Recovering lost baselines
Managing natural systems without knowledge of their previous state is like navagating without a map. The power of such research on policy development is hard to overstate. Here are three examples:
Two hundred years ago oyster reefs were dominant habitat
We discovered 1500 kilometers of lost reef. This finding is making managers think about restoration of these reefs. Importantly, what did they once provide nature & humanity?
We have new projects on discovering their potential to increase fish productivity and water clarity. Oysters not only prvide food and habitat, but also filtration capacity for pollutants.
Alleway HK, Connell SD (2015) Losing an ecological baseline through the eradication of oyster reefs from coastal ecosystems and human memory. Conservation Biology 29:795-804
Seventy years of poleward movement
We found Australian seaweeds have been redistributing themselves towards the south pole:
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Today's communities have become similar to past communities at lower latitudes
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Median shifts of 0.5° to 1.9° latitude poleward
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Up to ∼25% of species might retract toward extinction
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Change is consistent with warming in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans
Wernberg T, Russell BD, et al., Connell SD (2011) Seaweed Communities in Retreat from Ocean Warming. Current Biology 21:1828-1832
Thirty years ago we had 'urban' kelp forests
Our recovery of the urban kelp baseline enabled cross-government concenus on the need to improve water quality. Previously, the absence of urban kelp was argued to be natural and water improvement unnecssary.
South Australian Government now aims to reduce its coastal release of nitrogen by 75%.
Connell SD, Russell BD, et al., (2008) Recovering a lost baseline: missing kelp forests from a metropolitan coast. Marine Ecology Progress Series 360:63-72