The influence of hydrodynamics and ecosystem engineers on eelgrass seed trapping

Propagule dispersal is an integral part of the life cycle of seagrasses; important for colonising unvegetated areas and increasing their spatial distribution. However, to understand recruitment success, seed dispersal and survival in habitats of different complexity remains to be quantified. We test...

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Autores principales: Meysick, Lukas, Infantes, Eduardo, Boström, Christoffer
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6719863/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31479486
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222020
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author Meysick, Lukas
Infantes, Eduardo
Boström, Christoffer
author_facet Meysick, Lukas
Infantes, Eduardo
Boström, Christoffer
author_sort Meysick, Lukas
collection PubMed
description Propagule dispersal is an integral part of the life cycle of seagrasses; important for colonising unvegetated areas and increasing their spatial distribution. However, to understand recruitment success, seed dispersal and survival in habitats of different complexity remains to be quantified. We tested the single and synergistic effects of three commonly distributed ecosystem engineers—eelgrass (Zostera marina), oysters (Magellana gigas) and blue mussels (Mytilus edulis)—on trapping of Z. marina seeds in a hydraulic flume under currents. Our results suggest that seed retention increases with habitat complexity and further reveal insights into the underlying mechanisms. In eelgrass canopy, trapping occurred mostly through direct blocking of a seed’s pathway, while trapping in bivalve patches was mainly related to altered hydrodynamics in the lee side, i.e. behind each specimen. With increasing flow velocity (24–30 cm s(-1) in eelgrass canopy, 18–30 cm s(-1) in bivalve patches), modifications of the sediment surface through increased turbulence and erosive processes became more important and resulted in high seed trapping rates. Furthermore, we show that while monospecific patches of seagrass and bivalves had different trapping optima depending on flow velocities, intermixing resulted in consistently high trapping rates throughout the investigated hydrodynamic gradient. Our results highlight the importance of positive interactions among ecosystem engineers for seed retention and patch emergence in eelgrass.
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spelling pubmed-67198632019-09-16 The influence of hydrodynamics and ecosystem engineers on eelgrass seed trapping Meysick, Lukas Infantes, Eduardo Boström, Christoffer PLoS One Research Article Propagule dispersal is an integral part of the life cycle of seagrasses; important for colonising unvegetated areas and increasing their spatial distribution. However, to understand recruitment success, seed dispersal and survival in habitats of different complexity remains to be quantified. We tested the single and synergistic effects of three commonly distributed ecosystem engineers—eelgrass (Zostera marina), oysters (Magellana gigas) and blue mussels (Mytilus edulis)—on trapping of Z. marina seeds in a hydraulic flume under currents. Our results suggest that seed retention increases with habitat complexity and further reveal insights into the underlying mechanisms. In eelgrass canopy, trapping occurred mostly through direct blocking of a seed’s pathway, while trapping in bivalve patches was mainly related to altered hydrodynamics in the lee side, i.e. behind each specimen. With increasing flow velocity (24–30 cm s(-1) in eelgrass canopy, 18–30 cm s(-1) in bivalve patches), modifications of the sediment surface through increased turbulence and erosive processes became more important and resulted in high seed trapping rates. Furthermore, we show that while monospecific patches of seagrass and bivalves had different trapping optima depending on flow velocities, intermixing resulted in consistently high trapping rates throughout the investigated hydrodynamic gradient. Our results highlight the importance of positive interactions among ecosystem engineers for seed retention and patch emergence in eelgrass. Public Library of Science 2019-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC6719863/ /pubmed/31479486 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222020 Text en © 2019 Meysick et al 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 author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Meysick, Lukas
Infantes, Eduardo
Boström, Christoffer
The influence of hydrodynamics and ecosystem engineers on eelgrass seed trapping
title The influence of hydrodynamics and ecosystem engineers on eelgrass seed trapping
title_full The influence of hydrodynamics and ecosystem engineers on eelgrass seed trapping
title_fullStr The influence of hydrodynamics and ecosystem engineers on eelgrass seed trapping
title_full_unstemmed The influence of hydrodynamics and ecosystem engineers on eelgrass seed trapping
title_short The influence of hydrodynamics and ecosystem engineers on eelgrass seed trapping
title_sort influence of hydrodynamics and ecosystem engineers on eelgrass seed trapping
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6719863/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31479486
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222020
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