homogenisation of habitats and decreases in diversity will affect ecosystem function has led …