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Aquatic Species Interactions under Global Environmental Changes

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity and Functionality of Aquatic Ecosystems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 5139

Special Issue Editor

School of Biological Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
Interests: limnology; plankton ecology; harmful algal blooms; species interactions; ecotoxicology; inducible defense

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Species interactions are unquestionably widespread and important across the Tree of Life. These interspecific interactions include competition, predation, herbivory, symbiosis (including parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism), and facilitation. Interactions between aquatic species are as evolutionarily plasticity as the species themselves, and have played a critical role in maintaining biodiversity and shaping structures of aquatic ecosystems. However, anthropogenic activities are severely impacting aquatic ecosystems, which are also increasingly affected by global change, such as climate changes, eutrophication, pollution, overexploitation of aquatic resources and so on. Understanding how the interspecific interactions respond to global environemntal changes is greatly helpful for predicting aquatic ecosystem function.

This Special Issue calls for new insights into the diversity of aquatic species interactions and their responses to global environmental changes.  Contributions may include interactions within and/or across trophic levels in both marine and freshwater ecosystems. Stuff concerning global environmental changes can cover long-time-scale investigations and simulation research. Relations between species interaction and ecological functions are also welcomed.

Dr. Yuan Huang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • freshwater ecosystem
  • marine ecosystem
  • global changes
  • interspecies interaction
  • ecological functions
  • environmental stress

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 5424 KiB  
Article
Interannual Variation of Ichthyoplankton Community Structure in the Yellow River Estuary, China
by Fan Li, Mingming Zhu, Wei Chen, Bo Su, Yanyan Yang and Bin Wang
Water 2023, 15(6), 1040; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15061040 - 9 Mar 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1873
Abstract
To understand the community structure dynamics of fish eggs and larvae in the Yellow River estuary, four trawl surveys were annually conducted between 2011 and 2014, including at 13 stations in 2011 and 18 stations between 2012 and 2014. A total of 2540 [...] Read more.
To understand the community structure dynamics of fish eggs and larvae in the Yellow River estuary, four trawl surveys were annually conducted between 2011 and 2014, including at 13 stations in 2011 and 18 stations between 2012 and 2014. A total of 2540 eggs and 143 larvae were collected during the four surveys, comprising 25 species, 8 orders, 16 families, and 20 genera. During the survey period, species numbers of eggs first decreased and then increased, while abundances first increased and then decreased. Larval species numbers exhibited the same trends as for eggs, while larval abundances fluctuated across the four years of the study. The primary species represented by the eggs were Konosirus punctatus, Sillago sihama, and Cynoglossus joyeri, while the larval species primarily comprised Amblychaeturichthys hexanema, Chaeturichthys stigmatias, and Engraulis japonicus. Cluster analysis of species compositions for eggs and larvae revealed the presence of four groups, wherein groups 1–3 comprised communities from 12, 3, and 2 stations, respectively, that were primarily distributed in the eastern part of the estuary. In contrast, group four only comprised communities from one station at the western part of the estuary near Bohai Bay. All biodiversity indices were lowest in 2012 and biodiversity of fish egg and larval communities were most correlated with the water depth among the parameters that were measured. Overall, interannual variation in the distribution and diversity of fish egg and larval communities in the Yellow River estuary reflected the responses of fish to environmental variability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aquatic Species Interactions under Global Environmental Changes)
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12 pages, 1618 KiB  
Article
Effects of Warming on Aquatic Snails and Periphyton in Freshwater Ecosystems with and without Predation by Common Carp
by Haowu Cheng, Mingjun Feng, Peiyu Zhang, Huan Zhang, Huan Wang, Jun Xu and Min Zhang
Water 2023, 15(1), 153; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15010153 - 30 Dec 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2827
Abstract
Freshwater gastropods play key roles in shallow aquatic ecosystems, with a central position in the periphyton–gastropod–fish trophic pathway, as they feed on periphyton and are preyed on by animals of higher trophic levels. Thus, it is of great interest to explore how climate [...] Read more.
Freshwater gastropods play key roles in shallow aquatic ecosystems, with a central position in the periphyton–gastropod–fish trophic pathway, as they feed on periphyton and are preyed on by animals of higher trophic levels. Thus, it is of great interest to explore how climate change impacts the gastropod community and the trophic cascading effects on periphyton. Here, we constructed a simplified, shallow lake food web in 24 large mesocosm tanks to simulate warming (+4.5 °C) on the population responses of two common snails (Bellamya aeruginosa and Radix swinhoei) in two different systems (without/with common carp Cyprinus carpio) over 200 days. We found that warming lowered the biomass and density of R. swinhoei by 16.8% and 41.6%, respectively, and accelerated the average time of density peak of R. swinhoei by 21.5 days in the common carp-absent system. The density of B. aeruginosa in the warming with common carp group was lowered by 79.8% more than in the warming group without common carp. The averaged biomass and density of R. swinhoei in the fish-present system significantly lowered by 64.4% and 92.5%, respectively, compared to the fish-absent system. Cascading effects were also observed, as the snail communities declined under warming, that is, the grazing pressure on periphyton was less, resulting in its higher biomass. In conclusion, in the fish-absent system, warming decreased the biomass and density of the R. swinhoei, and in both snail populations, the biomass and density were much higher than those in the fish-present system. Due to the different phenology of snail species and species-specific predation, future stronger predation in a continuous warming condition might undermine the diversity of the gastropods, thereby changing food web structures in shallow freshwater ecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aquatic Species Interactions under Global Environmental Changes)
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