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Shifts in biomass and structure of habitat-formers across a latitudinal gradient.

ABSTRACT: Global patterns of plant biomass drive the distribution of much of the marine and terrestrial life on Earth. This is because their biomass and physical structure have important consequences for the communities they support by providing food and habitat. In terrestrial ecosystems, temperature is one of the major determinants of plant biomass and can influence plant and leaf morphology. In temperate marine systems, macroalgae are major habitat-formers and commonly display highly variable morphology in response to local environmental conditions. Variation in their morphology, and thus habitat structure on temperate reefs, however, is poorly understood across large scales. In this study, we used a trait-based approach to quantify morphological variability in subtidal rocky reefs dominated by the algal genus Sargassum along a latitudinal gradient, in southeastern Australia (~900 km). We tested whether large-scale variation in sea surface temperature (SST), site exposure, and nutrient availability can predict algal biomass and individual morphology. We found Sargassum biomass declined with increasing maximum SST. We also found that individual morphology varied with abiotic ocean variables. Frond size and intraindividual variability in frond size decreased with increasing with distance from the equator, as SST decreased and nitrate concentration increased. The shape of fronds displayed no clear relationship with any of the abiotic variables measured. These results suggest climate change will cause significant changes to the structure of Sargassum habitats along the southeastern coast of Australia, resulting in an overall reduction in biomass and increase in the prevalence of thalli with large, highly variable fronds. Using a space-for-time approach means shifts in morphological trait values can be used as early warning signs of impending species declines and regime shifts. Consequently, by studying traits and how they change across large scales we can potentially predict and anticipate the impacts of environmental change on these communities.

SUBMITTER: Stelling-Wood TP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8258212 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:General principles that shape community structure can be described based on a functional trait approach grounded on predictive models; increased attention has been paid to factors accounting for the functional diversity of species assemblages and its association with species richness along environmental gradients. We analyze here the interaction between leaf-litter ant species richness, the local communities' morphological structure and fundamental niche within the context of a northeast-southeast latitudinal gradient in one of the world's most species-rich ecosystems, the Atlantic Forest, representing 2,700 km of tropical rainforest along almost 20° of latitude in eastern Brazil. Our results are consistent with an ecosystem-wide pattern in communities' structure, with relatively high species turnover but functionally analogous leaf-litter ant communities' organization. Our results suggest directional shifts in the morphological space along the environmental gradient from overdispersed to aggregated (from North to South), suggesting that primary productivity and environmental heterogeneity (altitude, temperature and precipitation in the case) determine the distribution of traits and regulate the assembly rules, shaping local leaf-litter ant communities. Contrary to the expected and most common pattern along latitudinal gradients, the Atlantic Forest leaf litter ant communities show an inverse pattern in richness, that is, richer communities in higher than in lower latitudes. The morphological specialization of communities showed more morphologically distinct communities at low latitudes and species redundancy at high latitudes. We claim that an inverse latitudinal gradient in primary productivity and environmental heterogeneity across the Atlantic forest may affect morphological diversity and species richness, enhancing species coexistence mechanisms, and producing thus the observed patterns. We suggest that a functional framework based on flexible enough traits should be pursued to allow comparisons at local, regional and global levels.

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Shifts in biomass and structure of habitat-formers across a latitudinal gradient.

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