Increasing intraspecific diversity enhances settling success in a marine invertebrate

• Theoretical and empirical research during the last decade suggests that increasing species richness often enhances ecosystem processes Such as productivity, nutrient cycling. or resistance to disturbance. By analogous reasoning, it can be hypothesized that genetic diversity within species will have equivalent effects; however, this hypothesis has rarely been tested. We present experimental support for the positive effects of intraspecific diversity on a key trait: larval settlement in a marine invertebrate, the barnacle Balanus improvisus. Varying within-species diversity levels of an animal over nine experiments, We found increasing larval settlement with increasing diversity (one, two, or three parental broods). Possible mechanisms explaining this pattern include: (1) facilitation of gregarious response through the presence of founder genotypes, and (2) ensuring genetic complementarity to increase future reproductive potential. Our results indicate that changing intraspecific genetic diversity could have hitherto unrecognized community-scale implications for larval recruitment and space occupancy.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Balanus improvisus

biodiversity

ecosystem function

facilitation

genetic

intraspecific diversity

marine

settling

ECOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS

BALANUS-IMPROVISUS

GENETIC DIVERSITY

ECOSYSTEM

COMMUNITY

BIODIVERSITY

LARVAE

PRODUCTIVITY

BEHAVIOR

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)