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Understanding the Relationship between Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Functioning and Ecosystem Services in Aquatic Ecosystems

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2019) | Viewed by 19744

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Patrick Venail

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department F.-A. Forel for Environmental and Aquatic Sciences, University of Geneva, Versoix, Switzerland
Interests: biodiversity; ecology; ecosystem functioning; ecosystem services; freshwater

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Aquatic ecosystems (e.g., oceans, lakes, rivers) are vital for humanity as providers of a variety of functions and services, including CO2 fixation and oxygen production among others. Still, anthropogenic activities leading to its overexploitation, contamination, eutrophication and reduction of its associated biodiversity are putting these ecosystems under major stress and may lead to an impaired functioning. Despite the major efforts to better understand the structure, composition and functioning of aquatic communities, we still have a limited understanding of the relationship between the diversity and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. We lack information especially on how different aspects of diversity simultaneously influence multiple functions such as nutrient use and subsequently biomass production. The aims of this Special Issue in Sustainability are to explore the evidence on the impact diversity on the functioning and the provisioning of services in aquatic ecosystems, to underline the major gaps in our current knowledge and, most importantly, to find ways to move forward in this field of research.

Dr. Patrick Venail
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Biodiversity
  • Ecosystem Functioning
  • Ecosystem Services
  • Freshwater
  • Marine
  • Multifunctionality

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 2118 KiB  
Article
Phytoplankton Diversity Relates Negatively with Productivity in Tropical High-Altitude Lakes from Southern Ecuador
by Alonso Cartuche, Ziyu Guan, Bastiaan W. Ibelings and Patrick Venail
Sustainability 2019, 11(19), 5235; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195235 - 24 Sep 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2951
Abstract
Tropical high-altitude lakes are vital freshwater reservoirs in the Andean regions. They are heavily threatened by human activities that may alter their functioning and hamper the provisioning of key ecosystem services such as water supply. Despite their ecological and social relevance, we know [...] Read more.
Tropical high-altitude lakes are vital freshwater reservoirs in the Andean regions. They are heavily threatened by human activities that may alter their functioning and hamper the provisioning of key ecosystem services such as water supply. Despite their ecological and social relevance, we know little about these waterbodies, especially regarding the factors influencing their functioning. Here, we explored the links between several environmental variables and phytoplankton productivity, measured as chlorophyll-a concentration and total phytoplankton biovolume. For this, we sampled twenty-four tropical high-altitude lakes located over three-thousand meters above sea level in Southern Ecuador. We found that four abiotic factors combined explained 76% of the variation in chlorophyll-a concentration amongst lakes. Contrary to what studies from temperate regions suggest, taxa richness was not related to either chlorophyll-a concentrations or total phytoplankton biovolume. Moreover, phytoplankton biovolume diversity was negatively correlated to both chlorophyll-a concentrations and total phytoplankton biovolume. This was due to a very uneven distribution of productivity amongst taxa in the more productive lakes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to explore the determinants of phytoplankton functioning in tropical high-altitude lakes. We hope that this study will help to establish a baseline for evaluating the consequences of human activities in the ecology and functioning of this vital but fragile ecosystem. Our results suggest that by modifying the abiotic and biotic parameters of tropical high-altitude lakes, human activities can indirectly impact their functioning and their capacity to provide vital ecosystem services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Understanding the Relationship between Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Functioning and Ecosystem Services in Aquatic Ecosystems)
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24 pages, 2864 KiB  
Article
Relationships between Riparian Forest Fragmentation and Biological Indicators of Streams
by Yirigui Yirigui, Sang-Woo Lee, A. Pouyan Nejadhashemi, Matthew R. Herman and Jong-Won Lee
Sustainability 2019, 11(10), 2870; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11102870 - 20 May 2019
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4701
Abstract
Anthropogenic activities, such as land use and land cover modifications in riparian areas, can alter the degree of fragmentation of riparian vegetation, lead to the degradation of stream habitats, and affect biological communities in the streams. The characteristics of the riparian forests can [...] Read more.
Anthropogenic activities, such as land use and land cover modifications in riparian areas, can alter the degree of fragmentation of riparian vegetation, lead to the degradation of stream habitats, and affect biological communities in the streams. The characteristics of the riparian forests can modify the condition of stream environments and the transporting mechanisms of materials, sediments, nutrients, and pollutants loaded from the watersheds. This study aimed to examine the relationships between forest fragmentation and three biological indicators of trophic diatom, benthic macroinvertebrate, and the fish assessment in the Nakdong River, Korea. Eighty-nine biological assessment sampling sites in the National Aquatic Ecological Monitoring Program of South Korea were identified. For each sampling site, riparian forest data within a 500 m radius were extracted from national LULC using GIS to compute fragmentation metrics using FRAGSTATS software. Four fragmentation metrics—number of forest patches, percentage of riparian forest cover (PLAND), largest riparian forest patch index (LPI), and riparian forest division index (DIVISION)—were correlated with the biological indicators. Also, due to severe spatial autocorrelation among observations, the fragmentation metrics and stream environmental variables were regressed to biological indicators using regression tree analysis. Our results indicate that the biological indicators were significantly associated with most forest fragmentation metrics. We found positive correlations of PLAND and LPI with biological indicators, whereas DIVISION was negatively correlated with biological indicators. Both correlation and regression tree analyses revealed that the biological conditions of streams were likely to be better if riparian forests are less fragmented. Particularly, stronger relationships were revealed between macroinvertebrates and fish with the fragmentation metrics of riparian forests than with benthic diatoms. However, these relationships varied with elevation, stream size, and slope conditions. The results of this study reinforced the importance of including riparian forests in the planning, restoration, and management of stream environments. These results also suggested that planners and managers may need to consider different strategies for different stream environments and topographic characteristics in managing riparian forests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Understanding the Relationship between Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Functioning and Ecosystem Services in Aquatic Ecosystems)
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21 pages, 1306 KiB  
Article
Assessing Changes in Ecosystem Services Provision in Coastal Waters
by Miguel Inácio, Gerald Schernewski, Dimitra Alkisti Pliatsika, Juliane Benz and René Friedland
Sustainability 2019, 11(9), 2632; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11092632 - 07 May 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3506
Abstract
Coastal ecosystems are important ecosystem services (ES) suppliers. The degradation of these ecosystems jeopardizes the quality of ES provision. The Biodiversity 2020 Strategy aims at maintaining and restoring ES, although clear guidelines are missing on how to define the state to which ES [...] Read more.
Coastal ecosystems are important ecosystem services (ES) suppliers. The degradation of these ecosystems jeopardizes the quality of ES provision. The Biodiversity 2020 Strategy aims at maintaining and restoring ES, although clear guidelines are missing on how to define the state to which ES should be restored. In this respect, synergies between ES assessments and the Water Framework Directive (WFD) exist, but methodological approaches to connect both are lacking. The Marine Ecosystem Services Assessment Tool (MESAT) can overcome this problem. In this study, the tool is applied to semi-open and open coastal water bodies in the Southern Baltic Sea, the Greifswald Bay and Pomeranian Bay. The resulting changes in ES provision confirm the ability of MESAT to be applied in all WFD water body types and a multitude of environmental and anthropogenic gradients. Nevertheless, problems such as data scarcity, spatial extent and historical background of the case studies require adaptations in the assessment process. The spatial extent of all case studies allowed to cover a connected system with a strong environmental (salinity) gradient. Analyzing changes in ES provision in connected systems can help to better understand linkages between ES provision and environmental and anthropogenic stressors as well as trade-offs between ES across water bodies. This information can be further used to support the design of management plans. From the analysis of all MESAT case studies, major factors were identified for the tool to be transfered into a European context, as well as potential problems and solutions. Following the WFD is a strong advantage, which ensures the tool’s transferability to other areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Understanding the Relationship between Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Functioning and Ecosystem Services in Aquatic Ecosystems)
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Review

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20 pages, 1971 KiB  
Review
A Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Responses Framework to Support the Sustainability of Fish and Fisheries in Lake Tana, Ethiopia
by Shewit Gebremedhin, Abebe Getahun, Wassie Anteneh, Stijn Bruneel and Peter Goethals
Sustainability 2018, 10(8), 2957; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082957 - 20 Aug 2018
Cited by 58 | Viewed by 7892
Abstract
Lake Tana, Ethiopia’s largest lake, has a remarkable and conservation-worthy assemblage of fish species, requiring fisheries management for sustainable exploitation. However, due to anthropogenic impacts, many of these fish species are threatened. Hence, an improved management of these resources is recommended. To allow [...] Read more.
Lake Tana, Ethiopia’s largest lake, has a remarkable and conservation-worthy assemblage of fish species, requiring fisheries management for sustainable exploitation. However, due to anthropogenic impacts, many of these fish species are threatened. Hence, an improved management of these resources is recommended. To allow a more sustainable exploitation of natural resources, a better understanding of the cause-effect relationships between anthropogenic impacts and environmental components is fundamental. The Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Responses (DPSIR) framework is a useful tool to describe these links in a meaningful way to managers and policy makers. Despite its potential, application of DPSIR is virtually lacking in developing countries. This paper assessed the potential of the DPSIR framework and used it to comprehensively describe the available knowledge and management needs in the lake catchment. Rapid population growth and the economic transformation are the main driving forces leading to various pressures such as water quality and wetlands degradation as well as declining fish community, which is detrimental to the socio-economic state and health of the local inhabitants. As feedback to the driving forces, pressures, state changes and impacts, optimal multi-level responses are developed. This study aims at providing policy makers a better understanding of the lake catchment in order to bridge the gap between science and decision-making. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Understanding the Relationship between Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Functioning and Ecosystem Services in Aquatic Ecosystems)
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