Calcareous defence structures of prey mediate the effects of predation and biotic resistance towards the tropics

Dias, Gustavo Muniz; Vieira, Edson A.; Pestana, Lueji Barros; Marques, Antônio Carlos; Karythis, Simon; Jenkins, Stuart R.; Griffith, Katherine

doi:10.1111/ddi.13020

Cited by 20 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Such a loss in predator diversity may have contributed to the observed differences in community structure across treatments. Along with other studies (Dumont et al 2011; see also Dias et al 2020), the experiments mentioned above also demonstrated that an important predation on most of the non-indigenous and cryptogenic ascidians gave a competitive advantage to their native, dominant and less predated counterpart, namely Pyura chilensis, one of our habitat-builders. This effect, measured by percentage of cover reduction after 4 months in a settlement panel experiment, was, however, not consistently detected by the exclusion of macro-predators (Leclerc et al 2020a).…”

Section: Indirect Effect Of Physical Disturbance: Partially Releasing Incomers From Predationsupporting

confidence: 64%

Rapid recovery of native habitat-builders following physical disturbance on pier pilings offsets colonization of cryptogenic and non-indigenous species in a Chilean port

Leclerc

Brante

Viard

2021

Marine Environmental Research

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Section: Indirect Effect Of Physical Disturbance: Partially Releasing Incomers From Predationsupporting

confidence: 64%

Rapid recovery of native habitat-builders following physical disturbance on pier pilings offsets colonization of cryptogenic and non-indigenous species in a Chilean port

Leclerc

Brante

Viard

2021

Marine Environmental Research

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“…Furthermore, although prey taxonomic composition shifted in response to predation in the tropics, the effects of predators on individual prey taxa will likely depend on prey functional traits, such as those related to defense and palatability (Sheppard-Brennand et al 2017, L opez and. Functional groups of prey can vary systematically in these traits, rendering some groups more susceptible to predation than others (L. J. Jurgens, A. L. Freestone, G. M. Ruiz et al, unpublished data, Lavender et al 2017, Dias et al 2020. Indeed, some prey functional groups (e.g., solitary tunicates) can be consumed to the point of exclusion in these communities in the tropics (Freestone et al 2013, highlighting the potential for trait-specific impacts on prey.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although evidence continues to accrue in support of the prediction that predation intensity is stronger at lower latitudes (e.g., Schemske et al 2009, Roslin et al 2017, Reynolds et al 2018, debate on its generality persists (Roesti et al 2020). Further, variation in predation strength across latitude likely has important ecological consequences for prey communities, yet studies that document such community-scale effects, or impacts of predation, are rare (but see , Lavender et al 2017, Dias et al 2020, Freestone et al 2020. Testing the prediction that both predation intensity and impacts on prey communities are greater at lower latitudes requires standardized experiments and observations on multiple components of a system across continental scales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stronger predation intensity and impact on prey communities in the tropics

Freestone

Torchin

Jurgens

et al. 2021

Ecology

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The hypothesis that biotic interactions strengthen toward lower latitudes provides a framework for linking community-scale processes with the macroecological scales that define our biosphere. Despite the importance of this hypothesis for understanding community assembly and ecosystem functioning, the extent to which interaction strength varies across latitude and the effects of this variation on natural communities remain unresolved. Predation in particular is central to ecological and evolutionary dynamics across the globe, yet very few studies explore both community-scale causes and outcomes of predation across latitude. Here we expand beyond prior studies to examine two important components of predation strength: intensity of predation (including multiple dimensions of the predator guild) and impact on prey community biomass and structure, providing one of the most comprehensive examinations of predator-prey interactions across latitude. Using standardized experiments, we tested the hypothesis that predation intensity and impact on prey communities were stronger at lower latitudes. We further assessed prey recruitment to evaluate the potential for this process to mediate predation effects. We used sessile marine invertebrate communities and their fish predators in nearshore environments as a model system, with experiments conducted at 12 sites in four regions spanning the tropics to the subarctic. Our results show clear support for an increase in both predation intensity and impact at lower relative to higher latitudes. The predator guild was more diverse at low latitudes, with higher predation rates, longer interaction durations, and larger predator body sizes, suggesting stronger predation intensity in the tropics. Predation also reduced prey biomass and altered prey composition at low latitudes, with no effects at high latitudes. Although recruitment rates were up to three orders of magnitude higher in the tropics than the subarctic, prey replacement through this process was insufficient to dampen completely the strong impacts of predators in the tropics. Our study provides a novel perspective on the biotic interaction hypothesis, suggesting that multiple components of the predator community likely contribute to predation intensity at low latitudes, with important consequences for the structure of prey communities.

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“…These communities are usually dominated by colonial organisms that can monopolize space through asexual reproduction in a variable way, some of them being able to prevent the colonization of other species (Jackson 1977;Hiebert et al 2019). Additionally, they are fast growing, easy to manipulate and provide clear results regarding the effect of interactions in a short time span (Osman and Whitlatch 2004;Freestone et al 2011;Vieira et al 2018a, b;Dias et al 2020), which make them ideal for experiments testing the effect of founder identity and predation on community structure and diversity. Predation is one of the strongest forces shaping such communities in the area, affecting both richness and structure throughout community development (Vieira et al 2012(Vieira et al , 2016Oricchio et al 2016a, b;Dias et al 2020).…”

Section: Study Site and Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To do so, we conducted an experiment simulating different colonization scenarios, and controlling the access of predators, to test how consumptive effects are modulated by the identity of founders and their functional traits. Marine fouling species were used as models, as they are functionally diverse, fast-growing, and easily manipulated (Dean and Hurd 1980;Osman and Whitlatch 2004;Freestone et al 2011;Vieira et al 2018a, b;Dias et al 2020). Founder functional identity was determined by starting communities with species of four different groups, colonial and solitary ascidians, and arborescent and flat-encrusting bryozoans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonization history meets further niche processes: how the identity of founders modulates the way predation structure fouling communities

2021

Self Cite

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Community assembly relies on deterministic niche-based processes (e.g., biotic interactions), and stochastic sources of unpredictable variation (e.g., colonization history), that combined will influence late-stage community structure. When community founders present distinct functional traits and a colonization-competition trade-off is not operating, initial colonization can result in late-stage assemblages of variable diversity and composed by different species sets, depending if early colonizers facilitate or inhibit subsequent colonization and survival. By experimentally manipulating the functional identity of founders and predators access during the development of fouling communities, we tested how founder traits constrain colonization history, species interactions and thereby regulate community diversity. We used as founders functionally different fouling organisms (colonial and solitary ascidians, and arborescent and flat-encrusting bryozoans) to build experimental communities that were exposed or protected against predation using a caging approach. Ascidians and bryozoans are pioneer colonizers in benthic communities and also good competitors, but the soft-body of ascidians makes them more susceptible to predators than mineralized bryozoans. When ascidians were founders, their dominance (but not richness) was reduced by predation, resulting in no effects of predators on overall diversity. Conversely, when bryozoans were founders, both space limitation and predator effects resulted in species-poor communities, with reduced number and cover of ascidian species and high overall dominance at the end of the experiment. We, thus, highlight that current species interactions and colonization contingencies related to founder identity should not be viewed as isolated drivers of community organization, but rather as strongly interacting processes underlying species distribution patterns and diversity.

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Calcareous defence structures of prey mediate the effects of predation and biotic resistance towards the tropics

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 20 publications

References 66 publications

Rapid recovery of native habitat-builders following physical disturbance on pier pilings offsets colonization of cryptogenic and non-indigenous species in a Chilean port

Rapid recovery of native habitat-builders following physical disturbance on pier pilings offsets colonization of cryptogenic and non-indigenous species in a Chilean port

Stronger predation intensity and impact on prey communities in the tropics

Colonization history meets further niche processes: how the identity of founders modulates the way predation structure fouling communities

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