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Wan X, Fang Y, Jiang Y, Lu X, Zhu L, Feng J. Temperature and nutrients alter the relative importance of stochastic and deterministic processes in the coastal macroinvertebrates biodiversity assembly on long-time scales. Ecol Evol 2024; 14:e11062. [PMID: 38389996 PMCID: PMC10883258 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2022] [Revised: 02/01/2024] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Macroinvertebrates play a vital role in coastal ecosystems and are an important indicator of ecosystem quality. Both anthropogenic activity and environmental changes may lead to significant changes in the marine macroinvertebrate community. However, the assembly process of benthic biodiversity and its mechanism driven by environmental factors at large scales remains unclear. Here, using the benthic field survey data of 15 years at large spatial and temporal scales from the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem, we investigated the relative importance of environmental selection, dispersal processes, random-deterministic processes of macroinvertebrates community diversity assembly, and the responses of this relative importance driven by temperature and nutrients. Results showed that the macroinvertebrates community diversity is mainly affected by dispersal. Nitrogen and phosphorus are the most important negative factors among environmental variables, while geographical distance is the main limiting factor of β diversity. Within the range of 0.35-0.70 mg/L of nutrients, increasing nutrient concentration can significantly facilitate the contribution of the decay effect to β diversity. Within the temperature range studied (15.0-18.0°C), both warming and cooling can lead to a greater tendency for species diversity assembly processes to be dominated by deterministic processes. The analysis contributes to a better understanding of the assembly process of the diversity of coastal marine macroinvertebrates communities and how they adapt to global biogeochemical processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuhao Wan
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering Nankai University Tianjin China
| | - Yuan Fang
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering Nankai University Tianjin China
| | - Yueming Jiang
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering Nankai University Tianjin China
| | - Xueqiang Lu
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering Nankai University Tianjin China
| | - Lin Zhu
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering Nankai University Tianjin China
| | - Jianfeng Feng
- College of Environmental Science and Engineering Nankai University Tianjin China
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2
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Bani A, Randall KC, Clark DR, Gregson BH, Henderson DK, Losty EC, Ferguson RM. Mind the gaps: What do we know about how multiple chemical stressors impact freshwater aquatic microbiomes? ADV ECOL RES 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.aecr.2022.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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3
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Ferguson RMW, O'Gorman EJ, McElroy DJ, McKew BA, Coleman RA, Emmerson MC, Dumbrell AJ. The ecological impacts of multiple environmental stressors on coastal biofilm bacteria. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2021; 27:3166-3178. [PMID: 33797829 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 03/04/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Ecological communities are increasingly exposed to multiple interacting stressors. For example, warming directly affects the physiology of organisms, eutrophication stimulates the base of the food web, and harvesting larger organisms for human consumption dampens top-down control. These stressors often combine in the natural environment with unpredictable results. Bacterial communities in coastal ecosystems underpin marine food webs and provide many important ecosystem services (e.g. nutrient cycling and carbon fixation). Yet, how microbial communities will respond to a changing climate remains uncertain. Thus, we used marine mesocosms to examine the impacts of warming, nutrient enrichment, and altered top-predator population size structure (common shore crab) on coastal microbial biofilm communities in a crossed experimental design. Warming increased bacterial α-diversity (18% increase in species richness and 67% increase in evenness), but this was countered by a decrease in α-diversity with nutrient enrichment (14% and 21% decrease for species richness and evenness, respectively). Thus, we show some effects of these stressors could cancel each other out under climate change scenarios. Warming and top-predator population size structure both affected bacterial biofilm community composition, with warming increasing the abundance of bacteria capable of increased mineralization of dissolved and particulate organic matter, such as Flavobacteriia, Sphingobacteriia, and Cytophagia. However, the community shifts observed with warming depended on top-predator population size structure, with Sphingobacteriia increasing with smaller crabs and Cytophagia increasing with larger crabs. These changes could alter the balance between mineralization and carbon sequestration in coastal ecosystems, leading to a positive feedback loop between warming and CO2 production. Our results highlight the potential for warming to disrupt microbial communities and biogeochemical cycling in coastal ecosystems, and the importance of studying these effects in combination with other environmental stressors.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Eoin J O'Gorman
- School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
| | - David J McElroy
- Coastal & Marine Ecosystems Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Marine Stewardship Council, London, UK
| | - Boyd A McKew
- School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
| | - Ross A Coleman
- Coastal & Marine Ecosystems Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Mark C Emmerson
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Alex J Dumbrell
- School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
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4
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White L, Donohue I, Emmerson MC, O'Connor NE. Combined effects of warming and nutrients on marine communities are moderated by predators and vary across functional groups. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2018; 24:5853-5866. [PMID: 30246490 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14456] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2018] [Revised: 08/08/2018] [Accepted: 09/07/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Warming, nutrient enrichment and biodiversity modification are among the most pervasive components of human-induced global environmental change. We know little about their cumulative effects on ecosystems; however, even though this knowledge is fundamental to predicting and managing their consequences in a changing world. Here, we show that shifts in predator species composition can moderate both the individual and combined effects of warming and nutrient enrichment in marine systems. However, all three aspects of global change also acted independently to alter different functional groups in our flow-through marine rock-pool mesocosms. Specifically, warming reduced macroalgal biomass and assemblage productivity, whereas enrichment led to increased abundance of meso-invertebrate consumers, and loss of predator species led to increased gastropod grazer biomass. This disparity in responses, both across trophic levels (macroalgae and intermediate consumers), and between detecting additive effects on aggregate measures of ecosystem functioning, yet interactive effects on community composition, illustrates that our forecasting ability depends strongly on the level of ecological complexity incorporated within global change experiments. We conclude that biodiversity change-and loss of predator species in particular-plays a critical and overarching role in determining how ecological communities respond to stressors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lydia White
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Ian Donohue
- Department of Zoology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Mark C Emmerson
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Nessa E O'Connor
- School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
- Department of Zoology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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5
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Griffin JN, Silliman BR. Predator size-structure and species identity determine cascading effects in a coastal ecosystem. Ecol Evol 2018; 8:12435-12442. [PMID: 30619556 PMCID: PMC6308854 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.4571] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2018] [Revised: 08/22/2018] [Accepted: 08/30/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Cascading consequences of predator extinctions are well documented, but impacts of perturbations to predator size-structure and how these vary across species remain unclear. Body size is hypothesized to be a key trait governing individual predators' impact on ecosystems. Therefore, shifts in predator size-structure should trigger ecosystem ramifications which are consistent across functionally similar species. Using a US salt marsh as a model system, we tested this hypothesis by manipulating size class (small, medium, and large) and size diversity (combination of all three size classes) within two closely related and functionally similar predatory crab species over 4 months. Across treatments, predators suppressed densities of a dominant grazer and an ecosystem engineer, enhanced plant biomass, and altered sediment properties (redox potential and saturation). Over the metabolically equivalent experimental predator treatments, small size class predators had stronger average impacts on response variables, and size class interacted with predator species identity to drive engineer suppression. Within both predator species, size diversity increased cannibalism and slightly weakened the average impact. These results show that predator impacts in a salt marsh ecosystem are determined by both size class and size diversity; they also highlight that size class can have species-dependent and response-dependent effects, underlining the challenge of generalizing trait effects.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Brian R. Silliman
- Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the EnvironmentDuke UniversityBeaufortNorth Carolina
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6
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Scrine J, Jochum M, Ólafsson JS, O'Gorman EJ. Interactive effects of temperature and habitat complexity on freshwater communities. Ecol Evol 2017; 7:9333-9346. [PMID: 29187972 PMCID: PMC5696415 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2017] [Revised: 07/28/2017] [Accepted: 08/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Warming can lead to increased growth of plants or algae at the base of the food web, which may increase the overall complexity of habitat available for other organisms. Temperature and habitat complexity have both been shown to alter the structure and functioning of communities, but they may also have interactive effects, for example, if the shade provided by additional habitat negates the positive effect of temperature on understory plant or algal growth. This study explored the interactive effects of these two major environmental factors in a manipulative field experiment, by assessing changes in ecosystem functioning (primary production and decomposition) and community structure in the presence and absence of artificial plants along a natural stream temperature gradient of 5-18°C. There was no effect of temperature or habitat complexity on benthic primary production, but epiphytic production increased with temperature in the more complex habitat. Cellulose decomposition rate increased with temperature, but was unaffected by habitat complexity. Macroinvertebrate communities were less similar to each other as temperature increased, while habitat complexity only altered community composition in the coldest streams. There was also an overall increase in macroinvertebrate abundance, body mass, and biomass in the warmest streams, driven by increasing dominance of snails and blackfly larvae. Presence of habitat complexity, however, dampened the strength of this temperature effect on the abundance of macroinvertebrates in the benthos. The interactive effects that were observed suggest that habitat complexity can modify the effects of temperature on important ecosystem functions and community structure, which may alter energy flow through the food web. Given that warming is likely to increase habitat complexity, particularly at higher latitudes, more studies should investigate these two major environmental factors in combination to improve our ability to predict the impacts of future global change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Scrine
- Imperial College LondonSilwood Park CampusBuckhurst Road, AscotBerkshireSL5 7PYUK
| | - Malte Jochum
- Institute of Plant SciencesUniversity of BernBernSwitzerland
- J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and AnthropologyUniversity of GoettingenGöttingenGermany
| | | | - Eoin J. O'Gorman
- Imperial College LondonSilwood Park CampusBuckhurst Road, AscotBerkshireSL5 7PYUK
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7
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Ashton GV, Morley SA, Barnes DKA, Clark MS, Peck LS. Warming by 1°C Drives Species and Assemblage Level Responses in Antarctica's Marine Shallows. Curr Biol 2017; 27:2698-2705.e3. [PMID: 28867203 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2017] [Revised: 06/20/2017] [Accepted: 07/21/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Forecasting assemblage-level responses to climate change remains one of the greatest challenges in global ecology [1, 2]. Data from the marine realm are limited because they largely come from experiments using limited numbers of species [3], mesocosms whose interior conditions are unnatural [4], and long-term correlation studies based on historical collections [5]. We describe the first ever experiment to warm benthic assemblages to ecologically relevant levels in situ. Heated settlement panels were used to create three test conditions: ambient and 1°C and 2°C above ambient (predicted in the next 50 and 100 years, respectively [6]). We observed massive impacts on a marine assemblage, with near doubling of growth rates of Antarctic seabed life. Growth increases far exceed those expected from biological temperature relationships established more than 100 years ago by Arrhenius. These increases in growth resulted in a single "r-strategist" pioneer species (the bryozoan Fenestrulina rugula) dominating seabed spatial cover and drove a reduction in overall diversity and evenness. In contrast, a 2°C rise produced divergent responses across species growth, resulting in higher variability in the assemblage. These data extend our ability to expand, integrate, and apply our knowledge of the impact of temperature on biological processes to predict organism, species, and ecosystem level ecological responses to regional warming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gail V Ashton
- British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET, UK; Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 3150 Paradise Drive, Tiburon, CA 94920, USA.
| | - Simon A Morley
- British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET, UK.
| | - David K A Barnes
- British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET, UK
| | - Melody S Clark
- British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET, UK
| | - Lloyd S Peck
- British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET, UK
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8
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Sentis A, Binzer A, Boukal DS. Temperature-size responses alter food chain persistence across environmental gradients. Ecol Lett 2017; 20:852-862. [PMID: 28544190 DOI: 10.1111/ele.12779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2016] [Revised: 12/15/2016] [Accepted: 04/03/2017] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
Body-size reduction is a ubiquitous response to global warming alongside changes in species phenology and distributions. However, ecological consequences of temperature-size (TS) responses for community persistence under environmental change remain largely unexplored. Here, we investigated the interactive effects of warming, enrichment, community size structure and TS responses on a three-species food chain using a temperature-dependent model with empirical parameterisation. We found that TS responses often increase community persistence, mainly by modifying consumer-resource size ratios and thereby altering interaction strengths and energetic efficiencies. However, the sign and magnitude of these effects vary with warming and enrichment levels, TS responses of constituent species, and community size structure. We predict that the consequences of TS responses are stronger in aquatic than in terrestrial ecosystems, especially when species show different TS responses. We conclude that considering the links between phenotypic plasticity, environmental drivers and species interactions is crucial to better predict global change impacts on ecosystem diversity and stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arnaud Sentis
- Department of Ecosystem Biology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.,Biology Centre AS CR, vvi, Institute of Entomology, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.,Unité Mixte de Recherche 5174 "Evolution et Diversité Biologique", Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université de Toulouse III - Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Formation de l'Enseignement Agricole - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 31062, Toulouse, France
| | - Amrei Binzer
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August Thienemann Str. 2, 24306, Plön, Germany.,Linköping University, SE-581 83, Linköping, Sweden
| | - David S Boukal
- Department of Ecosystem Biology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.,Biology Centre AS CR, vvi, Institute of Entomology, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
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