Worldwide declines in populations of large elasmobranchs and the potential cascading effects on marine ecosystems have garnered considerable attention. Far less appreciated are the potential ecological impacts of changes in abundances of small to medium bodied elasmobranchs mesopredators. Crucial to elucidating the role of these elasmobranchs is an understanding of their habitat use and foraging ecology in pristine conditions. I investigated the trophic interactions and factors driving spatiotemporal variation in abundances of elasmobranch mesopredators in the relatively pristine ecosystem of Shark Bay, Australia. First, I describe the species composition and seasonal habitat use patterns of elasmobranch mesopredator on the sandflats of Shark Bay. Juvenile batoids dominated this diverse community and were extremely abundant in nearshore microhabitats during the warm season. Stomach content analysis and stable isotopic analysis revealed that there is a large degree of dietary overlap between common batoid species. Crustaceans, which tend to be found in seagrass habitats, dominated diets. Despite isotopic differences between many species, overlap in isotopic niche space was high and there was some degree of individual specialization. I then, investigated the importance of abiotic (temperature and water depth) and biotic (prey and predator abundance) factors in shaping batoid habitat use. Batoids were most abundant and tended to rest in shallow nearshore waters when temperatures were high. This pattern coincides with periods of large shark abundance suggesting batoids were seeking refuge from predators rather than selecting optimal temperatures. Finally, I used acoustic telemetry to examine batoid residency and diel use of the sandflats. Individual batoids were present on the sandflats during both the warm and cold seasons and throughout the diel cycle, suggesting lower sandflat densities during the cold season were a result of habitat shifts rather than migration out of Shark Bay. Combined, habitat use and dietary results suggest that batoids have the potential to seasonally impact sandflat dynamics through their presence, although foraging may be limited on the sandflats. Interestingly, my results suggest that elasmobranch mesopredators in pristine ecosystems probably are not regulated by food supply and their habitat use patterns and perhaps ecosystem impacts may be influenced by their predators.

Healthy coral reefs have become increasingly rare, and their continuous degradation has serious implications for loss of marine biodiversity. There is an urgent need to assess the strength of top-down versus bottom-up effects on reef communities, to better understand how food web alterations can change the structure and function of these vulnerable marine systems. In this study, I used fatty acid (FA) analysis to investigate the trophic and ecological relationships among potential key forage species of the critically endangered monk seal in the Hawaiian archipelago. A series of multivariate tests performed on groups of closely related and ecologically equivalent species of fishes and invertebrates using a restricted number of FAs revealed that FA differences among groups primarily reflected diet, but could also be related to habitat and ecology. The same groups were subsequently analysed using an alternate method in quantitative FA signature analysis (QFASA) simulations, which allowed for the effects of using various subsets of FAs to be evaluated. Overall, species groups were relatively well characterized using both methods. When present, overlap in FA composition principally occurred among groups with similar diet/ecology, and were more prominent at higher trophic levels. A last set of analyses which combined the multivariate and QFASA simulation methods revealed that despite taxonomical relatedness and similarities in trophic ecology, individual species of carnivorous fish could be reliably distinguished using FAs. Therefore, while increasing the number of FAs used in the analyses might be useful to refine the resolution of distinctions, using a restricted number of FAs can also result in reliable differentiation among species. My results suggested that despite tremendous diversity, finer scale variations in FA composition could be detected among groups, and among species which shared the same diet and trophic ecology. These findings have important implications for the study of food web interactions in the Hawaiian archipelago, as they provide the foundation for using the same species groups in diets estimations of monk seal, as well as other top predators in this ecosystem. Moreover, they provide a framework for using multiple approaches to link FA patterns to the foraging ecology of individual species.

Les invasions biologiques sont considérées comme étant une cause majeure de changement des écosystèmes. Les impacts écologiques des espèces invasives pourraient être modulés par la variabilité intraspécifique des traits biologiques et écologiques entre et au sein de leurs populations. Cette thèse a révélé, à différentes échelles spatiales, la présence de variabilités phénotypiques fortes chez deux espèces invasives, Lepomis gibbosus et Procambarus clarkii. Il est apparu que les réponses phénotypiques des individus aux conditions environnementales pourraient être complexes, révélant notamment la contre productivité des méthodes de gestion utilisées pour contrôler les populations invasives et l'importance de l'histoire de colonisation des populations dans les relations phénotype-environnement. Des expérimentations ont également démontré comment la variabilité intraspécifique pourrait moduler les effets des espèces invasives sur la structure des communautés et le fonctionnement des écosystèmes. Ces résultats soutiennent l'idée qu'intégrer la variabilité intraspécifique dans un contexte d'invasion biologique est indispensable afin de mieux évaluer les impacts et adapter les méthodes de gestion aux caractéristiques des populations invasifs. / While biological invasions are widely recognized as a major cause of ecosystem changes, the ecological impacts of invasive species could be modulated by intraspecific variability in ecological traits occurring between and within populations. The present work demonstrated, at different geographical scales, the existence of a strong phenotypic variability within two freshwater invaders, Lepomis gibbosus and Procambarus clarkii. In addition, phenotypic responses to environmental conditions was demonstrated to be complex, revealing notably that the methods used to control invasive populations can be counter-productive and that the colonization history of invasive populations is an important driver of phenotype-environment relationships. Experimental approaches also demonstrated that intraspecific variability modulated the intensity of the ecological impacts of invasive species on community structure and ecosystem functioning. These findings strongly support the idea that integrating intraspecific variability in the context of biological invasions is essential to better appreciate their impacts on recipient ecosystem and ultimately improve the efficient of management methods based on the characteristics of invasive populations

Les microorganismes agissent comme un puits et une source de N et Pdisponibles car ils sont responsables des cycles biogéochimiques de N et P. La bouclemicrobienne, basée sur la prédation des bactéries par les microprédateurs tels que lesnématodes bactérivores, est considérée comme un facteur majeur de la minéralisation de Net de P dans les écosystèmes terrestres. Cependant, peu de données sont disponibles surl'impact de la prédation par les nématodes sur la nutrition minérale des plantes ligneusesectomycorhizées. Différentes expérimentations ont été conduites pour quantifier le rôle dela prédation des bactéries par les nématodes sur l'architecture et la croissance racinaire, lanutrition minérale (N et P) d'une espèce ligneuse, Pinus pinaster, associée ou non avec lebasidiomycète ectomycorhizien Hebeloma cylindrosporum. Les plantes ont été cultivéesdans un système expérimental simplifié et stérile, et inoculées ou non avec Bacillus subtiliset des nématodes bactérivores (de la famille des Rhabditidae ou des Cephalobidae) isolés àpartir d'ectomycorhizes et de sol provenant d'une plantation de Pin maritime. L'effet de laprédation sur la croissance des plantes et le devenir du 15N bactérien vers les partiesaériennes dépend très fortement de la disponibilité en P du milieu. De plus, la prédationdes bactéries est indispensable pour permettre à la plante d'utiliser le P du phytate, unesource de P organique très peu disponible pour la plante mais très facilement utilisable parB. subtilis car cette bactérie est capable de libérer de la phytase dans le milieu. Cesrésultats ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives pour améliorer l'utilisation du phytate pour lanutrition phosphatée des plantes. / Soil microorganisms act as a sink and a source of available N and P bymediating key processes in the biogeochemical N and P cycling. The microbial loop, basedupon the grazing of bacteria by predators such as bacterial-feeding nematodes, is thoughtto play a major role in the mineralization of nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus(P) in terrestrial ecosystems. However, little is known about the impact of grazing bynematodes on mineral nutrition of ectomycorrhizal woody plants. Different studies wereundertaken to quantify the role of nematode grazing on bacteria on the root growth andarchitecture, mineral nutrition (N and P) of a woody species, Pinus pinaster, whether ornot associated with the ectomycorrhizal basidiomycete Hebeloma cylindrosporum. Plantswere grown in a sterile simplified experimental system, whether inoculated or not withBacillus subtilis and bacterial-feeding nematodes (belonging to Rhabditidae orCephalobidae families) that were isolated from ectomycorrhizae and from soil of a P.pinaster plantation. The effect of nematode grazing on plant growth and the fate ofbacterial 15N towards plant shoots was strongly dependent upon medium P availability. Inaddition, nematode grazing was required to enable the plant to access P from phytate, awell-known poorly available P source to plants but that was used by bacterial populationsof B. subtilis due to its ability to release phytase in the medium. These results open analternative route to increase the use of phytate for plant P nutrition.

[Truncated abstract] Removal of consumers through fishing has been shown to influence ecosystem structure and function by changing the biomass and composition of organisms occupying lower trophic levels. The western rock lobster (Panurilus cygnus), an abundant consumer along the temperate west coast of Australia, forms the basis of Australia's largest single species fishery, with catches frequently exceeding 11000 tonnes annually. Despite their high abundance and commercial importance, the diet and trophic role of adult lobster populations in deep-coastal-ecosystems (35-60 m) remains unknown. An understanding of the diet and trophic role of lobsters in these ecosystems is a key component of the assessment of ecosystem effects of the western rock lobster fishery. This study uses gut content and stable isotope analyses to determine the diet and trophic role of lobsters in deep-coastal ecosystems. Dietary analysis indicated adult lobsters in deep-coastal ecosystems were primarily carnivorous with diet reflecting food available on the benthos. Gut content analyses indicate crabs (62 %) and amphipods/isopods (~10 %) are the most important lobster dietary sources. Stable isotope analysis indicates natural diet of lobsters in deep coastal ecosystems is dominated by amphipods/isopods (contributing up to ~50 %) and crabs (to ~75 %), with bivalves/gastropods, red algae and sponges of lesser importance (<10 % of diet each). Diet of lobsters in deep-coastal ecosystems differed from that reported for lobsters inhabiting shallow water ecosystems in this region, reflecting differences in food availability and food choice between these ecosystems. Bait from the fishery was also determined (by stable isotope analyses) to be a significant dietary component of lobsters in deep-coastal ecosystems, contributing between 10 and 80 % of lobster food requirements at some study locations. '...' Given observed effects of organic matter addition in trawl fisheries, and also associated with aquaculture, bait addition is likely to have implications for processes occurring within deep-coastal ecosystems in this region, particularly given its oligotrophic status, most likely by increasing the food available to scavenging species. Removal of lobsters from deep-coastal ecosystems may affect the composition and abundance of lobster prey communities through a reduction in predation pressure. Such effects have been demonstrated for other spiny lobster species. These effects are typically most observable amongst common prey taxa which in other studies have been commonly herbivores. In deep-coastal ecosystems, crabs and amphipods/isopods are the most common prey taxa and most likely to be effected. The ecosystem-impacts of top-down control of non-herbivorous prey species is unknown and constrains the inferences possible from this study. However, the establishment of 'no-take' areas in deep-coastal ecosystems would allow the ecosystem effects of lobster removal to be further assessed in these deep-coastal ecosystems. While data from the current study did not allow the ecosystem effects of lobster removal to be properly assessed, this study provided information regarding the ecology of western rock lobsters in previously unstudied ecosystems.