Effects of macroalgal species identity and richness on primary production in benthic marine communities

Bruno, John F.; Boyer, Katharyn E.; Duffy, J. Emmett; Lee, Sarah C.; Kertesz, Johanna S.

doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00823.x

Cited by 188 publications

(205 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…For example, Bruno et al (7) found that algal species richness had little, if any, effect on biomass production in 2.5-to 5-week mesocosm experiments, whereas 2 longer-term field manipulations (Ͼ1 year) found strong effects (14,15). However Bruno et al (7,8) also performed field experiments with the same species pool and still found weak or no effect of species richness, so the distinction is not simply due to the field setting. Two major differences between the field experiments that found effects of species richness and those that did not are (i) the duration of the experiment and (ii) whether treatments were produced by assembling transplanted individuals vs. deleting species in situ on natural substrates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although longer-term studies do tend to find strong effects, these studies are also from colder temperate regions, are conducted intertidally, and are in the field (14)(15)(16). In contrast, studies that find weak or no effects often involve subtidal taxa and are shorter term and/or conducted in mesocosms (7,8,17). This severely limits our ability to use existing data to ascertain when diversity really is and is not an important driver of ecosystem processes.…”

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confidence: 95%

“…We examined the effect of the same species from the long-term field experiment in monoculture and polyculture on the growth of individual species and total biomass change in an outdoor intertidal mesocosm. Assemblages were created by attaching each of the 4 intertidal seaweed species to 15 ϫ 15 cm squares of 1-cm plastic mesh with transparent fishing line, as has been done in other experiments (7). Each square was attached to the top of a concrete block that elevated it 20 cm above of the bottom of a 3.75-m-diameter outdoor pool.…”

Section: Short-term Field Experimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Complementarity in marine biodiversity manipulations: Reconciling divergent evidence from field and mesocosm experiments

Stachowicz

Best

Bracken

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

105

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Mounting concern over the loss of marine biodiversity has increased the urgency of understanding its consequences. This urgency spurred the publication of many short-term studies, which often report weak effects of diversity (species richness) driven by the presence of key species (the sampling effect). Longer-term field experiments are slowly accumulating, and they more often report strong diversity effects driven by species complementarity, calling into question the generality of earlier findings. However, differences among study systems in which short-and long-term studies are conducted currently limit our ability to assess whether these differences are simply due to biological or environmental differences among systems. In this paper, we compared the effect of intertidal seaweed species richness on biomass accumulation in mesocosms and field experiments using the same pool of species. We found that seaweed species richness increased biomass accumulation in field experiments in both short (2-month) and long (3-year) experiments, although effects were stronger in the longterm experiment. In contrast, richness had no effect in mesocosm experiments, where biomass accumulation was completely a function of species identity. We argue that the short-term experiments, like many published experiments on the topic, detect only a subset of possible mechanisms that operate in the field over the longer term because they lack sufficient environmental heterogeneity to allow expression of niche differences, and they are of insufficient length to capture population-level responses, such as recruitment. Many published experiments, therefore, likely underestimate the strength of diversity on ecosystem processes in natural ecosystems. diversity-ecosystem function ͉ seaweed ͉ species identity ͉ intertidal ͉ algae

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Short-term Field Experimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Complementarity in marine biodiversity manipulations: Reconciling divergent evidence from field and mesocosm experiments

Stachowicz

Best

Bracken

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

105

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“…This synthetic review has highlighted the importance of the identity of species or ''functional'' group in determining key processes in both soft and hard intertidal and shallow water communities. As such it reflects the rich history of empirical studies on both sides of the Atlantic, but also adds weight to recent output from the biodiversity-ecosystem-functioning debate that understanding of what species or taxa ''do'' is fundamental to understanding community and ecosystem ecology (e.g., Bruno et al 2005, Hooper et al 2005. Interestingly on rocky shores the identity of dominant grazers clearly has a strong role in determining the processes by which communities are structured.…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Ecology of North Atlantic Shores: Do Differences in Players Matter for Process?

Jenkins

Moore

Burrows

et al. 2008

Ecology

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Abstract. The contrasting histories of the western and eastern shores of the North Atlantic Ocean provide an excellent opportunity to consider the implications of past events for present ecological processes and the functioning of marine ecosystems. Similarities and differences in assemblage composition have been driven by large-scale events, such as the trans-Arctic interchange, which has shaped the species pool, and cycles of glaciation, which have determined phases of local or regional extinction and colonization. More recently, anthropogenically induced invasions and local extinctions have significantly altered biogeographic distributions. Here we consider for both hard and soft substrata how the presence or absence of key taxa influences the outcomes of trophic and other biological interactions, and evaluate the consequences for community structure and ecosystem functioning. On intertidal hard substratum shores, biodiversity of epilithic microphagous grazers differs across latitudinal and longitudinal scales. Diversity is high in southern Europe but declines to the north and across the Atlantic. Lower diversity and the absence of patellid limpets in Iceland and the northwest Atlantic compared to Europe result in differences in consumer pressure, and an apparent contrast in the importance of herbivory vs. competitive interactions and predation pressure as community structuring processes. Interestingly, despite differences in ''process,'' community patterns are remarkably similar between the east and west. On soft sediment shores, there are conspicuous geographic differences in importance of bioturbators and large digging predators. Hemichordates can be abundant and important infaunal bioturbators in the western Atlantic, but they generally play a much reduced role in the eastern Atlantic. In addition, the number and diversity of digging predators on western Atlantic shores is high; the horseshoe crab, swimming portunid crabs, large whelks, excavating waterfowl, and an abundance of skates and rays exert intense predation pressure and associated biogenic disturbance to sediments. In Europe, except for excavating waterfowl these taxa are rare or absent. Thus, the importance of large, biological agents of disturbance is lower on European shores as a consequence of both recent anthropogenic pressure and natural processes over larger time scales. Consideration of key structuring taxa over the Atlantic shows that human-mediated transport has had considerable influence. Faunas on both sides of the Atlantic are becoming more similar to the point that some of the key differences in assemblage composition and hence community organization have blurred. Recent introductions as well as planned experimental manipulations provide the opportunity to understand the role of species identity in determining community structure and ecosystem functioning over large spatial scales; the North Atlantic may be an ideal test system to explore these areas.

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“…Nevertheless, the dual interpretation of the sampling effect illustrates the importance of food identity. Bruno et al (2005) noted that species identity generally appears to be much more important than species richness in controlling primary biomass production in a benthic marine community. Here some evidence of an effect of primary producers' identity on food selection by marine grazers is provided, hence influencing energy transfer to higher trophic levels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of food diversity on diatom selection by harpacticoid copepods

Wyckmans

Chepurnov

Vanreusel

et al. 2007

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology

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The diversity of species assemblages which occupy a basal position in the trophic pyramid (typically unicellular algae in aquatic environments) is known to influence the interaction with organisms of higher trophic levels. A laboratory feeding experiment was conducted with cultures of three benthic diatom species (Navicula phyllepta, Grammatophora marina and Cylindrotheca closterium) as primary producers and three harpacticoid copepod species (Harpacticus obscurus, Paramphiascella fulvofasciata and Tigriopus brevicornis) as grazers to evaluate the effects of food diversity (and concomitant food availability) on grazing selectivity. This kind of selectivity experiments is singular for benthic harpacticoid copepods as so far, information on food selection of harpacticoids is scarce.Uptake of a unispecific food source by a single copepod species decreased as food diversity (and concomitant overall food concentration) increased. All three consumers reacted similarly to changing food diversity, but exhibited strong species-specific responses to food identity i.e. which diatom was added was crucial. Irrespective of level of food diversity, H. obscurus took up high amounts of G. marina, whereas both P. fulvofasciata and T. brevicornis preferred C. closterium when given the choice between different diatoms. As for zooplanktonic taxa, this experiment showed that in lower benthic marine food webs both prey organisms (primary producers) and grazers play a very specific role. Diversity of food and its identity are of critical importance at the base of the trophic pyramid, influencing trophic transfer from primary producers over grazers to higher trophic levels.

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Effects of macroalgal species identity and richness on primary production in benthic marine communities

Cited by 188 publications

References 47 publications

Complementarity in marine biodiversity manipulations: Reconciling divergent evidence from field and mesocosm experiments

Complementarity in marine biodiversity manipulations: Reconciling divergent evidence from field and mesocosm experiments

Comparative Ecology of North Atlantic Shores: Do Differences in Players Matter for Process?

Effects of food diversity on diatom selection by harpacticoid copepods

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