1
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Scrosati RA, Ellrich JA. Changes in the composition of invertebrate assemblages from wave-exposed intertidal mussel stands along the Nova Scotia coast, Canada. PeerJ 2024; 12:e17697. [PMID: 38993978 PMCID: PMC11238722 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.17697] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2024] [Accepted: 06/14/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Rocky intertidal habitats occur worldwide and are mainly characterized by primary space holders such as seaweeds and sessile invertebrates. Some of these organisms are foundation species, as they can form structurally complex stands that host many small invertebrates. The abundance of primary space holders is known to vary along coastlines driven directly or indirectly by environmental variation. However, it is less clear if the invertebrate assemblages associated to a foundation species may remain relatively unchanged along coastlines, as similar stands of a foundation species can generate similar microclimates. We examined this question using abundance data for invertebrate species found in mussel stands of a similar structure in wave-exposed rocky habitats at mid-intertidal elevations along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia (Canada). While the most abundant invertebrate species were found at three locations spanning 315 km of coastline, species composition (a combined measure of species identity and their relative abundance) differed significantly among the locations. One of the species explaining the highest amount of variation among locations (a barnacle) exhibited potential signs of bottom-up regulation involving pelagic food supply, suggesting benthic-pelagic coupling. The abundance of the species that explained the highest amount of variation (an oligochaete) was positively related to the abundance of their predators (mites), further suggesting bottom-up forcing in these communities. Overall, we conclude that species assemblages associated to structurally similar stands of a foundation species can show clear changes in species composition at a regional scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ricardo A. Scrosati
- Department of Biology, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Julius A. Ellrich
- Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Helgoland, Germany
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2
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Corbett JJ, Trussell GC. Local adaptation in trait-mediated trophic cascades. Proc Biol Sci 2024; 291:20232583. [PMID: 38196361 PMCID: PMC10777162 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Predator-induced changes in prey foraging can influence community dynamics by increasing the abundance of basal resources via a trait-mediated trophic cascade. The strength of these cascades may be altered by eco-evolutionary relationships between predators and prey, but the role of basal resources has received limited attention. We hypothesized that trait-mediated trophic cascade strength may be shaped by selection from trophic levels above and below prey. Field and laboratory experiments used snails (Nucella lapillus) from two regions in the Gulf of Maine (GoM) that vary in basal resource availability (e.g. mussels), seawater temperature, and contact history with the invasive green crab, Carcinus maenas. In field and laboratory experiments, Nucella from both regions foraged on mussels in the presence or absence of green crab risk cues. In the field, Nucella from the northern GoM, where mussels are scarce, were less responsive to risk cues and more responsive to seawater temperature than southern Nucella. In the lab, however, northern Nucella foraged and grew more than southern snails in the presence of risk, but foraging and growth were similar in the absence of risk. We suggest that adaptation to basal resource availability may shape geographical variation in the strength of trait-mediated trophic cascades.
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Affiliation(s)
- James J. Corbett
- Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences and Coastal Sustainability Institute, Northeastern University, Nahant, MA 01908, USA
| | - Geoffrey C. Trussell
- Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences and Coastal Sustainability Institute, Northeastern University, Nahant, MA 01908, USA
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3
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Matassa CM, Hitchcock CB. Bioblitz Assessment of Rocky Intertidal Biodiversity within the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. Northeast Nat (Steuben) 2021. [DOI: 10.1656/045.025.s908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Colleen B. Hitchcock
- Biology Department and Environmental Studies Program, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453
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4
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Mutti A, Kübler-Dudgeon I, Dudgeon S. Variability effects by consumers exceed their average effects across an environmental gradient of mussel recruitment. Oecologia 2021; 196:539-552. [PMID: 34050382 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-021-04951-6] [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: 05/23/2020] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The implicit assumption that properties of natural systems deduced from the average statistics from random samples suffice for understanding them focuses the attention of ecologists on the average effects of processes and responses, and often, to view their variability as noise. Yet, both kinds of effects can drive dynamics of ecological systems and their covariation may confound interpretation. Predation by crabs and snails on competitively dominant mussels has long been recognized as an important process structuring communities on rocky shores of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. We experimentally manipulated the average intensity of predation in plots across a gradient of mussel recruitment to separately estimate the average and variability of responses of mussel recruitment and community composition. Predation did not affect the average number of mussels recruited to plots, nor the average multivariate composition of the community. Plots from which predators were excluded showed a ~ 30% increase in spatial variability of mussel recruitment. After 1 year, the spatial variability in community composition was greater than that observed among plots that predators could access. An important, but less recognized, aspect of predation is its dampening effect on variability of community structure. As accelerating rates of environmental change disrupt species interactions, variability effects of ecological processes and corresponding responses are likely to be increasingly important determinants of community dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexa Mutti
- Department of Biology, California State University, Northridge, CA, 91330-8303, USA.,California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Santa Barbara, CA, 93109, USA
| | - Iris Kübler-Dudgeon
- Department of Biology, California State University, Northridge, CA, 91330-8303, USA.,Department of Mathematics, University of California San Diego, LaJolla, 92093, USA
| | - Steve Dudgeon
- Department of Biology, California State University, Northridge, CA, 91330-8303, USA.
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5
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Benes K, Bracken MES. Interactive effects of large- and local-scale environmental gradients on phenotypic differentiation. Ecology 2020; 101:e03078. [PMID: 32542682 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2019] [Revised: 02/24/2020] [Accepted: 03/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Intraspecific differentiation across a steep environmental gradient depends on the relative influences of evolutionary, organismal, and environmental processes. But steep environmental gradients may be nested within larger-scale, regional conditions that could influence these processes at the local scale. Therefore, we hypothesized that phenotypic differentiation along a steep environmental gradient would vary among regions. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a reciprocal transplant experiment on rocky intertidal shores, a habitat characterized by gradients in abiotic and biotic stress, in three regions of the Gulf of Maine. We used the ubiquitous and ecologically important rockweed species Fucus vesiculosus to quantify differentiation in growth, tissue nitrogen, and nitrogen productivity between upper and lower intertidal individuals. We found that phenotypic differentiation between tide heights varied among traits and regions. Although tissue nitrogen did not vary among any treatment combinations, growth and nitrogen productivity response were region specific. A strong effect of transplant height was found in all regions; however, an effect of home (source) height was only detectable in the central Gulf of Maine. Our study reveals that intraspecific responses to steep environmental gradients vary among populations, but the mechanisms underlying these patterns remain unknown. Given the roles that rockweeds play as food and habitat, these in situ patterns of growth and nitrogen productivity could have important community- and ecosystem-level consequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kylla Benes
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, 321 Steinhaus Hall, Irvine, California, 92697-2525, USA
- Davidson Honors College, University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, Montana, 59812, USA
| | - Matthew E S Bracken
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, 321 Steinhaus Hall, Irvine, California, 92697-2525, USA
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6
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Biogeography of Macrophyte Elemental Composition: Spatiotemporal Modification of Species-Level Traits. Ecosystems 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-020-00484-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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7
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Scrosati RA, Ellrich JA. A 5-year study (2014-2018) of the relationship between coastal phytoplankton abundance and intertidal barnacle size along the Atlantic Canadian coast. PeerJ 2019; 7:e6892. [PMID: 31106077 PMCID: PMC6500718 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.6892] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2019] [Accepted: 04/01/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Benthic-pelagic coupling refers to the ecological relationships between benthic and pelagic environments. Studying such links is particularly useful to understand biological variation in intertidal organisms along marine coasts. Filter-feeding invertebrates are ecologically important on marine rocky shores, so they have often been used to investigate benthic-pelagic coupling. Most studies, however, have been conducted on eastern ocean boundaries. To evaluate benthic-pelagic coupling on a western ocean boundary, we conducted a 5-year study spanning 415 km of the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia (Canada). We hypothesized that the summer size of intertidal barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides) recruited in the preceding spring would be positively related to the nearshore abundance (biomass) of phytoplankton, as phytoplankton constitutes food for the nauplius larvae and benthic stages of barnacles. Every year between 2014 and 2018, we measured summer barnacle size in clearings created before spring recruitment on the rocky substrate at eight wave-exposed locations along this coast. We then examined the annual relationships between barnacle size and chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a), a proxy for phytoplankton biomass. For every year and location, we used satellite data to calculate Chl-a averages for a period ranging from the early spring (when most barnacle larvae were in the water) to the summer (when barnacle size was measured after weeks of growth following spring benthic recruitment). The relationships were always positive, Chl-a explaining nearly half, or more, of the variation in barnacle size in four of the five studied years. These are remarkable results because they were based on a relatively limited number of locations (which often curtails statistical power) and point to the relevance of pelagic food supply to explain variation in intertidal barnacle size along this western ocean boundary coast.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ricardo A Scrosati
- Department of Biology, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Julius A Ellrich
- Department of Biology, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
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8
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The effects of embryonic experience with predation risk vary across a wave exposure gradient. Ecosphere 2019. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
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9
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Scrosati RA, Ellrich JA. Benthic–pelagic coupling and bottom‐up forcing in rocky intertidal communities along the Atlantic Canadian coast. Ecosphere 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Ricardo A. Scrosati
- Department of Biology St. Francis Xavier University Antigonish Nova Scotia B2G 2W5 Canada
| | - Julius A. Ellrich
- Department of Biology St. Francis Xavier University Antigonish Nova Scotia B2G 2W5 Canada
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10
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Morello SL, Etter RJ. Transition probabilities help identify putative drivers of community change in complex systems. Ecology 2018; 99:1357-1369. [PMID: 29604059 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2017] [Accepted: 02/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the role of larger-scale processes in modulating the assembly, structure, and dynamics of communities is critical for forecasting the effects of climate-change and managing ecosystems. Developing this comprehensive perspective is difficult though, because species interactions are complex, interdependent, and dynamic through space and time. Typically, experiments focus on tractable subsets of interactions that will be most critical to investigate and explain shifts in communities, but qualitatively base these choices on experience, natural history, and theory. One quantitative approach to identify the putative forces regulating communities, without reducing system complexity, is estimating transition probabilities among species occupying space (i.e., multispecies Markov chain models). Although not mechanistic, these models estimate the relative frequency and importance of ecological pathways in community assembly and dynamics, and can serve as a framework to identify how pathways change across large scales and which are most important to investigate further. Here, we demonstrate this method in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) intertidal zone, where research has largely focused on the local-scale processes that influence communities, while the mechanisms responsible for more regional shifts in communities are less clear. Transition probabilities of faunal elements were quantified bimonthly for ~2.5 yr in local intertidal communities at three replicate sites in the southern, mid-coast, and northern GOM. Transitions related to mortality, colonization, and replacement by mussels, barnacles, red algae, and encrusting corallines differed regionally, suggesting specific pathways related to consumer pressure and recruitment vary across the GOM with shifting intertidal community structure. Combined with species abundance data and insights from previous research, we develop and evaluate the pathways by which communities likely change in the GOM. Species interactions in local communities can be complex, and this complexity should be incorporated into hypothesis building, experiments, theory, interpretations, and forecasts in ecology. Such a comprehensive approach will be critical to understand how regional shifts in local interactions can drive large-scale community change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scott L Morello
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, 02125, USA.,The Downeast Institute, P.O. Box 83, Bzeals, Maine, 04611, USA
| | - Ron J Etter
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, 02125, USA
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11
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Glasby TM, Gibson PT, Cruz-Motta JJ. Differences in rocky reef habitats related to human disturbances across a latitudinal gradient. MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2017; 129:291-303. [PMID: 28673425 DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2017.06.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2016] [Revised: 06/20/2017] [Accepted: 06/22/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
This study tested for differences in the composition of intertidal and shallow subtidal rocky reef habitats subjected to a range of human pressures across ∼1000 km of coastline in New South Wales, Australia over 5 years. Percentage covers of habitats were sampled using aerial photography and a large grain size (20 m2 intertidal; 800 m2 subtidal) in a nested hierarchical design. Results were consistent with anthropogenic impacts on habitat structure only around estuaries with the most heavily urbanised or agriculturally-intense catchments. The most convincing relationships documented here related to environmental variables such as SST, latitude, reef width and proximity to large estuaries irrespective of human disturbance levels. Moreover, there were suggestions that any influences of estuarine waters (be they anthropogenic or natural) on reef assemblages could potentially extend 10s of kilometres from major estuaries. In general, our results supported those of studies that utilised smaller grain sizes (greatest variability often at smallest spatial scales), but we found that variability over scales of 100s of km can be similar to or greater than variability over scales of 10s of metres.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim M Glasby
- New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Port Stephens Fisheries Institute, Locked Bag 1, Nelson Bay, NSW, 2315 Australia.
| | - Peter T Gibson
- New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Port Stephens Fisheries Institute, Locked Bag 1, Nelson Bay, NSW, 2315 Australia
| | - Juan J Cruz-Motta
- Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, PO Box 9000, Mayagüez, PR 00681-9000, Puerto Rico
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12
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Bracken MES, Douglass JG, Perini V, Trussell GC. Spatial scale mediates the effects of biodiversity on marine primary producers. Ecology 2017; 98:1434-1443. [DOI: 10.1002/ecy.1812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2016] [Revised: 01/09/2017] [Accepted: 02/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Matthew E. S. Bracken
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of California 321 Steinhaus Hall Irvine California 92697 USA
| | - James G. Douglass
- Department of Marine and Ecological Sciences Florida Gulf Coast University 10501 FGCU Boulevard South Fort Myers Florida 33965 USA
| | - Valerie Perini
- Marine Science Center Northeastern University 430 Nahant Road Nahant Massachusetts 01908 USA
| | - Geoffrey C. Trussell
- Marine Science Center Northeastern University 430 Nahant Road Nahant Massachusetts 01908 USA
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13
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Menge BA, Bracken MES, Lubchenco J, Leslie HM. Alternative state? Experimentally induced
F
ucus
canopy persists 38 yr in an
A
scophyllum‐
dominated community. Ecosphere 2017. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1725] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Bruce A. Menge
- Department of Integrative Biology Oregon State University Cordley Hall 3029 Corvallis Oregon 97331 USA
| | - Matthew E. S. Bracken
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of California 321 Steinhaus Hall Irvine California 92697 USA
| | - Jane Lubchenco
- Department of Integrative Biology Oregon State University Cordley Hall 3029 Corvallis Oregon 97331 USA
| | - Heather M. Leslie
- Darling Marine Center and School of Marine Sciences University of Maine 193 Clarks Cove Road Walpole Maine 04573 USA
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14
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Donelan SC, Grabowski JH, Trussell GC. Refuge quality impacts the strength of nonconsumptive effects on prey. Ecology 2017; 98:403-411. [DOI: 10.1002/ecy.1647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2016] [Revised: 09/21/2016] [Accepted: 10/31/2016] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sarah C. Donelan
- Marine Science Center and Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences Northeastern University 430 Nahant Road Nahant Massachusetts 01908 USA
| | - Jonathan H. Grabowski
- Marine Science Center and Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences Northeastern University 430 Nahant Road Nahant Massachusetts 01908 USA
| | - Geoffrey C. Trussell
- Marine Science Center and Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences Northeastern University 430 Nahant Road Nahant Massachusetts 01908 USA
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15
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Witman JD, Lamb RW, Byrnes JEK. Towards an integration of scale and complexity in marine ecology. ECOL MONOGR 2015. [DOI: 10.1890/14-2265.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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