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Marine Animal Forests pp 1–17Cite as

Animal Forests Through Time: Historical Data to Understand Present Changes in Marine Ecosystems

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Abstract

Animal forests form the foundation of many important marine benthic habitats. However, a near ubiquitous lack of long-term scientific data raises significant challenges in assessing how these communities have changed over time in response to human impacts and how they might respond to future perturbations. To address these questions, alternative sources of data have to be gathered. Marine historical ecology is a rapidly growing field of research that uses historical sources to challenge our assumptions about what is natural in our marine environments. This discipline thus has the potential to fill some of the gaps in our understanding of animal forests through time. This chapter reviews how historical ecology research helps us to better understand the changes that have occurred in marine animal forests, focusing in particular upon oyster and shallow-water coral communities. The variety of data sources available and the methodologies that have been used to uncover past changes in these and related ecosystems are highlighted. The use of historical data to inform restoration efforts and emerging concepts in marine ecology, such as ecosystem service provision, is examined. Finally, the limitations of historical data and remaining knowledge gaps with regard to past animal forest communities are discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia

    Ruth H. Thurstan & John M. Pandolfi

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK

    Philine S. E. zu Ermgassen

Authors
  1. Ruth H. Thurstan
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  2. John M. Pandolfi
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  3. Philine S. E. zu Ermgassen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ruth H. Thurstan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Environmental Science & Technology Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Sergio Rossi

  2. LECOB / Ocean Observatory CNRS / Pierre and Marie Curie University, Banyuls-sur-mer, France

    Lorenzo Bramanti

  3. Dept. Marine Biology & Oceanography, Institute of Marine Sciences, Barcelona, Spain

    Andrea Gori

  4. Balearic Oceanographic Centre Spanish Institute of Oceanography, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Covadonga Orejas Saco del Valle

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Thurstan, R.H., Pandolfi, J.M., zu Ermgassen, P.S.E. (2015). Animal Forests Through Time: Historical Data to Understand Present Changes in Marine Ecosystems. In: Rossi, S., Bramanti, L., Gori, A., Orejas Saco del Valle, C. (eds) Marine Animal Forests. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_31-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_31-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17001-5

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