Canopy-Forming Seaweeds in Urchin-Dominated Systems in Eastern Canada: Structuring Forces or Simple Prey for Keystone Grazers?
Models of benthic community dynamics for the extensively studied, shallow rocky ecosystems in eastern Canada emphasize kelp-urchin interactions. These models may bias the perception of factors and processes that structure communities, for they largely overlook the possible contribution of other seaw...
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032334 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24859311 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098204 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4032334 2023-05-15T17:22:54+02:00 Canopy-Forming Seaweeds in Urchin-Dominated Systems in Eastern Canada: Structuring Forces or Simple Prey for Keystone Grazers? Blain, Caitlin Gagnon, Patrick 2014-05-23 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032334 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24859311 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098204 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24859311 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098204 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. CC-BY Research Article Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098204 2014-06-01T00:44:16Z Models of benthic community dynamics for the extensively studied, shallow rocky ecosystems in eastern Canada emphasize kelp-urchin interactions. These models may bias the perception of factors and processes that structure communities, for they largely overlook the possible contribution of other seaweeds to ecosystem resilience. We examined the persistence of the annual, acidic (H2SO4), brown seaweed Desmarestia viridis in urchin barrens at two sites in Newfoundland (Canada) throughout an entire growth season (February to October). We also compared changes in epifaunal assemblages in D. viridis and other conspicuous canopy-forming seaweeds, the non-acidic conspecific Desmarestia aculeata and kelp Agarum clathratum. We show that D. viridis can form large canopies within the 2-to-8 m depth range that represent a transient community state termed “Desmarestia bed”. The annual resurgence of Desmarestia beds and continuous occurrence of D. aculeata and A. clathratum, create biological structure for major recruitment pulses in invertebrate and fish assemblages (e.g. from quasi-absent gastropods to >150 000 recruits kg−1 D. viridis). Many of these pulses phase with temperature-driven mass release of acid to the environment and die-off in D. viridis. We demonstrate experimentally that the chemical makeup of D. viridis and A. clathratum helps retard urchin grazing compared to D. aculeata and the highly consumed kelp Alaria esculenta. In light of our findings and related studies, we propose fundamental changes to the study of community shifts in shallow, rocky ecosystems in eastern Canada. In particular, we advocate the need to regard certain canopy-forming seaweeds as structuring forces interfering with top-down processes, rather than simple prey for keystone grazers. We also propose a novel, empirical model of ecological interactions for D. viridis. Overall, our study underscores the importance of studying organisms together with cross-scale environmental variability to better understand the factors and processes that ... Text Newfoundland PubMed Central (PMC) Canada PLoS ONE 9 5 e98204 |
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Research Article Blain, Caitlin Gagnon, Patrick Canopy-Forming Seaweeds in Urchin-Dominated Systems in Eastern Canada: Structuring Forces or Simple Prey for Keystone Grazers? |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
Models of benthic community dynamics for the extensively studied, shallow rocky ecosystems in eastern Canada emphasize kelp-urchin interactions. These models may bias the perception of factors and processes that structure communities, for they largely overlook the possible contribution of other seaweeds to ecosystem resilience. We examined the persistence of the annual, acidic (H2SO4), brown seaweed Desmarestia viridis in urchin barrens at two sites in Newfoundland (Canada) throughout an entire growth season (February to October). We also compared changes in epifaunal assemblages in D. viridis and other conspicuous canopy-forming seaweeds, the non-acidic conspecific Desmarestia aculeata and kelp Agarum clathratum. We show that D. viridis can form large canopies within the 2-to-8 m depth range that represent a transient community state termed “Desmarestia bed”. The annual resurgence of Desmarestia beds and continuous occurrence of D. aculeata and A. clathratum, create biological structure for major recruitment pulses in invertebrate and fish assemblages (e.g. from quasi-absent gastropods to >150 000 recruits kg−1 D. viridis). Many of these pulses phase with temperature-driven mass release of acid to the environment and die-off in D. viridis. We demonstrate experimentally that the chemical makeup of D. viridis and A. clathratum helps retard urchin grazing compared to D. aculeata and the highly consumed kelp Alaria esculenta. In light of our findings and related studies, we propose fundamental changes to the study of community shifts in shallow, rocky ecosystems in eastern Canada. In particular, we advocate the need to regard certain canopy-forming seaweeds as structuring forces interfering with top-down processes, rather than simple prey for keystone grazers. We also propose a novel, empirical model of ecological interactions for D. viridis. Overall, our study underscores the importance of studying organisms together with cross-scale environmental variability to better understand the factors and processes that ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Blain, Caitlin Gagnon, Patrick |
author_facet |
Blain, Caitlin Gagnon, Patrick |
author_sort |
Blain, Caitlin |
title |
Canopy-Forming Seaweeds in Urchin-Dominated Systems in Eastern Canada: Structuring Forces or Simple Prey for Keystone Grazers? |
title_short |
Canopy-Forming Seaweeds in Urchin-Dominated Systems in Eastern Canada: Structuring Forces or Simple Prey for Keystone Grazers? |
title_full |
Canopy-Forming Seaweeds in Urchin-Dominated Systems in Eastern Canada: Structuring Forces or Simple Prey for Keystone Grazers? |
title_fullStr |
Canopy-Forming Seaweeds in Urchin-Dominated Systems in Eastern Canada: Structuring Forces or Simple Prey for Keystone Grazers? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Canopy-Forming Seaweeds in Urchin-Dominated Systems in Eastern Canada: Structuring Forces or Simple Prey for Keystone Grazers? |
title_sort |
canopy-forming seaweeds in urchin-dominated systems in eastern canada: structuring forces or simple prey for keystone grazers? |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032334 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24859311 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098204 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24859311 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098204 |
op_rights |
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. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098204 |
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PLoS ONE |
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9 |
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5 |
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e98204 |
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