Consumer trait variation influences tritrophic interactions in salt marsh communities

Hughes, Andrew J.; Hanley, Torrance C.; Orozco, Nohelia P.; Zerebecki, Robyn A.

doi:10.1002/ece3.1564

Cited by 16 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…For example, wrack perturbation represented a (weak) stress on snail density, with magnitude playing a key role in both the short-and longterm. These stress effects likely resulted from negative impacts on Spartina, which snails use as a refuge from inundation and predation, as well as for foraging (Silliman and Newell 2003, Hughes 2012, Kimbro 2012, Hughes et al 2015. In contrast, wrack represented both a stress and a subsidy for fiddler burrow density, with positive and negative effects of wrack addition depending on individual perturbation components and overall intensity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress and subsidy effects of seagrass wrack duration, frequency, and magnitude on salt marsh community structure

Hanley

Kimbro

Hughes

2017

Ecology

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Environmental perturbations can strongly affect community processes and ecosystem functions by acting primarily as a subsidy that increases productivity, a stress that decreases productivity, or both, with the predominant effect potentially shifting from subsidy to stress as the overall intensity of the perturbation increases. While perturbations are often considered along a single axis of intensity, they consist of multiple components (e.g., magnitude, frequency, and duration) that may not have equivalent stress and/or subsidy effects. Thus, different combinations of perturbation components may elicit community and ecosystem responses that differ in strength and/or direction (i.e., stress or subsidy) even if they reflect a similar overall perturbation intensity. To assess the independent and interactive effects of perturbation components, we experimentally manipulated the magnitude, frequency, and duration of wrack deposition, a common stress-subsidy in a variety of coastal systems. The effects of wrack perturbation on salt marsh community and ecosystem properties were assessed both in the short-term (at the end of a 12-week experimental manipulation) and long-term (6 months after the end of the experiment). In the short-term, plants and associated benthic invertebrates exhibited primarily stress-based responses to wrack perturbation. The extent of these stress effects on density of the dominant plant Spartina alterniflora, total plant percent cover, invertebrate abundance, and sediment oxygen availability were largely determined by perturbation duration. Yet, higher nitrogen content of Spartina, which indicates a subsidy effect of wrack, was influenced primarily by perturbation magnitude in the short-term. In the longer term, perturbation magnitude determined the extent of both stress and subsidy effects of wrack perturbation, with lower subordinate plant percent cover and snail density, and higher Spartina nitrogen content in high wrack biomass treatments. However, stress effects on the marsh community were generally less pronounced 6 months after the wrack perturbation, indicating capacity for recovery. Our results demonstrate that individual perturbation components can determine the degree to which its effects on the community elicit primarily stress- and/or subsidy-based responses. Further, the nature and extent of stress-subsidy effects can change over time, depending on species' relative ability to tolerate and/or recover from perturbation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress and subsidy effects of seagrass wrack duration, frequency, and magnitude on salt marsh community structure

Hanley

Kimbro

Hughes

2017

Ecology

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“…While it is still unclear whether Littoraria directly consumes Juncus , previous studies have illustrated a negative impact of Littoraria on Juncus biomass (Hughes et al . ). Moreover, prior work in this system has found that Spartina growing in the presence of Juncus loses less biomass to Littoraria grazing than when growing by itself (i.e., an associational refuge), most likely because Littoraria uses taller and more rigid Juncus stems as a refuge from predation (Hughes ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Spartina alterniflora genotypic identity affects plant and consumer responses in an experimental marsh community

2016

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1. Competition and herbivory are ubiquitous processes known to interactively shape plant performance, distribution and community assembly. Likewise, plant genetic variation and associated trait differences can impact both plant-plant and plant-herbivore interactions individually, yet few studies have explored these interactions simultaneously. 2. Saltmarsh communities are an ideal system to study these questions, as they are dominated along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States by a foundation plant species, Spartina alterniflora, with high levels of genetically based trait variation. Furthermore, consumer pressure and plant competitors are known to influence both the distribution and production of Spartina. We manipulated Spartina genetic identity, neighbour identity (needlerush, Juncus roemerianus) and consumer presence (snail, Littoraria irrorata) in a 1-year field experiment in St. Joseph Bay, FL, to test how the strength and direction of neighbour and consumer interactions vary by plant genotype. 3. Consumer effects on Spartina were generally stronger and more variable than those of the plant neighbourhood, and these effects were generally consistent across Spartina genotypes. However, genotype-specific variation in morphology, phenology and palatability significantly influenced both consumer and neighbour responses to Spartina: the consumer Littoraria was more likely to climb palatable Spartina genotypes, and neighbouring Juncus had shorter stems in the presence of highly productive Spartina genotypes. 4. Synthesis. Our results add to the growing list of examples high-lighting the role of intraspecific variation in species interactions and suggest that variation in these interactions may promote the maintenance of plant genetic variation and community composition.

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“…ITV combines genetic diversity and phenotypic plasticity, and is assumed to play a major role in community assembly processes (Violle et al, ). For instance, ITV can mediate species coexistence (Turcotte & Levine, ), determine the ability of natural systems to cope with environmental changes (González‐Suárez & Revilla, ; Jung et al, ; Laurila, Karttunen, & Merilä, ), and control competitive or trophic interactions (Hughes, Hanley, Orozco, & Zerebecki, ; Le Bagousse‐Pinguet et al, ; Zhao, Villéger, Lek, & Cucherousset, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific and interspecific trait variability in tadpole meta‐communities from the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest

Jordani

Mouquet

Casatti

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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A better understanding of species coexistence and community dynamics may benefit from more insights on trait variability at the individual and species levels. Tadpole assemblages offer an excellent system to understand the relative influence of intraspecific and interspecific variability on community assembly, due to their high phenotypic plasticity, and the strong influence that environmental variables have on their spatial distribution and individual performance. Here, we quantified the intraspecific and interspecific components of tadpoles’ trait variability in order to investigate their relative role in shaping tadpole communities. We selected eight functional traits related to microhabitat use, foraging strategies, and swimming ability. We measured these traits on 678 individuals from 22 species captured in 43 ponds in the Atlantic Forest. We used single‐ and multitrait analyses to decompose trait variability. To explore the action of external and internal filtering on community assembly, we used a variance decomposition approach that compares phenotypic variability at the individual, population, community and regional levels. On average, 33% of trait variability was due to within‐species variation. This decomposition varied widely among traits. We found only a reduced effect of external filtering (low variation in the height of the ventral fin within ponds in comparison to the total variation), whereas the internal filtering was stronger than expected. Traits related to the use of different microhabitats through the water column were generally less variable than traits related to swimming ability to escape of predators, with tail traits being highly variable within species. Our study highlights the importance of incorporating both intraspecific and interspecific, trait differences and of focusing on a diversity of traits related to both stabilizing niche and fitness differences in order to better understand how trait variation relates to species coexistence.

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Consumer trait variation influences tritrophic interactions in salt marsh communities

Cited by 16 publications

References 82 publications

Stress and subsidy effects of seagrass wrack duration, frequency, and magnitude on salt marsh community structure

Stress and subsidy effects of seagrass wrack duration, frequency, and magnitude on salt marsh community structure

Spartina alterniflora genotypic identity affects plant and consumer responses in an experimental marsh community

Intraspecific and interspecific trait variability in tadpole meta‐communities from the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest

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