Jeffrey Levinton

Stony Brook University | Stony Brook · Department of Ecology and Evolution

Extinction in the fossil record provides a rich source of history and data useful for understanding extinction in current times. Extinction rates in the fossil record can be estimated by loss of living species as we go back into the fossil record, but usually is determined by loss of numbers of taxa (level usually above that of species) past known...

As fiddler crabs increase in size, closing force weakens proportionally because claw growth is not isometric. As a result, mechanical advantage decreases at the tip with increasing claw length. Closing force at an interior tubercle is greater at the tip, and a previous study of two species claimed evidence for compensation by relative movement of t...

The objective of this study is to compare ecologically relevant measures of performance over a broad range of latitude of a species subjected to climate change. Do populations change in relative function over a wide range of latitude? Are populations at the low latitude trailing edge in danger of extinction in the onset of thermal stress? Coastal m...

Understanding where and why organisms are experiencing thermal and hydric stress is critical for predicting species' responses to climate change. Biophysical models that explicitly link organismal functional traits like morphology, physiology, and behavior to environmental conditions can provide valuable insight into determinants of thermal and hyd...

Using three data sources, we measured claw lengths of the extremely large major claws of 70 species of fiddler crabs, spread over four major biogeographic regions and all 11 genera, as a function of carapace length. Despite a diversity of biogeography, body size, type of sexual signaling and mating behavior, and details of claw morphology, all spec...

Male fiddler crabs possess one giant major claw, used for display and intermale combat. Comprising greater than 30% of body mass, the major claw is presumed to interfere with escape from predators by affecting balance during the righting response if the male is upended. We determined cost of the major claw and posterior legs for righting after the...

This is a new edition of an undergraduate text in marine biology, emphasizing ecology, environments, with many essays on new developments in the field, including climate change, ecology, behavior, deep sea biology.

Benthic animals profoundly influence the cycling and storage of carbon and other elements in marine systems, particularly in coastal sediments. Recent climate change has altered the distribution and abundance of many seafloor taxa and modified the vertical exchange of materials between ocean and sediment layers. Here, we examine how climate change...

Many conclusions concerning the functional biology of crab claws rely upon biometrical estimates of closing force, based upon measures of muscle cross-sectional area and mechanical advantage. Fiddler crab closing force patterns show variation with body size, claw size, location of the opposing claw tips, and physiological condition, so we have meas...

Mobile intertidal crabs are often exposed to the sun while displaying outside of moist and cooler breeding burrows, which imposes increased heat stress and water. Individuals of a field population in mid-summer of the fiddler crab Leptuca pugilator had body temperatures that declined with increasing body size. All crabs were cooler than the sedimen...

Quantitative genetic approaches are often used to study evolutionary processes in ecotoxicology. This paper focuses on the evolution of resistance to environmental contaminants-an important evolutionary process in ecotoxicology. Three approaches are commonly employed to study the evolution of resistance: (1) Assessing whether a contaminant-exposed...

The filtering capacity of dense bivalve populations can exert strong controls on phytoplankton biomass, leading to increased water clarity and reduced hypoxia. Bivalves, particularly oysters, therefore are the focus of many restoration efforts and ecosystem-based management plans. The hypothesis is tested that oysters have feeding access to the cla...

The 5th Edition of Marine Biology: Function, Biodiversity, Ecology was published in July 2017. Here are the cover, contents, and what's new in the 5th Edition.

In this study, the subject of whether investment in one bilateral structure was linked to investment in the homologous bilateral opposite structure was investigated. Male fiddler crabs (genus Uca, family Ocypodidae) displayed strong bilateral claw differentiation of function and size, which are used for feeding (minor claw) or display/combat (major...

Theory predicts that genetic variation should be reduced at range margins, but empirical support is equivocal. Here, we used genotyping-by-sequencing technology to investigate genetic variation in central and marginal populations of two species in the marine gastropod genus Crepidula. These two species have different development and dispersal types...

Ecosystem services provided by dense populations of filter-feeding bivalves include the potential for sequestrationof nutrients acquired by feeding on phytoplankton whose growth is stimulated by urban and suburban nutrient input. Using transplanted oysters, Crassostrea virginica, the potential of using an aquaculture approach to grow, harvest, and...

Ecosystem services provided by dense populations of filter-feeding bivalves include the potential for sequestration of nutrients acquired by feeding on phytoplankton whose growth is stimulated by urban and suburban nutrient input. Using transplanted oysters, Crassostrea virginica, the potential of using an aquaculture approach to grow, harvest, and...

In mid-Atlantic salt marshes, reproductively active male sand fiddler crabs, Uca pugilator, use a single greatly enlarged major claw as both a weapon to defend specialized breeding burrows from other males and an ornament to attract females for mating. During the summer breeding season, females strongly prefer to mate with males controlling burrows...

To investigate whether latitudinal diversity gradients differ among biogeographic realms for members of a closely related clade and to examine whether differences can be explained by environmental differences such as the temperature gradient. Indo-Pacific, eastern Pacific and western Atlantic temperate to tropical coastal intertidal. We digitized t...

We monitored cage-based populations of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica in coastal waters of New York Harbor in 2 phases of sampling, 1 with localities spread out over the New York-New Jersey Harbor area (started 2008) and another with 3 localities within Jamaica Bay (started 2010), all impacted by high nitrogen input, low dissolved oxygen,...

Animals can change color either rapidly in response to changes in their immediate environment or slowly as the seasons change. Such plasticity can permit local adaptation but it can also be constrained by physiological and behavioral mechanisms. Here, we explore how different temperature regimes along a latitudinal gradient spanning the natural ran...

Extinction measures from the fossil record provide an essential tool to understand the large-scale changes of diversity over time, the effect of major extinctions on diversity, and the global-scale mechanisms that may have caused extinctions. A major impediment to measuring extinction is the ability to detect geological ranges of species and to be...

Sex allocation theory for simultaneous hermaphrodites predicts increases in relative allocation to male-specific function as competition for fertilizations increases. Theoretical models developed specifically for competing acorn barnacles predict that the proportional allocation to male function increases toward an asymptote of 50% as the number of...

The production, delivery, and use of detritus structure coastal marine ecosystems, especially benthic communities is dominated by deposit feeders. Specialized detritivores act in concert with bacterial and fungal decomposers to make the detritus available for a wide variety of organisms. Deposit feeders integrate many adaptations for detritus use b...

BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. ABSTRACT As a result of its historical abundance and...

Quantitative genetic approaches are often used to study evolutionary processes in ecotoxicology. This paper focuses on the evolution of resistance to environmental contaminants-an important evolutionary process in ecotoxicology. Three approaches are commonly employed to study the evolution of resistance: (1) Assessing whether a contaminant-exposed...

Background: Oysters play important roles in estuarine ecosystems but have suffered recently due to overfishing, pollution, and habitat loss. A tradeoff between growth rate and disease prevalence as a function of salinity makes the estuarine salinity transition of special concern for oyster survival and restoration. Estuarine salinity varies with d...

The history of the Hudson River has paradoxically combined its natural beauty with its industrial and commercial utility. Foundry Cove is an iconic example of this intersection, being located in the exquisite Hudson Highlands but also being a locus of industrial activity since a large forge was located there in 1817. A major nickel-cadmium battery...

The oligochaete Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri at Foundry Cove (FC), New York evolved genetic resistance to cadmium (Cd) and lost resistance after contaminated sediments were removed by dredging. Selection (on survival time in dissolved Cd) was used to generate tolerance to evaluate fitness cost, the commonplace expectation for evolutionary reversal. The...

The Cambrian explosion is an excellent example of a grand idea that has been tempered by the steady collection of data to test hypotheses. Historically, the idea of an “explosion” developed from an apparent lack of bilaterian animal fossils before a certain point in the fossil record, in contrast with a great diversity of life that seemed to appear...

We analyzed a New York (USA) state database of mercury concentrations in muscle tissue for five species of fish (striped bass, yellow perch, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and carp) over a range of locations in the Hudson River (USA) between 1970 and 2004. We used regression models to discern temporal and geographic change in the fish while cont...

We analyzed a New York (USA) state database of mercury concentrations in muscle tissue for five species of fish (striped bass, yellow perch, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and carp) over a range of locations in the Hudson River (USA) between 1970 and 2004. We used regression models to discern temporal and geographic change in the fish while cont...

This study examines the effectiveness of remediating a well-recognized case of heavy metal pollution at Foundry Cove (FC), Hudson River, New York. This tidal freshwater marsh was polluted with battery-factory wastes (1953-1979) and dredged in 1994-1995. Eight years after remediation, dissolved and particulate metals (Cd, Co, Cu, Pb, Ni, and Ag) wer...

Summary 1. Sexually selected structures with dual function of combat and display are likely to be honest signals of male quality to opponents and mates, but should be costly to produce and maintain. 2. Male fiddler crabs use a single greatly enlarged claw as both a weapon in agonistic contests with other males and an ornament to attract females for...

A nickel-cadmium battery factory released about 53 tons of mostly cadmium and nickel hydroxide suspended solid waste between 1953 and 1979 into Foundry Cove, which is tidally connected to the Hudson River estuary. A major Superfund dredging cleanup in 1994-1995 removed most of the cadmium from the sediment from within Foundry Cove. Here, we demonst...

It is well known that adult dispersal is common in soft bottom intertidal and shallow subtidal communities. We here report on the first study that attempts to quantify the effects of both immigration and emigration on patches of soft sediment communities. Some species show adaptive emigration from the seabed, although dispersal direction, distance,...

Using radiotracer (14C) and microscopic observation, we demonstrated that mussels (Mytilus edulis and Perna viridis) could be predators of mesozooplankton (rotifer Brachionus plicatilis). At radio-labelled rotifer densities of 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0individualml−1, faecal pellets of mussels showed different degrees of radio signals and most of the faeca...

The Hudson River Estuary is a comprehensive look at the physical, chemical, biological and environmental management issues that are important to our understanding of the Hudson River. Chapters cover the entire range of fields necessary to understanding the workings of the Hudson River estuary; the physics, bedrock geological setting and sedimentolo...

We demonstrated that zebra mussels Dreissena polymorpha collected from the Hudson River could consume two rotifer species that were common before the zebra mussel invasion. The clearance rates (volume of water filtered per hour) of zebra mussels differed when feeding on the two rotifer species but both decreased with an increase in rotifer density....

Macroevolution is the sum of a range of processes that explain evolutionary changes that resulted in the diversity of major body plans of living organisms through geological time and at present. The field addresses the origin of major taxonomic groupings, the causes of evolutionary radiations, major biogeographic patterns and large‐scale extinction...

Previous evidence demonstrates that closing force decreases proportionally as fiddler crab claw size increases. Larger crabs do have greater absolute closing force, but less than would be expected if claw proportions were isometric. In the Mud Fiddler Crab, Uca pugnax , this is explained by a decrease in mechanical advantage with increasing claw si...

With a 10-week microcosm experiment, we demonstrated that the mussel Mytilus edulis could feed and grow upon zooplankton, phytoplankton and mixture of them. The group supplied with the mixture showed the highest shell growth rate, egestion rate and largest size of faecal pellets. Individuals feeding on seawater (the control group) had the lowest gr...

We contend that a range of phenomena characterizing temperate deposit-feeding communities in low-energy environments is strongly organized by two principal opposing forces: (1) spatially localized inputs of detritus or new recruits, leading to a mosaic of initial patches, with subsequent impacts on spatio-temporal variation of species with limited...

ABSTRACT—A molecular survey of animal phylogeny (Wray et al., 1996) recovered the presumed correct temporal order of the phylogenetic splits Protostomata-Deuterostomata, Echinodermata-Chordata, and Agnatha-Gnathostomata in studies of six of seven gene sequences. This result raised the question of how,this order could be recovered if all of the phyl...

We studied changes in macrobenthic communities following the environmental clean-up of metal-polluted (cadmium, nickel, and cobalt) sediments in Foundry Cove, a small inlet within the Hudson River estuary of New York. We used a BACI-style experiment to test the hypotheses that high levels of cadmium in sediments change macrobenthic assemblages rela...

Defines macroevolution as a field of study and as a process, outlines the empirical data base for macroevolutionary studies of morphological change, and discusses one macroevolutionary hypothesis - the punctuative theory of evolution. Problems and tests of this hypothesis include: whether fossil species can be identified; tests of character stasis;...

We investigated the importance of algal detritus in determining complex patterns of spatio-temporal variation in annelid assemblages in sites separated by 10s of meters on mudflats on Long Island, New York. We used field sampling to test the hypothesis that spatio-temporal variation in annelid assemblages contributes substantially more to total var...

Suspension-feeding bivalve molluscs can assume a large ecological role by linking benthic and pelagic ecosystems. Therefore, a knowledge of the factors that influence feeding rates and processes at the level of the individual is important in understanding bivalve-dominated environments. We examined the roles of diet quality and concentration on par...

We examined the ability of three species of native North American freshwater mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera, Amblema plicata, and Pyganodon cataracta) to preferentially ingest or reject various phytoplankton species and nonliving particles. Our objective was to: (1) determine the particle preferences of the native mussels, (2) determine wheth...

Over the period 1953-1979, a battery factory on the Hudson River in New York released approximately 53 tons of cadmium (Cd) and nickel hydride wastes into Foundry Cove. The most common aquatic benthic species, the oligochaete Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, rapidly evolved resistance to Cd. The capacity for detoxification and internal storage of Cd resul...

Developmental Plasticity and Evolution. by Mary Jane West-Eberhard. Oxford University Press, New York, 2003. 814 pp. $100, £79.50. ISBN 0-19-512234-8. Paper, $49.95, £31.99. ISBN 0-19-512235-6. Discussing a wide range of ideas and empirical studies that support them, West-Eberhard focuses on showing what recent findings in development, physiology,...

We investigated the foraging behavior of the mud snail, Ilyanassa obsoleta, and its consequences for macrobenthic community structure on mud flats on Long Island, NY, USA. Field sampling demonstrated strong spatial heterogeneity in the population densities of I. obsoleta. We experimentally tested three hypotheses: (i) I. obsoleta are strongly attra...

We tested the hypothesis that mesozooplankton is a potential food source for 2 marine mussels; the temperate blue mussel Mytilus edulis and the tropical and subtropical green mussel Perna viridis. We fed the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis to each mussel species at 3 rotifer densities (0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 ind. ml(-1)) and found that each mussel species...

We tested the hypothesis that rotifer species in the micro- and mesozooplankton are a potential food source for zebra mussels. We labeled phytoplankton with ¹⁴C, fed them to two species of rotifers (140-210 μm length) that were previously found abundantly in the Hudson River and had declined following a zebra mussel invasion, and estimat...

We examined the ability of three species of native North American freshwater mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera, Amblema plicata, and Pyganodon cataracta) to preferentially ingest or reject various phytoplankton species and nonliving particles. Our objective was to: (1) determine the particle preferences of the native mussels, (2) determine wheth...

The chemical composition of kelps (e.g. polyphenolics) deters grazing by herbivores, but kelp detritus is potentially a source of nutrition for suspension feeders. The effects of kelp detritus derived from two species [Agarum fimbriatum Harvey and Costaria costata (Turner) Saunders] on feeding of oysters, Crassostrea gigas Thunberg, and mussels, My...

An engaging area of biology for more than a century, the study of macroevolution continues to offer profound insight into our understanding of the tempo of evolution and of the evolution of biological diversity. What regulates biological diversity and its historical development? Can it be explained by natural selection alone? Has geologic history r...

We present evidence for migration in the asexual phase of the Life cycle of Paranais litoralis (Muller), a marine oligochaete that reproduces asexually by fission. Depletion of resources triggers a swimming response by some worms ('migrators'). Migrating worms are longer, thinner and have more segments than non-migrating worms, indicating that migr...

The capture, transport, and sorting of particles by the gills and labial palps of the freshwater mussel Dreissena polymorpha were examined by endoscopy and video image analysis. More specifically, the morphology of the feeding organs in living zebra mussels was described; the mode and speeds of particle transport on the feeding organs was measured;...

We examined the ability of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) to preferentially ingest or reject various phytoplankton species and nonliving particles. Our objective was to determine if preferential ingestion by zebra mussels could explain the changes observed in the Hudson River since their invasion: (1) decline of cyanobacteria, Microcystis in...

It has been demonstrated that the deposit-feeding oligochaete Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri inhabiting Foundry Cove (FC), a severely cadmium (Cd)-contaminated cove located on the Hudson River, New York, USA, has evolved resistance to Cd. In this study we investigate how this resistance influences Cd trophic transfer from this oligochaete to the grass sh...

Benthic particle feeders are exposed to a food supply varying in both quantity and quality. Previous studies have shown that bivalve molluscs deal with such fluctuating particle regimes in a variety of ways, including adjustments in pumping and ingestion rates, and selective rejection of non-nutritive particles as pseudofeces. The actual site of pa...

Cultures of asexually reproducing populations of the oligochaete Paranaislitoralis (Müller) collected from six different patches (3 to 50 m apart) on an intertidal mud flat in Flax Pond, New York, on two occasions, June and October 1993, showed significant differences among lines in life span, number of offspring produced, and in finite rate of inc...

Bivalve molluscs form dense populations that exert profound effects on the particle loads and phytoplankton composition of coastal waters. It has long been known that bivalves can select among different particle types, including selecting against those of poor nutritional value, but because of difficulties in observing particle transport processes...