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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Language: | English |
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ftcdlib:qt95s1g0hq 2023-05-15T17:51:32+02:00 Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean Kroeker, KJ Gambi, MC Micheli, F 12721 - 12726 2013-07-30 application/pdf http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq english eng eScholarship, University of California qt95s1g0hq http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq public Kroeker, KJ; Gambi, MC; & Micheli, F. (2013). Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(31), 12721 - 12726. doi:10.1073/pnas.1216464110. UC Santa Cruz: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq article 2013 ftcdlib https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1216464110 2018-06-22T22:51:40Z 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 algaldominated 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. © PNAS 2013. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification University of California: eScholarship Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 31 12721 12726 |
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Open Polar |
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University of California: eScholarship |
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language |
English |
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 algaldominated 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. © PNAS 2013. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kroeker, KJ Gambi, MC Micheli, F |
spellingShingle |
Kroeker, KJ Gambi, MC Micheli, F Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean |
author_facet |
Kroeker, KJ Gambi, MC Micheli, F |
author_sort |
Kroeker, KJ |
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 |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq |
op_coverage |
12721 - 12726 |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_source |
Kroeker, KJ; Gambi, MC; & Micheli, F. (2013). Community dynamics and ecosystem simplification in a high-CO2 ocean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(31), 12721 - 12726. doi:10.1073/pnas.1216464110. UC Santa Cruz: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq |
op_relation |
qt95s1g0hq http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/95s1g0hq |
op_rights |
public |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1216464110 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
container_volume |
110 |
container_issue |
31 |
container_start_page |
12721 |
op_container_end_page |
12726 |
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1766158707336413184 |