SPEC 7. Aquatic Life Cycle Strategies - Survival in a Variable Environment

Edited by Michael Whitfield on behalf of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Jack Matthews on behalf of the Scottish Association for Marine Science and Colin Reynolds on behalf of theFreshwater Biological Association

Published by The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 1999

149 pages

ISBN 0 903241-07-2

Price £20.00

Invited papers from a specialised conference held at the University of Plymouth in April 1997 by the FBA, MBA and SAMS.

In a rapidly changing world it is essential that we should understand the factors controlling the sustainability of ecosystems. In aquatic ecosystems, both sensitivity and recoverability are influenced strongly by the life cycles of the organisms concerned. The response of individual species to change and their chances of survival in a variable environment can be affected dramatically by the timing and location of disturbances relative to their natural rhythms of fertilisation, dispersal and development. This book illustrates the wide range of issues that must be addressed to understand such relationships. Its purpose is to consider those aspects of life history that make aquatic organisms especially susceptible to (or adaptable to) changing environments - and hence to discuss links between impacts on individuals and the consequent effects on populations and communities.

Contents:

  LIFE CYCLES

  Synchrony and sociality: breeding strategies in constant and variable benthic environments (C M Young)

  With or against the grain: responses of phytoplankton to pelagic variability (C S Reynolds)

  Plankton behaviour and life cycles in advective environments (S Kaartvedt)

  Egg Hatching: one mechanism for life-cycle partitioning in aquatic insects (U H Humpesch)

  The influence of ontogeny on the response of freshwater fish to environmental variables (R H K Mann)

  VARIABILITY AND IMPACT

  History and recruitment in structure of intertidal assemblages on rocky shores: an introduction to problems for interpretation of natural change (A J Underwood)

  On the benefits of being a larva - or not (J A Pechenik)

  Amphibians and agriculture: double jeopardy (R S Oldham) Running the gauntlet: pollution, evolution and reclamation of an estuarine bay (J Levinton)

  Identifying ‘marine sensitive areas' – the importance of understanding life-cycles (K Hiscock)