Flood‐stimulated herbivory drives range retraction of a plant ecosystem

Rocca, Camila; Daleo, Pedro; Núñez, Jesús; Silliman, Brian R.; Iribarne, Oscar; Angelini, Christine; Alberti, Juan

doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13735

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…The prevalence of disturbances driven by primary consumers will probably increase with global climate change and associated losses of higher predatory species (Rocca et al, 2021; Silliman et al, 2013). Therefore, it is critical to understand the mechanisms by which consumers switch from coexisting with primary producers to overgrazing the dominant producer, resulting in an alternative community state.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detrital supply suppresses deforestation to maintain healthy kelp forest ecosystems

Rennick

DiFiore

Curtis

et al. 2022

Ecology

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Herbivores can reach extraordinary abundances in many ecosystems. When herbivore abundance is high, heavy grazing can severely defoliate primary producers and, in some cases, even drive ecosystem to undergo regime shifts from a high productivity state to a denuded, low productivity state. While the phenomenon of herbivore-driven regime shifts is well documented, we only partially understand the mechanisms underlying these events. Here, we combine herbivory experiments with 21 years of long-term monitoring data of kelp forest ecosystems to test the hypothesis that herbivores drive regime shifts when herbivory exceeds primary production. To test this hypothesis, we quantified how the foraging habits of an important group of marine herbivores-sea urchins-change with increases in sea urchin biomass and trigger regime shifts to a foundation species, giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera). Using experiments, we quantified how the grazing capacity of urchins increases as urchin biomass increases, then we combined these estimates of urchin grazing capacity with estimates of kelp production to predict when and where urchin grazing capacity exceeded kelp production. When grazing capacity exceeded kelp production, sea urchins caused a 50-fold reduction in giant kelp biomass. Our findings support the hypothesis that the balance between herbivory and production underlies herbivore-driven regime shifts in Southern California kelp forests and provides insight into when and where urchins are likely to force regime shifts in kelp forest ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detrital supply suppresses deforestation to maintain healthy kelp forest ecosystems

Rennick

DiFiore

Curtis

et al. 2022

Ecology

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“…However, to our knowledge there was no clear evidence of consumer front formation induced by climate change that could lead to persistent zonation changes in species distributions. A recent work combining historical weather data with field samplings and experiments showed how extreme precipitation can promote consumer (crabs) fronts, thus generating the retraction of the lowest salt marsh edge (Rocca et al 2021). This occurred because extreme rainfall events (becoming more common in recent decades) promote floods, which enhance crab herbivory pressure at the lower edge of the marsh.…”

Section: S�� mentioning

confidence: 99%

South West Atlantic salt marshes as model systems for community and ecosystem ecology

et al. 2022

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A��. Just as some species are used as model systems in organismal biology (e.g., physiology, genetics), many ecosystems are commonly used as model systems in ecology. Salt marshes, for instance, are great models to perform manipulative field experiments, and thus, were historically used to understand the drivers of community and ecosystem function. Decades of experimental work, indeed, made a strong contribution to community ecology as a discipline, but most of the emerged hypotheses and models were grounded in a few sites. When studies from new sites came onboard, looking to enlarge generalities, their results challenged the prevailing ideas. Here, we review more than 25 years of intense experimentation in South West Atlantic salt marshes, which helped not only to increase the knowledge about salt marsh functioning, but also to expand this knowledge beyond salt marshes helping to refine community and ecosystem function theory. We show that results coming from SW Atlantic marshes significantly contribute to understand 1) the separate and interactive effect of biotic and abiotic stress for species distribution and even for ecosystem stability, 2) the integrated role of species that can function as ecosystem engineers and as consumers, 3) the balance between stochastic and deterministic forces as drivers of community structure, and 4) the regulation of cross-ecosystem fluxes. Nevertheless, we believe SW Atlantic salt marshes still have a lot more to offer, not only as conceptual models that help satisfy our intellectual curiosity, but also as key ecosystems that provide valuable benefits to our societies.

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Insect pests of forest trees

Prade

Coyle²

2023

Forest Microbiology

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Flood‐stimulated herbivory drives range retraction of a plant ecosystem

Abstract: 1. Climate change is generating extreme climate events, affecting ecosystem integrity and function directly through increases in abiotic stress and disturbance and | 3543

Cited by 5 publications

References 96 publications

Detrital supply suppresses deforestation to maintain healthy kelp forest ecosystems

Detrital supply suppresses deforestation to maintain healthy kelp forest ecosystems

South West Atlantic salt marshes as model systems for community and ecosystem ecology

Insect pests of forest trees

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