The production of novel hybrid zones is an ecologically important consequence of globally increasing rates of species introductions and invasions. Interspecific hybridization can facilitate gene flow between parent species or produce novel taxa that may alter invasion dynamics or ecosystem services. The coastal sand dunes of the U.S. Pacific Northwest...
Community structure and function in ecosystems are dependent on top‐down and bottom‐up factors, which vary across local, regional, and temporal scales. In estuaries of the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast, eelgrass (Zostera marina) ecosystems are exposed to latitudinally varying oceanographic inputs in the form of ocean upwelling. Previous research suggests that...
Marine macrophyte wrack (macroalgae and seagrasses) frequently washes onto beaches but little is known about the factors controlling its biogeographic variability. We report on a large-scale study of macrophyte wrack deposition patterns on the US Pacific Northwest coast. We measured macrophyte wrack on 12 sandy beach sites from southern Washington...
Managing multiple ecosystem services (ESs) across landscapes presents a central challenge for ecosystem-based management, because services often exhibit spatiotemporal variation and weak associations with co-occurring ESs. Further focus on the mechanistic relationships among ESs and their underlying biophysical processes provides greater insight into the causes of variation and covariation among...
Vegetation at the aquatic–terrestrial interface can alter landscape features through its growth and interactions with sediment and fluids. Even similar species may impart different effects due to variation in their interactions and feedbacks with the environment. Consequently, replacement of one engineering species by another can cause significant change in the...
Ecosystems are shaped by processes occurring and interacting over multiple
temporal and spatial scales. Theory suggests such complexity can be simplified by focusing on
processes sharing the same scale as the pattern of interest. This scale-dependent approach to
studying communities has been challenged by multiscale meta-ecosystem theory, which
recognizes that...
Ecosystems are shaped by processes occurring and interacting over multiple
temporal and spatial scales. Theory suggests such complexity can be simplified by focusing on
processes sharing the same scale as the pattern of interest. This scale-dependent approach to
studying communities has been challenged by multiscale meta-ecosystem theory, which
recognizes that...
Ecosystems are shaped by processes occurring and interacting over multiple
temporal and spatial scales. Theory suggests such complexity can be simplified by focusing on
processes sharing the same scale as the pattern of interest. This scale-dependent approach to
studying communities has been challenged by multiscale meta-ecosystem theory, which
recognizes that...
1. Theoretical and empirical ecology has transitioned from a focus on the role of negative interactions in species coexistence to a more pluralistic view that acknowledges that coexistence in natural communities is more complex, and depends on species interactions that vary in strength, sign, and reciprocity, and such contexts as...
Knowledge of nutrient pathways and their resulting ecological interactions can alleviate numerous environmental problems associated with nutrient increases in both natural and managed systems. Although not unique, coastal systems are particularly prone to complex ecological interactions resulting from nutrient inputs from both the land and sea. Nutrient inputs to coastal...
Ecosystems are shaped by processes occurring and interacting over multiple temporal and spatial scales. Theory suggests such complexity can be simplified by focusing on processes sharing the same scale as the pattern of interest. This scale-dependent approach to studying communities has been challenged by multiscale meta-ecosystem theory, which recognizes that...
Invasive species can alter the succession of ecological communities because they are
often adapted to the disturbed conditions that initiate succession. The extent to which this
occurs may depend on how widely they are distributed across environmental gradients and
how long they persist over the course of succession. We focus...
Seagrasses and bivalves co-occur worldwide, and each plays a role in the structure, function, and services of coastal ecosystems. While seagrasses are declining, bivalve aquaculture is expanding, and impacts from culture practices, as opposed to the cultured organisms themselves, need to be distinguished. In 2 experiments, we tested the effects...
Disturbance regimes differ in type, magnitude, and frequency, but few field experiments have considered compounded effects of disturbance. In this study, we characterized gap recovery after complete removal of eelgrass (Zostera marina) in Willapa Bay, Washington, USA. In separate experiments, we imposed two disturbance types – shoot damage and shoot...