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Habitat Configuration Alters Herbivory across the Tropical Seascape

Kate L. Swindells, Robyn J. Murdoch, William D. Bazen, Nicholas W. Harman, Richard Unsworth Orcid Logo

Frontiers in Marine Science, Volume: 4

Swansea University Author: Richard Unsworth Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3389/fmars.2017.00048

Abstract

There exists increasing evidence that top-down ecological processes, such as herbivory are key in controlling marine ecosystems and their community structure. Herbivory has the potential to be altered by numerous environmental and ecological factors that operate at a variety of temporal and spatial...

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Published in: Frontiers in Marine Science
ISSN: 2296-7745
Published: 2017
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa32196
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spelling 2018-01-08T14:19:58.3217261 v2 32196 2017-03-01 Habitat Configuration Alters Herbivory across the Tropical Seascape b0f33acd13a3ab541cf2aaea27f4fc2f 0000-0003-0036-9724 Richard Unsworth Richard Unsworth true false 2017-03-01 SBI There exists increasing evidence that top-down ecological processes, such as herbivory are key in controlling marine ecosystems and their community structure. Herbivory has the potential to be altered by numerous environmental and ecological factors that operate at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, one such spatial factor is the influence of the marine landscape. We know little about how ecological processes, such as herbivory change throughout the marine landscape and how the effects of these processes cascade. This is because most landscape scale studies observe species richness and abundance patterns. In terrestrial systems the landscape is well documented to influence ecological processes, but empirical evidence of this is limited in marine systems. In tropical seagrass meadows direct herbivory by parrotfish can be readily observed due to the clear hemispherical bite marks they leave on the seagrass. As with herbivory in other systems, this leaf consumption is thought to assist with leaf turnover, positively influencing leaf growth. Changes in its rate and extent are therefore likely to influence the characteristics of the plant. The faunal communities of seagrass meadows alter with respect to changes in the landscape, particularly with respect to connectivity to adjacent habitats. It might therefore be expected that a key ecological process, such as herbivory will change with respect to habitat configuration and have cascading impacts upon the status of the seagrass. In the present study we examined indirect evidence of parrotfish grazing throughout the marine landscape and assessed this relative to plant condition. Seagrasses in locations of close proximity to mangroves were found to have double the amount of parrotfish grazing than sites away from mangroves. Evidence of herbivory was also found to be strongly and significantly negatively correlated to the abundance of plant attached epicover. The decreased epicover in the presence of elevated herbivory suggests increased leaf turnover. These results indicate that seagrass may have higher levels of ecosystem resilience in the presence of mangroves. Our research highlights how ecological processes can change throughout the marine landscape with cascade impacts on the resilience of the system. Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science 4 2296-7745 28 2 2017 2017-02-28 10.3389/fmars.2017.00048 http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2017.00048/full COLLEGE NANME Biosciences COLLEGE CODE SBI Swansea University 2018-01-08T14:19:58.3217261 2017-03-01T12:56:21.0247666 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Kate L. Swindells 1 Robyn J. Murdoch 2 William D. Bazen 3 Nicholas W. Harman 4 Richard Unsworth 0000-0003-0036-9724 5 0032196-28032017102831.pdf Unsworth.pdf 2017-03-28T10:28:31.3800000 Output 480194 application/pdf Version of Record true 2017-03-28T00:00:00.0000000 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). true eng
title Habitat Configuration Alters Herbivory across the Tropical Seascape
spellingShingle Habitat Configuration Alters Herbivory across the Tropical Seascape
Richard Unsworth
title_short Habitat Configuration Alters Herbivory across the Tropical Seascape
title_full Habitat Configuration Alters Herbivory across the Tropical Seascape
title_fullStr Habitat Configuration Alters Herbivory across the Tropical Seascape
title_full_unstemmed Habitat Configuration Alters Herbivory across the Tropical Seascape
title_sort Habitat Configuration Alters Herbivory across the Tropical Seascape
author_id_str_mv b0f33acd13a3ab541cf2aaea27f4fc2f
author_id_fullname_str_mv b0f33acd13a3ab541cf2aaea27f4fc2f_***_Richard Unsworth
author Richard Unsworth
author2 Kate L. Swindells
Robyn J. Murdoch
William D. Bazen
Nicholas W. Harman
Richard Unsworth
format Journal article
container_title Frontiers in Marine Science
container_volume 4
publishDate 2017
institution Swansea University
issn 2296-7745
doi_str_mv 10.3389/fmars.2017.00048
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2017.00048/full
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description There exists increasing evidence that top-down ecological processes, such as herbivory are key in controlling marine ecosystems and their community structure. Herbivory has the potential to be altered by numerous environmental and ecological factors that operate at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, one such spatial factor is the influence of the marine landscape. We know little about how ecological processes, such as herbivory change throughout the marine landscape and how the effects of these processes cascade. This is because most landscape scale studies observe species richness and abundance patterns. In terrestrial systems the landscape is well documented to influence ecological processes, but empirical evidence of this is limited in marine systems. In tropical seagrass meadows direct herbivory by parrotfish can be readily observed due to the clear hemispherical bite marks they leave on the seagrass. As with herbivory in other systems, this leaf consumption is thought to assist with leaf turnover, positively influencing leaf growth. Changes in its rate and extent are therefore likely to influence the characteristics of the plant. The faunal communities of seagrass meadows alter with respect to changes in the landscape, particularly with respect to connectivity to adjacent habitats. It might therefore be expected that a key ecological process, such as herbivory will change with respect to habitat configuration and have cascading impacts upon the status of the seagrass. In the present study we examined indirect evidence of parrotfish grazing throughout the marine landscape and assessed this relative to plant condition. Seagrasses in locations of close proximity to mangroves were found to have double the amount of parrotfish grazing than sites away from mangroves. Evidence of herbivory was also found to be strongly and significantly negatively correlated to the abundance of plant attached epicover. The decreased epicover in the presence of elevated herbivory suggests increased leaf turnover. These results indicate that seagrass may have higher levels of ecosystem resilience in the presence of mangroves. Our research highlights how ecological processes can change throughout the marine landscape with cascade impacts on the resilience of the system.
published_date 2017-02-28T03:39:25Z
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