Tube-dwelling invertebrates: tiny ecosystem engineers have large effects in lake ecosystems

Effects of Invertebrates in Lotic Ecosystem Processes

Fungi in lake ecosystems

This review highlights the presence and ecological roles of fungi in lakes, and aims to stimulate research in aquatic mycology. In the study of lentic systems, this field is an almost completely neglected topic and, if considered at all, has often been restricted to specific groups of fungi, such as yeasts, filamentous fungi (e.g. aquatic hyphomycetes), or phycomycetes (an obsolete taxonomic ca...

Anthropogenic sources of underwater sound can modify how sediment-dwelling invertebrates mediate ecosystem properties

Coastal and shelf environments support high levels of biodiversity that are vital in mediating ecosystem processes, but they are also subject to noise associated with mounting levels of offshore human activity. This has the potential to alter the way in which species interact with their environment, compromising the mediation of important ecosystem properties. Here, we show that exposure to und...

Long-term effects of a trophic cascade in a large lake ecosystem.

Introductions or invasions of nonnative organisms can mediate major changes in the trophic structure of aquatic ecosystems. Here we document multitrophic level impacts in a spatially extensive system that played out over more than a century. Positive interactions among exotic vertebrate and invertebrate predators caused a substantial and abrupt shift in community composition resulting in a trop...

Do invertebrates have culture?

A recent paper in Current Biology1 showed for the first time that female invertebrates (Drosophila melanogaster) can perform mate choice copying. Here, we discuss how female mating preferences in this species may be transmitted culturally. If culture occurs in invertebrates, it may be a relatively ancient evolutionary process that may have contributed to the evolution of many different taxa. Th...