Lotze, Heike
Recent Submissions
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Food-Web Structure of Seagrass Communities across Different Spatial Scales and Human Impacts
Seagrass beds provide important habitat for a wide range of marine species but are threatened by multiple human impacts in coastal waters. Although seagrass communities have been well-studied in the field, a quantification ... -
Coastal food web structure, carbon storage, and nitrogen retention regulated by consumer pressure and nutrient loading
By factorial field experiments we analyzed the relative effects of increased nutrient (N+P) loading and natural grazing pressure on species composition, carbon storage, and nitrogen retention in the Baltic Sea littoral ... -
Effects of eutrophication, grazing, and algal blooms on rocky shores
Eutrophication can profoundly change rocky shore communities. These changes often cause the replacement of perennial, canopy-forming algae such as Fucus spp. with annual, bloom-forming algae such as Enteromorpha spp. ... -
The Biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea: Estimates, Patterns, and Threats
The Mediterranean Sea is a marine biodiversity hot spot. Here we combined an extensive literature analysis with expert opinions to update publicly available estimates of major taxa in this marine ecosystem and to revise ... -
Overestimating Fish Counts by Non-Instantaneous Visual Censuses: Consequences for Population and Community Descriptions
Background: Increasingly, underwater visual censuses (UVC) are used to assess fish populations. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of protected areas for increasing fish abundance or provided insight into ... -
Regional-scale effects of eutrophication on ecosystem structure and services of seagrass beds
Using large-scale field surveys across 12 estuaries in two provinces in Atlantic Canada, we analyzed changes in phytoplankton and benthic macroalgal communities as well as the canopy structure of eelgrass beds and quantified ... -
Assessing the Value of Recreational Divers for Censusing Elasmobranchs
Background: Around the world, researchers are using the observations and experiences of citizens to describe patterns in animal populations. This data is often collected via ongoing sampling or by synthesizing past ... -
Large-Scale Absence of Sharks on Reefs in the Greater-Caribbean: A Footprint of Human Pressures
Background: In recent decades, large pelagic and coastal shark populations have declined dramatically with increased fishing; however, the status of sharks in other systems such as coral reefs remains largely unassessed ... -
Strong bottom-up and top-down control of early life stages of macroalgae
In contrast to most pelagic primary producers, benthic macrophytes pass through morphologically distinct life stages, which can be subject to different ecological controls. Using factorial field experiments, we investigated ... -
Rapid Global Expansion of Invertebrate Fisheries: Trends, Drivers, and Ecosystem Effects
Background: Worldwide, finfish fisheries are receiving increasing assessment and regulation, slowly leading to more sustainable exploitation and rebuilding. In their wake, invertebrate fisheries are rapidly expanding with ... -
Complex interactions of climatic and ecological controls on macroalgal recruitment.
Little is known about the cumulative effects of multiple (>2) environmental controls on species performance and interactions in aquatic ecosystems. We asked how changes in climatic (temperature, ultraviolet radiation) and ... -
Two centuries of multiple human impacts and successive changes in a North Atlantic food web
European colonization of North America, severely altered terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems alike. Here, we integrate archaeological, historical, and recent data to derive the ecological history of the Quoddy Region, Bay ... -
Long-term change in a meso-predator community in response to prolonged and heterogeneous human impact
Sharks and rays' abundance can decline considerably with fishing. Community changes, however, are more complex because of species interactions, and variable vulnerability and exposure to fishing. We evaluated long-term ...