Algal-herbivore interactions in a high carbon world : direct and indirect effects through individuals, populations, and communities ...

• Main Author: Anderson, Kathryn Michele
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2017
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0357230; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0357230

Consumer-resource interactions play an important role in determining the structure and function of ecological communities. Thus, herbivores may buffer or magnify the impacts of environmental change. In this thesis, I examine the ways in which herbivory mediates the effects of one of the most important facets of environmental change in marine ecosystems: ocean acidification (OA). Responses to OA by invertebrate herbivores are wide ranging, typically negative, and depend on species traits (e.g. reliance on calcification), population dynamics, and shifts in interspecific interactions. My goal was to conduct research across levels of biological organization to better understand the main pathways by which OA and associated increases in carbon dioxide (CO₂) will drive ecological change in herbivore-dominated systems. In Chapter 2, I examine the effect of CO₂ on herbivore growth and size-specific changes in feeding rate. I found that CO₂ had no impact on the size-specific feeding rates of the four-herbivore species ...