Neighbor Diversity Regulates the Productivity of Coral Assemblages

McWilliam, Mike; Chase, Tory J.; Hoogenboom, Mia O.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.09.025

Cited by 35 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Positive effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning have been reported widely (O'Connor et al., ), but stem largely from temperate ecosystems with relatively low diversity (Clarke, York, Rasheed, & Northfield, ). Our results suggest that, in line with recent findings on reef fish productivity, coral calcification, and herbivore grazing (Duffy, Lefcheck, Stuart‐Smith, Navarrete, & Edgar, ; Lefcheck et al., ; McWilliam, Chase, & Hoogenboom, ), biodiversity‐mediated effects also operate on tropical coral reefs.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Marine protected areas enhance coral reef functioning by promoting fish biodiversity

Topor

Rasher

Duffy

et al. 2019

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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Preserving biodiversity and ecosystem function in the Anthropocene is one of humanity's greatest challenges. Ecosystem‐based management and area closures are considered an effective way to maintain ecological processes, especially in marine systems. Although there is strong evidence that such measures positively affect community structure, their impact on the rate of key ecological processes remains unclear. Here, we provide evidence that marine protected areas enhance herbivory rates on coral reefs via direct and indirect pathways. Using meta‐analysis and a path‐analytical framework, we demonstrate that, on average, protected areas increase the species richness of herbivorous fishes, which, in turn, enhances browsing rates on macroalgae. However, in all three regions studied (the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean), a small subset of the herbivore assemblage accounted for the majority of browsing. Our results therefore indicate that ecosystem functioning on coral reefs may respond positively to both area closures and the protection of key species.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Marine protected areas enhance coral reef functioning by promoting fish biodiversity

Topor

Rasher

Duffy

et al. 2019

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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“…Experimental manipulation of species diversity in a restoration project was also inconclusive (Cabaitan, Yap, & Gomez, 2015), and a meta-analysis found weak negative influence of diversity on resistance and resilience in coral reefs (Zhang et al, 2014). Recent work on Pacific species assemblages has documented increased productivity in multispecies treatments that is also dependent on surface area of colonies (McWilliam et al, 2018). Diversity can also increase growth and decrease tissue mortality in polyculture (Clements & Hay, 2019), but the impact of intraspecific diversity remains poorly understood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These impacts may be particularly pronounced in foundational species, which form structure that influences other species in the community (Barbour et al, 2009). Recent work has also documented interspecific diversity as an important factor in coral growth, survivorship, and productivity (Clements & Hay, 2019;McWilliam, Chase, & Hoogenboom, 2018), but our understanding of the potential influences of genotypic diversity or genet-genet interactions on community function in marine ecosystems is limited (Stachowicz, Bruno, & Duffy, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

Clonal diversity impacts coral cover in Acropora cervicornis thickets: Potential relationships between density, growth, and polymorphisms

Drury

Greer

Baums

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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As coral reefs decline, cryptic sources of resistance and resilience to stress may be increasingly important for the persistence of these communities. Among these sources, inter‐ and intraspecific diversity remain understudied on coral reefs but extensively impact a variety of traits in other ecosystems. We use a combination of field and sequencing data at two sites in Florida and two in the Dominican Republic to examine clonal diversity and genetic differentiation of high‐ and low‐density aggregations of the threatened coral Acropora cervicornis in the Caribbean. We find that high‐density aggregations called thickets are composed of up to 30 genotypes at a single site, but 47% of genotypes are also found as isolated, discrete colonies outside these aggregations. Genet–ramet ratios are comparable for thickets (0.636) and isolated colonies after rarefaction (0.569), suggesting the composition of each aggregation is not substantially different and highlighting interactions between colonies as a potential influence on structure. There are no differences in growth rate, but a significant positive correlation between genotypic diversity and coral cover, which may be due to the influence of interactions between colonies on survivorship or fragment retention during asexual reproduction. Many polymorphisms distinguish isolated colonies from thickets despite the shared genotypes found here, including putative nonsynonymous mutations that change amino acid sequence in 25 loci. These results highlight intraspecific diversity as a density‐dependent factor that may impact traits important for the structure and function of coral reefs.

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“…For example, the positive tree diversity-productivity relationship in subtropical Chinese forests (Huang, Chen, et al, 2018) is driven by neighbourhood tree diversity and processes acting at this scale (Fichtner et al, 2017). Similar neighbourhood-scale diversity effects can be common in a wide range of ecosystems (McWilliam, Chase, & Hoogenboom, 2018), illustrating how small-scale variations in producer diversity have community-wide effects (see also Chen et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

A tale of scale: Plot but not neighbourhood tree diversity increases leaf litter ant diversity

Skarbek

Noack

Bruelheide

et al. 2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Diversity of producers (e.g. plants) usually increases the diversity of associated organisms, but the scale (i.e. the spatial area of plant diversity considered) at which plant diversity acts on other taxa has rarely been studied. Most evidence for cross‐taxon diversity relations come from above‐ground consumers that directly interact with plants. Experimental tests of plant diversity effects on elusive organisms inhabiting the leaf litter layer, which are important for nutrient cycling and decomposition, are rare. Using a large tree diversity experiment, we tested whether tree diversity at the larger plot (i.e. community) or the smaller neighbourhood scale relates to the abundance, species richness, functional and phylogenetic diversity of leaf litter ants, which are dominant organisms in brown food webs. Contrary to our expectations of scale‐independent positive tree diversity effects, ant diversity increased only with plot but not neighbourhood tree diversity. While the exact causal mechanisms are unclear, nest relocation or small‐scale competition among ants may explain the stronger tree diversity effects at the plot scale. Our results indicate that even for small and less mobile organisms in the leaf litter, effects of tree diversity are stronger at relatively larger scales. The finding emphasizes the importance of diverse forest stands, in which mixing of tree species is not restricted to small patches, for supporting arthropod diversity in the leaf litter.

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Neighbor Diversity Regulates the Productivity of Coral Assemblages

Cited by 35 publications

References 42 publications

Marine protected areas enhance coral reef functioning by promoting fish biodiversity

Marine protected areas enhance coral reef functioning by promoting fish biodiversity

Clonal diversity impacts coral cover in Acropora cervicornis thickets: Potential relationships between density, growth, and polymorphisms

A tale of scale: Plot but not neighbourhood tree diversity increases leaf litter ant diversity

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