Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean.
Disturbances are natural features of ecosystems that promote variability in the community and ultimately maintain diversity. Although it is recognized that global change will affect environmental disturbance regimes, our understanding of the community dynamics governing ecosystem recovery and the ma...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt95s1g0hq 2023-05-15T17:51:40+02:00 Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean. Kroeker, Kristy J Gambi, Maria Cristina Micheli, Fiorenza 12721 - 12726 2013-07-08 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq unknown eScholarship, University of California qt95s1g0hq https://escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq public Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 110, iss 31 Carbon Dioxide Biodiversity Hydrogen-Ion Concentration Oceans and Seas Coral Reefs carbonate chemistry emergent effects habitat patchiness resilience species interaction article 2013 ftcdlib 2020-12-13T18:51:59Z Disturbances are natural features of ecosystems that promote variability in the community and ultimately maintain diversity. Although it is recognized that global change will affect environmental disturbance regimes, our understanding of the community dynamics governing ecosystem recovery and the maintenance of functional diversity in future scenarios is very limited. Here, we use one of the few ecosystems naturally exposed to future scenarios of environmental change to examine disturbance and recovery dynamics. We examine the recovery patterns of marine species from a physical disturbance across different acidification regimes caused by volcanic CO2 vents. Plots of shallow rocky reef were cleared of all species in areas of ambient, low, and extreme low pH that correspond to near-future and extreme scenarios for ocean acidification. Our results illustrate how acidification decreases the variability of communities, resulting in homogenization and reduced functional diversity at a landscape scale. Whereas the recovery trajectories in ambient pH were highly variable and resulted in a diverse range of assemblages, recovery was more predictable with acidification and consistently resulted in very similar algal-dominated assemblages. Furthermore, low pH zones had fewer signs of biological disturbance (primarily sea urchin grazing) and increased recovery rates of the dominant taxa (primarily fleshy algae). Together, our results highlight how environmental change can cause ecosystem simplification via environmentally mediated changes in community dynamics in the near future, with cascading impacts on functional diversity and ecosystem function. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification University of California: eScholarship |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Carbon Dioxide Biodiversity Hydrogen-Ion Concentration Oceans and Seas Coral Reefs carbonate chemistry emergent effects habitat patchiness resilience species interaction |
spellingShingle |
Carbon Dioxide Biodiversity Hydrogen-Ion Concentration Oceans and Seas Coral Reefs carbonate chemistry emergent effects habitat patchiness resilience species interaction Kroeker, Kristy J Gambi, Maria Cristina Micheli, Fiorenza Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean. |
topic_facet |
Carbon Dioxide Biodiversity Hydrogen-Ion Concentration Oceans and Seas Coral Reefs carbonate chemistry emergent effects habitat patchiness resilience species interaction |
description |
Disturbances are natural features of ecosystems that promote variability in the community and ultimately maintain diversity. Although it is recognized that global change will affect environmental disturbance regimes, our understanding of the community dynamics governing ecosystem recovery and the maintenance of functional diversity in future scenarios is very limited. Here, we use one of the few ecosystems naturally exposed to future scenarios of environmental change to examine disturbance and recovery dynamics. We examine the recovery patterns of marine species from a physical disturbance across different acidification regimes caused by volcanic CO2 vents. Plots of shallow rocky reef were cleared of all species in areas of ambient, low, and extreme low pH that correspond to near-future and extreme scenarios for ocean acidification. Our results illustrate how acidification decreases the variability of communities, resulting in homogenization and reduced functional diversity at a landscape scale. Whereas the recovery trajectories in ambient pH were highly variable and resulted in a diverse range of assemblages, recovery was more predictable with acidification and consistently resulted in very similar algal-dominated assemblages. Furthermore, low pH zones had fewer signs of biological disturbance (primarily sea urchin grazing) and increased recovery rates of the dominant taxa (primarily fleshy algae). Together, our results highlight how environmental change can cause ecosystem simplification via environmentally mediated changes in community dynamics in the near future, with cascading impacts on functional diversity and ecosystem function. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kroeker, Kristy J Gambi, Maria Cristina Micheli, Fiorenza |
author_facet |
Kroeker, Kristy J Gambi, Maria Cristina Micheli, Fiorenza |
author_sort |
Kroeker, Kristy J |
title |
Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean. |
title_short |
Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean. |
title_full |
Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean. |
title_fullStr |
Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean. |
title_sort |
community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-co2 ocean. |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq |
op_coverage |
12721 - 12726 |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_source |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 110, iss 31 |
op_relation |
qt95s1g0hq https://escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1766158889218211840 |