Impact of wildfires on sediment quality in estuaries in New South Wales, Australia.

Climate change is increasing wildfire intensity, introducing new risks to estuarine systems. However, the impacts of wildfires on estuaries and their recovery remain poorly understood. To address this, we conducted a large-scale longitudinal survey investigating sediment quality across river-to-estuary systems affected by fire.

Multiple stressors affect function rather than taxonomic structure of freshwater microbial communities.

Microbial community responses to environmental stressors are often characterised by assessing changes in taxonomic structure, but such changes, or lack thereof, may not reflect functional changes that are critical to ecosystem processes. We investigated the individual and combined effects of nutrient enrichment ( + 10 mg/L N, + 1 mg/L P) and salinisation ( + 15 g/L NaCl)-key stressors in freshwater systems-on the taxonomic structure and metabolic function of benthic microbial communities using 1000 L open freshwater ponds established >10 years ago in the field. Combined stressors drove strong decreases in maximum and mean total carbon metabolic rates and shifted carbon metabolic profiles compared to either stressor individually and compared to ambient conditions.

Ecosystem Service Trajectories in Restored Coastal Habitats.

Ecosystem restoration is urgently needed to restore, maintain, or increase valued ecosystem services provided by natural habitats. However, the provision of services in restored habitats, in comparison to natural, undegraded habitats, and the time required for them to be generated, is uncertain. Here, for the first time in coastal (or to our knowledge, any) ecosystems, we systematically outline why and how to characterize pathways of ecosystem service recovery following restoration.

Major global ports alter light regimes for marine biofouling communities.

Globally, there are more than 17,000 cargo-handling ports that are expected to double in capacity by 2030. Overwater structures are common in ports and create permanently shaded environments that can produce ecological shifts from primary-producer to consumer dominated communities. Yet, the extent of these structures across ports and their impact on light conditions and associated communities in different areas beneath has not been quantified.

Artificial light at night reduces predation and herbivory rates in a nearshore reef.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is an escalating anthropogenic stressor that can affect ecological communities over a range of spatial scales by altering key ecological processes, such as predation and herbivory. Shallow subtidal reefs are highly diverse and productive habitats that are vulnerable to ALAN. We investigated rates of consumption by fish (predation and herbivory) under different light treatments (ALAN, dark and daylight conditions) using standardised bioassay methods, i.