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Publication
Realistic scenarios of environmental disturbance lead to functionally important changes in benthic species-environment interactions
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Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Changes in community structure concurrent with environmental forcing often form a precursor to changes in
species diversity, and can have substantive consequences for ecosystem functioning. Here, we assess the effects of altered levels of evenness that are representative of different levels of eutrophication and changes in salinity associated with altered precipitation patterns, on the mediation of nutrient release by sediment-dwelling invertebrate communities. We find that an adjustment towards a more even distribution of species corresponds
with an increase in sediment particle reworking that, in general, translates to increased levels of nutrient release. This response, however, is dependent on the functional role of each species in the community and is influenced by concomitant changes in salinity, especially when salinity extends beyond the range typically experienced by the community. Overall, our findings highlight the dynamic nature of species contributions to functioning and reinforce the importance of understanding when, and how, the mechanistic basis of species-environment interactions are modified as the influence of abiotic and biotic factors flex under periods of directional forcing.
Description
Supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(FCT) through the Investigador FCT programme contract (M. Dolbeth,
IF/00919/2015) and Decree-law 57/2016 contract (S. Leston), subsidised by the European Social Fund and Portuguese Ministry of
Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES) through the
Human Potential Operational Programme (POPH), and partially supported by the Strategic Funding (UID/Multi/04423/2019) awarded to
CIIMAR. We also acknowledge the support of the MARS Network Travel
Award for Young Scientists (D. Crespo) and the fellowship from project
SmartBioR – Smart Valorization of Endogenous Marine Biological
Resources Under a Changing Climate (D. Crespo, CENTRO-01-0145-
FEDER-000018 co-funded by CENTRO2020/PORTUGAL2020/
FEDER); and the Coastal Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service
Sustainability (CBESS) research programme (NE/J015644/1), funded
by the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council (M. Solan, NE/
J015075/1).
Keywords
Bioturbation Evenness Functional traits Invertebrates Multiple stressors Trait variability
Citation
Dolbeth, M., Crespo, D., Leston, S., & Solan, M. (2019). Realistic scenarios of environmental disturbance lead to functionally important changes in benthic species-environment interactions. Marine environmental research, 150, 104770. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2019.104770
Publisher
Elsevier