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Multiple Stressors and Disturbances

When Change Is Not in the Nature of Things

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Marine Hard Bottom Communities

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 206))

Abstract

Marine communities are increasingly affected by numerous stressors that act as agents of physical and biological disturbance through a combination of natural and human-induced impacts. These include storms, sedimentation, temperature changes, pollution, eutrophication, over-harvesting, damage to habitats, arrival of invasive species and climate change. Here I discuss how multiple stressors alter assemblages on rocky reefs through direct impacts on organisms and indirectly through altered ecological relationships, recruitment and regenerative processes. The ability to recover from stressors is a function of their intensity, magnitude, spatial and temporal extent, and the susceptibilities and resilience of organisms, communities and ecosystems. Multiple levels of understanding will be required as society acts to predict, solve and mitigate coastal problems.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to The New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York and the Marsden fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand, which supported much of the work on which this chapter is based.

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  1. Marine Ecology Research Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, 8140, Christchurch, New Zealand

    David R. Schiel

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    Schiel, D.R. (2009). Multiple Stressors and Disturbances. In: Wahl, M. (eds) Marine Hard Bottom Communities. Ecological Studies, vol 206. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/b76710_20

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