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Theis S, Chreston A, Wallace A, Graham B, Coey B, Little D, Cartwright L, Poesch M, Portiss R, Ruppert J. Nearshore fish community changes along the Toronto waterfront in accordance with management and restoration goals: Insights from two decades of monitoring. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0298333. [PMID: 38408042 PMCID: PMC10896508 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 02/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Aquatic habitat in the Greater Toronto Area has been subject to anthropogenic stressors. The subsequent aquatic habitat degradation that followed led to the Toronto and Region waterfront being listed as an Area of Concern in 1987. Thus, extensive shoreline and riparian habitat restoration have been implemented as part of the Toronto and Region Remedial Action Plan in conjunction with local stakeholders, ministries, and NGOs in an overall effort to increase fish, bird, and wildlife habitat. A key aspect of current fish habitat restoration efforts, monitored by Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, is to account for long-term community changes within the target ecosystem to better understand overall changes at a larger spatial scale. Here we use electrofishing data from the past 20 years with over 100,000 records and across 72km of coastline to show how declines and fluctuations in fish biomass and catch along the waterfront are driven by a few individual species across three main ecotypes, such as coastal wetlands, embayments, and open coast sites, with the remaining species showing a high level of stability. Using community traits and composition for resident species we demonstrate native warmwater species have become more dominant along the waterfront in recent years, suggesting that restoration efforts are functioning as intended. Additionally, piscivore and specialist species have increased in their relative biomass contribution, approaching existing restoration targets. Altogether this waterfront-wide evaluation allows us to detect overall changes along the waterfront and can be beneficial to understand community changes at an ecosystem level when implementing and monitoring restoration projects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Theis
- Fisheries and Aquatic Conservation Lab, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science, North York, Ontario, Canada
| | - Andrea Chreston
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science, North York, Ontario, Canada
| | - Angela Wallace
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science, North York, Ontario, Canada
| | - Brian Graham
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science, North York, Ontario, Canada
| | - Brynn Coey
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science, North York, Ontario, Canada
| | - Don Little
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science, North York, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lyndsay Cartwright
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science, North York, Ontario, Canada
| | - Mark Poesch
- Fisheries and Aquatic Conservation Lab, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Rick Portiss
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science, North York, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jonathan Ruppert
- Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science, North York, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Jacob Rani BS, Venkatachalam S. A neoteric approach for the complete valorization of Typha angustifolia leaf biomass: A drive towards environmental sustainability. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2022; 318:115579. [PMID: 35763999 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115579] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2022] [Revised: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 06/17/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Exploring new biomass resources and developing a sustainable process for holistic utilization has become crucial due to the high demand for bio-based chemicals as alternatives to petrochemicals. Herein, we describe a novel approach to valorize the Typha angustifolia leaves, underutilized biomass into cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin nanoparticles. The process was framed in a sequence to isolate hemicellulose in the first step due to its highly reactive nature and then separate cellulose and lignin. Among the various natural deep eutectic solvents used in screening experiments, LA/ChCl (2:1) was chosen for hemicellulose solubilization and a dissolution yield of 95.97 ± 1.8% was obtained in 30 min at 240 W microwave power. Then the residual solid was delignified using NaOCl2 at 180 W microwave power and a yield of 97 ± 0.75% was obtained in 15 min. Dissolved hemicellulose and lignin were precipitated using anti-solvents. The proposed approach achieved a recovery yield of 95.5 ± 1.2% cellulose, 91.9 ± 2.6% hemicellulose and 89.5 ± 1.6% lignin. Subsequently, the isolated particles were converted into nanoparticles by intense ultrasonication. Spherical shaped nanocellulose, nanohemicellulose and nanolignin were obtained with an average size of 76 ± 7 nm, 86 ± 9 nm, and 64 ± 5 nm, respectively. The produced nanocellulose had a crystallinity of 77.36% with the thermal stability of 265 °C. Nanohemicellulose and nanolignin were found to be semicrystalline with thermal stability up to 245 °C and 275 °C, respectively. The characterization results of the nanoparticles isolated from Typha angustifolia leaves are indicative of their wide range of biomedical and material science applications. This research could open a window for complete utilization of biomass in biorefinery and sustainable management of an invasive plant Typha angustifolia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Baby Salini Jacob Rani
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Alagappa College of Technology, Anna University, Chennai, 600025, India
| | - Sivakumar Venkatachalam
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Alagappa College of Technology, Anna University, Chennai, 600025, India.
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Trophic reorganization of native planktivorous fishes at different density extremes of bigheaded carps in the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, USA. Biol Invasions 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s10530-022-02822-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
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