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- Gross, C. P., et al.
(author)
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The biogeography of community assembly: latitude and predation drive variation in community trait distribution in a guild of epifaunal crustaceans
- 2022
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In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 1471-2954 .- 0962-8452. ; 289:1969
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- While considerable evidence exists of biogeographic patterns in the intensity of species interactions, the influence of these patterns on variation in community structure is less clear. Studying how the distributions of traits in communities vary along global gradients can inform how variation in interactions and other factors contribute to the process of community assembly. Using a model selection approach on measures of trait dispersion in crustaceans associated with eelgrass (Zostera marina) spanning 30° of latitude in two oceans, we found that dispersion strongly increased with increasing predation and decreasing latitude. Ocean and epiphyte load appeared as secondary predictors; Pacific communities were more overdispersed while Atlantic communities were more clustered, and increasing epiphytes were associated with increased clustering. By examining how species interactions and environmental filters influence community structure across biogeographic regions, we demonstrate how both latitudinal variation in species interactions and historical contingency shape these responses. Community trait distributions have implications for ecosystem stability and functioning, and integrating large-scale observations of environmental filters, species interactions and traits can help us predict how communities may respond to environmental change.
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- van der Heide, T., et al.
(author)
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Ecosystem Engineering by Seagrasses Interacts with Grazing to Shape an Intertidal Landscape
- 2012
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In: Plos One. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 7:8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Self-facilitation through ecosystem engineering (i.e., organism modification of the abiotic environment) and consumer-resource interactions are both major determinants of spatial patchiness in ecosystems. However, interactive effects of these two mechanisms on spatial complexity have not been extensively studied. We investigated the mechanisms underlying a spatial mosaic of low-tide exposed hummocks and waterlogged hollows on an intertidal mudflat in the Wadden Sea dominated by the seagrass Zostera noltii. A combination of field measurements, an experiment and a spatially explicit model indicated that the mosaic resulted from localized sediment accretion by seagrass followed by selective waterfowl grazing. Hollows were bare in winter, but were rapidly colonized by seagrass during the growth season. Colonized hollows were heavily grazed by brent geese and widgeon in autumn, converting these patches to a bare state again and disrupting sediment accretion by seagrass. In contrast, hummocks were covered by seagrass throughout the year and were rarely grazed, most likely because the waterfowl were not able to employ their preferred but water requiring feeding strategy ('dabbling') here. Our study exemplifies that interactions between ecosystem engineering by a foundation species (seagrass) and consumption (waterfowl grazing) can increase spatial complexity at the landscape level.
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- Brose, Ulrich, et al.
(author)
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Spatial aspects of food webs
- 2005
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In: Dynamic Food Webs. - London, UK : Elsevier. - 9780120884582 - 0120884585 ; , s. 463-469
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aspects of spatial scale have until recently been largely ignored in empirical and theoretical food web studies (e.g., Cohen & Briand 1984, Martinez 1992, but see Bengtsson et al. 2002, Bengtsson & Berg, this book). Most ecologists tend to conceptualize and represent food webs as static representations of communities, depicting a community assemblage as sampled at a particular point in time, or highly aggregated trophic group composites over broader scales of time and space (Polis et al. 1996). Moreover, most researchers depict potential food webs, which contain all species sampled and all potential trophic links based on literature reviews, several sampling events, or laboratory feeding trials. In reality, however, not all these potential feeding links are realized as not all species co-occur, and not all samples in space or time can contain all species (Schoenly & Cohen 1991), hence, yielding a variance of food web architecture in space (Brose et al. 2004). In recent years, food web ecologists have recognized that food webs are open systems – that are influence by processes in adjacent systems – and spatially heterogeneous (Polis et al. 1996). This influence of adjacent systems can be bottom-up, due to allochthonous inputs of resources (Polis & Strong 1996, Huxel & McCann 1998, Mulder & De Zwart 2003), or top-down due to the regular or irregular presence of top predators (e.g., Post et al. 2000, Scheu 2001). However, without a clear understanding of the size of a system and a definition of its boundaries it is not possible to judge if flows are internal or driven by adjacent systems. Similarly, the importance of allochthony is only assessable when the balance of inputs and outputs are known relative to the scale and throughputs within the system itself. At the largest scale of the food web – the home range of a predator such as wolf, lion, shark or eagle of roughly 50 km2 to 300 km2 –the balance of inputs and outputs caused by wind and movement of water may be small compared to the total trophic flows within the home range of the large predator (Cousins 1990). Acknowledging these issues of space, Polis et al (1996) argued that progress toward the next phase of food web studies would require addressing spatial and temporal processes. Here, we present a conceptual framework with some nuclei about the role of space in food web ecology. Although we primarily address spatial aspects, this framework is linked to a more general concept of spatio-temporal scales of ecological research.
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- Donadi, S., et al.
(author)
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Cross-habitat interactions among bivalve species control community structure on intertidal flats
- 2013
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In: Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0012-9658 .- 1939-9170. ; 94:2, s. 489-498
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Increasing evidence shows that spatial interactions between sedentary organisms can structure communities and promote landscape complexity in many ecosystems. Here we tested the hypothesis that reef-forming mussels (Mytilus edulis L.), a dominant intertidal ecosystem engineer in the Wadden Sea, promote abundances of the burrowing bivalve Cerastoderma edule L. (cockle) in neighboring habitats at relatively long distances coastward from mussel beds. Field surveys within and around three mussel beds showed a peak in cockle densities at 50–100 m toward the coast from the mussel bed, while cockle abundances elsewhere in the study area were very low. Field transplantation of cockles showed higher survival of young cockles (2–3 years old) and increased spat fall coastward of the mussel bed compared to within the bed and to areas without mussels, whereas growth decreased within and coastward of the mussel bed. Our measurements suggest that the observed spatial patterns in cockle numbers resulted from (1) inhibition effects by the mussels close to the beds due to preemptive algal depletion and deteriorated sediment conditions and (2) facilitation effects by the mussels farther away from the beds due to reduction of wave energy. Our results imply that these spatial, scale-dependent interactions between reef-forming ecosystem engineers and surrounding communities of sedentary benthic organisms can be an important determinant of the large-scale community structure in intertidal ecosystems. Understanding this interplay between neighboring communities of sedentary species is therefore essential for effective conservation and restoration of soft-bottom intertidal communities.
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| 8. |
- Duffy, J. Emmett, et al.
(author)
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A Pleistocene legacy structures variation in modern seagrass ecosystems
- 2022
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In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 119:32
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Distribution of Earth's biomes is structured by the match between climate and plant traits, which in turn shape associated communities and ecosystem processes and services. However, that climate-trait match can be disrupted by historical events, with lasting ecosystem impacts. As Earth's environment changes faster than at any time in human history, critical questions are whether and how organismal traits and ecosystems can adjust to altered conditions. We quantified the relative importance of current environmental forcing versus evolutionary history in shaping the growth form (stature and biomass) and associated community of eelgrass (Zostera marina), a widespread foundation plant of marine ecosystems along Northern Hemisphere coastlines, which experienced major shifts in distribution and genetic composition during the Pleistocene. We found that eelgrass stature and biomass retain a legacy of the Pleistocene colonization of the Atlantic from the ancestral Pacific range and of more recent within-basin bottlenecks and genetic differentiation. This evolutionary legacy in turn influences the biomass of associated algae and invertebrates that fuel coastal food webs, with effects comparable to or stronger than effects of current environmental forcing. Such historical lags in phenotypic acclimatization may constrain ecosystem adjustments to rapid anthropogenic climate change, thus altering predictions about the future functioning of ecosystems.
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| 9. |
- Duffy, J. E., et al.
(author)
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Biodiversity mediates top-down control in eelgrass ecosystems: a global comparative-experimental approach
- 2015
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In: Ecology Letters. - : Wiley. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 18:7, s. 696-705
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Nutrient pollution and reduced grazing each can stimulate algal blooms as shown by numerous experiments. But because experiments rarely incorporate natural variation in environmental factors and biodiversity, conditions determining the relative strength of bottom-up and top-down forcing remain unresolved. We factorially added nutrients and reduced grazing at 15 sites across the range of the marine foundation species eelgrass (Zostera marina) to quantify how top-down and bottom-up control interact with natural gradients in biodiversity and environmental forcing. Experiments confirmed modest top-down control of algae, whereas fertilisation had no general effect. Unexpectedly, grazer and algal biomass were better predicted by cross-site variation in grazer and eelgrass diversity than by global environmental gradients. Moreover, these large-scale patterns corresponded strikingly with prior small-scale experiments. Our results link global and local evidence that biodiversity and top-down control strongly influence functioning of threatened seagrass ecosystems, and suggest that biodiversity is comparably important to global change stressors.
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| 10. |
- Eggertsen, Maria, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Different environmental variables predict distribution and cover of the introduced red seaweed Eucheuma denticulatum in two geographical locations
- 2021
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In: Biological Invasions. - : Springer. - 1387-3547 .- 1573-1464. ; 23, s. 1049-1067
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this study we examined abiotic and biotic factors that could potentially influence the presence of a non-indigenous seaweed, Eucheuma denticulatum, in two locations, one outside (Kane’ohe Bay, Hawai’i, USA) and one within (Mafia Island, Tanzania) its natural geographical range. We hypothesized that the availability of hard substrate and the amount of wave exposure would explain distribution patterns, and that higher abundance of herbivorous fishes in Tanzania would exert stronger top–down control than in Hawai’i. To address these hypotheses, we surveyed E. denticulatum in sites subjected to different environmental conditions and used generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) to identify predictors of E. denticulatum presence. We also estimated grazing intensity on E. denticulatum by surveying the type and the amount of grazing scars. Finally, we used molecular tools to distinguish between indigenous and non-indigenous strains of E. denticulatum on Mafia Island. In Kane’ohe Bay, the likelihood of finding E. denticulatum increased with wave exposure, whereas on Mafia Island, the likelihood increased with cover of coral rubble, and decreased with distance from areas of introduction (AOI), but this decrease was less pronounced in the presence of coral rubble. Grazing intensity was higher in Kane’ohe Bay than on Mafia Island. However, we still suggest that efforts to reduce non-indigenous E. denticulatum should include protection of important herbivores in both sites because of the high levels of grazing close to AOI. Moreover, we recommend that areas with hard substrate and high structural complexity should be avoided when farming non-indigenous strains of E. denticulatum.
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