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Edge effects reverse facilitation by a widespread foundation species.

ABSTRACT: Dense aggregations of foundation species often mitigate environmental stresses for organisms living among them. Considerable work documents such benefits by comparing conditions inside versus outside these biogenic habitats. However, environmental gradients commonly arise across the extent of even single patches of habitat-forming species, including cases where stresses diverge between habitat interiors and edges. We ask here whether such edge effects could alter how habitat-forming species influence residents, potentially changing the strength or direction of interactions (i.e., from stress amelioration to exacerbation). We take as a model system the classic marine foundation species, Mytilus californianus, the California mussel. Results demonstrate that mussel beds both increase and decrease thermal stresses. Over a distance of 6 to 10?cm from the bed interior to its upper surface, peak temperatures climb from as much as 20?°C below to 5?°C above those of adjacent bedrock. This directional shift in temperature modification affects interactions with juvenile mussels, such that thermal stresses and associated mortality risk are higher at the bed surface, but substantially reduced deeper within the adult matrix. These findings provide a case example of how stress gradients generated across biogenic habitats can markedly alter ecological interactions even within a single habitat patch.

SUBMITTER: Jurgens LJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5120328 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Edge effects reverse facilitation by a widespread foundation species.

Jurgens Laura J LJ Gaylord Brian B

Scientific reports 20161123

Dense aggregations of foundation species often mitigate environmental stresses for organisms living among them. Considerable work documents such benefits by comparing conditions inside versus outside these biogenic habitats. However, environmental gradients commonly arise across the extent of even single patches of habitat-forming species, including cases where stresses diverge between habitat interiors and edges. We ask here whether such edge effects could alter how habitat-forming species infl ...[more]

PMID: 27876842

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Project description:Abstract Intraspecific variation is an important form of biodiversity that can alter community and ecosystem properties. Recent work demonstrates the community effects of intraspecific variation in predators via altering prey communities and in foundation species via shaping habitat attributes. However, tests of the community effects of intraspecific trait variation in predators acting on foundation species are lacking despite the fact that consumption of foundation species can have strong community effects by shaping habitat structure. Here, we tested the hypothesis that intraspecific foraging differences among populations of mussel‐drilling dogwhelk predators (Nucella) differentially alter intertidal communities through effects on foundational mussels. We conducted a 9‐month field experiment where we exposed intertidal mussel bed communities to predation from three Nucella populations that exhibit differences in size‐selectivity and consumption time for mussel prey. At the end of the experiment, we measured mussel bed structure, species diversity, and community composition. While exposure to Nucella originating from different populations did not significantly alter overall community diversity, we found that differences in Nucella mussel selectivity significantly altered foundational mussel bed structure, which in turn altered the biomass of shore crabs and periwinkle snails. Our study extends the emerging paradigm of the ecological importance of intraspecific variation to include the effects of intraspecific variation on predators of foundation species. Recent work demonstrates the community effects of intraspecific variation in predators via altering prey communities and in foundation species via shaping habitat attributes, but tests of the community effects of intraspecific trait variation in predators acting on foundation species are lacking. We used a 9‐month field experiment to test the hypothesis that intraspecific foraging differences among populations of mussel‐drilling dogwhelk predators differentially alter intertidal communities through effects on foundational mussels. We found that differences in dogwhelk prey selectivity significantly altered foundational mussel bed structure, which in turn altered the biomass of shore crabs and periwinkle snails, extending the emerging paradigm of the ecological importance of intraspecific variation to include the effects of intraspecific variation in predators of foundation species.

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Edge effects reverse facilitation by a widespread foundation species.

Publications

Edge effects reverse facilitation by a widespread foundation species.

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