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Herbivory enables marine communities to resist warming

Climate change can influence ecosystems via both direct effects on individual organisms and indirect effects mediated by species interactions. However, we understand little about how these changes will ripple through ecosystems or whether there are particular ecological characteristics that might ma...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kordas, Rebecca L., Donohue, Ian, Harley, Christopher D. G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5636201/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29026881
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701349
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author Kordas, Rebecca L.
Donohue, Ian
Harley, Christopher D. G.
author_facet Kordas, Rebecca L.
Donohue, Ian
Harley, Christopher D. G.
author_sort Kordas, Rebecca L.
collection PubMed
description Climate change can influence ecosystems via both direct effects on individual organisms and indirect effects mediated by species interactions. However, we understand little about how these changes will ripple through ecosystems or whether there are particular ecological characteristics that might make ecosystems more susceptible—or more resistant—to warming. By combining in situ experimental warming with herbivore manipulations in a natural rocky intertidal community for over 16 months, we show that herbivory regulates the capacity of marine communities to resist warming. We found that limpet herbivores helped to preserve trophic and competitive interactions under experimental warming, dampening the impact of warming on overall community composition. The presence of limpets facilitated the survival of the main habitat modifier (barnacles) under warmer conditions, which, in turn, facilitated the presence of a consumer guild. When limpets were removed, environmental warming altered trophic, competitive, and facilitative interactions, with cascading impacts on community succession and stability. We conclude that conserving trophic structure and the integrity of interaction networks is vitally important as Earth continues to warm.
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spelling pubmed-56362012017-10-12 Herbivory enables marine communities to resist warming Kordas, Rebecca L. Donohue, Ian Harley, Christopher D. G. Sci Adv Research Articles Climate change can influence ecosystems via both direct effects on individual organisms and indirect effects mediated by species interactions. However, we understand little about how these changes will ripple through ecosystems or whether there are particular ecological characteristics that might make ecosystems more susceptible—or more resistant—to warming. By combining in situ experimental warming with herbivore manipulations in a natural rocky intertidal community for over 16 months, we show that herbivory regulates the capacity of marine communities to resist warming. We found that limpet herbivores helped to preserve trophic and competitive interactions under experimental warming, dampening the impact of warming on overall community composition. The presence of limpets facilitated the survival of the main habitat modifier (barnacles) under warmer conditions, which, in turn, facilitated the presence of a consumer guild. When limpets were removed, environmental warming altered trophic, competitive, and facilitative interactions, with cascading impacts on community succession and stability. We conclude that conserving trophic structure and the integrity of interaction networks is vitally important as Earth continues to warm. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2017-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5636201/ /pubmed/29026881 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701349 Text en Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Kordas, Rebecca L.
Donohue, Ian
Harley, Christopher D. G.
Herbivory enables marine communities to resist warming
title Herbivory enables marine communities to resist warming
title_full Herbivory enables marine communities to resist warming
title_fullStr Herbivory enables marine communities to resist warming
title_full_unstemmed Herbivory enables marine communities to resist warming
title_short Herbivory enables marine communities to resist warming
title_sort herbivory enables marine communities to resist warming
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5636201/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29026881
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701349
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