Publications about Worldwide

IAN is committed to producing practical, user-centered communications that foster a better understanding of science and enable readers to pursue new opportunities in research, education, and environmental problem-solving. Our publications synthesize scientific findings using effective science communication techniques.

Enclosed Experimental Ecosystems and Scale: Tools for Understanding and Managing Coastal Ecosystems

Petersen JE, Kennedy VS, Dennison WC and Kemp WM (Eds.) ·
2 March 2009

The environmental challenges now facing humanity are particularly acute in the coastal zone. Research in this region and in other aquatic ecosystems is complicated by interactions that occur over broad scales of time, space, and ecological complexity. Enclosed experimental ecosystems have become critical research tools because they provide a degree of control not achievable through field experiments.

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Global patterns of foliar nitrogen isotopes and their relationships with climate, mycorrhizal fungi, foliar nutrient concentrations, and nitrogen availability

Craine JM, Elmore AJ, Aidar MPM, Bustamante M, Dawson TE, Hobbie EA, Kahmen A, Mack MC, McLauchlan KK, Michelsen A, Nardoto GB, Pardo LH, Penuelas J, Reich PB, Schuur EAG, Stock WD, Templer PH, Virginia RA, Welker JM, and Wright IJ ·
2009

Ratios of nitrogen (N) isotopes in leaves could elucidate underlying patterns of N cycling across ecological gradients. To better understand global-scale patterns of N cycling, we compiled data on foliar N isotope ratios (delta N-15), foliar N concentrations, mycorrhizal type and climate for over 11 000 plants worldwide.

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Seagrasses: biology, ecology and conservation (Page 1)

Seagrasses: biology, ecology and conservation

Dennison WC ·
2009

Seagrasses: biology, ecology and conservation, edited by Tony Larkum, Bob Orth and Carlos Duarte, and authored by 79 active seagrass researchers is the most comprehensive book about these unique flowering plants ever written. It is long, 691 pp, with an excess of 100 pages devoted to references, and it includes 26 chapters on evolution, anatomy, biology, physiology, biogeochemistry, remote sensing, grazing and predation, ecology, and management.

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Environmental problem solving in coastal ecosystems: A paradigm shift to sustainability (Page 1)

Environmental problem solving in coastal ecosystems: A paradigm shift to sustainability

Dennison WC ·
2008

The human ecological footprint now extends to the entire globe, and human impacts are the dominant feature of many ecosystems, resulting in our current era being coined the 'anthropocene'. This is particularly apparent in coastal ecosystems as human populations are increasing rapidly in coastal cities and the ecosystem services in these areas are rapidly being compromised.

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Groundwater influences on atmospheric dust generation in deserts

Elmore AJ, Kaste JM, Okin GS, and Fantle MS ·
2008

Groundwater resources are being overexploited in arid and semi-arid environments globally, which necessitates a deeper understanding of the roles that groundwater plays in earth system processes. Of particular importance is the elucidation of groundwater's effect on the generation of atmospheric dust.

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Seagrass: A Hidden Treasure (Page 1)

Seagrass: A Hidden Treasure

Bill Dennison ·
1 January 2008

This brochure is part of a series of images, diagrams and fun facts produced by the Global Seagrass Trajectories working group, funded by the National Science Foundation and conducted at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in SantaBarbara, California. It describes the temperate and tropical distributions of seagrasses globally, their role as food and habitat for a variety of organisms, as well as being effective indicators of change.

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The charisma of coastal ecosystems: addressing the imbalance (Page 1)

The charisma of coastal ecosystems: addressing the imbalance

Duarte CM, Dennison WC, Orth RJ, and Carruthers TJB ·
2008

Coastal ecosystems including coral reefs, mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and salt marshes are being lost at alarming rates, and increased scientific understanding of causes has failed to stem these losses. Coastal habitats receive contrasting research effort, with 60% of all of the published research carried out on coral reefs, compared to 11–14% of the records for each of salt marshes, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows.

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Trophic Transfers from Seagrass Meadows Subsidize Diverse Marine and Terrestrial Consumers (Page 1)

Trophic Transfers from Seagrass Meadows Subsidize Diverse Marine and Terrestrial Consumers

Heck KL, Carruthers TJB, Duarte CM, Hughes AR, Kendrick G, Orth RJ, and Williams SW ·
2008

In many coastal locations, seagrass meadows are part of a greater seascape that includes both marine and terrestrial elements, each linked to the other via the foraging patterns of consumers (both predators and herbivores), and the passive drift of seagrass propagules, leaves, roots and rhizomes, and seagrass-associated macroalgal detritus. With seagrasses declining in many regions, the linkages between seagrass meadows and other habitats are being altered and diminished.

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Building EDENs: The rise of environmentally distributed ecological networks (Page 1)

Building EDENs: The rise of environmentally distributed ecological networks

Craine JM, Battersby J, Elmore AJ, and Jones AW ·
2007

Environmentally distributed ecological networks (EDENs) are growing increasingly important in ecology, coordinating research in more disciplines and over larger areas than ever before, while supplanting post hoc syntheses of uncoordinated research. With the rise of multiple broadly focused, continental-scale EDENs, these networks will be directing an increasingly large proportion of resources in ecology, which warrants a review of their use.

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