California spiny lobster preference for urchins from kelp forests: implications for urchin barren persistence

Eurich, Jacob G.; Selden, Rebecca L.; Warner, Robert R.

doi:10.3354/meps10643

Cited by 25 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Laboratory studies demonstrate that predation by spiny lobster on sea urchins is likewise size-dependent [22,46], suggesting predation pressure on urchins may similarly depend on lobster size structure. Indeed, truncations in size compromised the capacity for a similar lobster species to control the spread of an invasive sea urchin in Tasmanian kelp forests [41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protection of large predators in a marine reserve alters size-dependent prey mortality

et al. 2017

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Where predator -prey interactions are size-dependent, reductions in predator size owing to fishing has the potential to disrupt the ecological role of top predators in marine ecosystems. In southern California kelp forests, we investigated the size-dependence of the interaction between herbivorous sea urchins and one of their predators, California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher). Empirical tests examined how differences in predator size structure between reserve and fished areas affected size-specific urchin mortality. Sites inside marine reserves had greater sheephead size and biomass, while empirical feeding trials indicated that larger sheephead were required to successfully consume urchins of increasing test diameter. Evaluations of the selectivity of sheephead for two urchin species indicated that shorterspined purple urchins were attacked more frequently and successfully than longer-spined red urchins of the same size class, particularly at the largest test diameters. As a result of these size-specific interactions and the higher biomass of large sheephead inside reserves, urchin mortality rates were three times higher inside the reserve for both species. In addition, urchin mortality rates decreased with urchin size, and very few large urchins were successfully consumed in fished areas. The truncation of sheephead size structure that commonly occurs owing to fishing will probably result in reductions in urchin mortality, which may reduce the resilience of kelp beds to urchin barren formation. By contrast, the recovery of predator size structure in marine reserves may restore this resilience, but may be delayed until fish grow to sizes capable of consuming larger urchins.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protection of large predators in a marine reserve alters size-dependent prey mortality

et al. 2017

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“…One factor that might erode the recruitment facilitation feedback maintaining urchin barrens in our model is strong predation on urchins by species less reliant on the presence of kelp. Additionally, predators preferentially avoid consuming starving urchins in barren areas (Eurich et al 2014). First, changes in urchin foraging behavior not modeled here can lead to intensified grazing at low predator densities (Cowen 1983) or at low levels of kelp biomass and therefore reduced supply of drift kelp (Ebeling et al 1985, Harrold andReed 1985).…”

Section: Model Robustnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, urchins might also experience recruitment facilitation in barrens due to crustose coralline algae, which might compete with kelp (Baskett and Salomon 2010). Additionally, predators preferentially avoid consuming starving urchins in barren areas (Eurich et al 2014). All of these mechanisms could increase urchin densities or grazing at low kelp biomass.…”

Section: Model Robustnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

At what spatial scales are alternative stable states relevant in highly interconnected ecosystems?

Karatayev

Baskett

2019

Ecology

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Citation: Karatayev, V. A., and M. L. Baskett. 2020. At what spatial scales are alternative stable states relevant in highly interconnected ecosystems? Ecology 101(2):Abstract. Whether ecosystems recover from disturbance depends on the presence of alternative stable states, which are theoretically possible in simple models of many systems. However, definitive empirical evidence for this phenomenon remains limited to demographically closed ecosystems such as lakes. In more interconnected systems such as temperate rocky reefs, the local relevance of alternative stable states might erode as immigration overwhelms local feedbacks and produces a single stable state. At larger spatial scales, dispersal might counter localized disturbance and feedbacks to synchronize states throughout a region. Here, we quantify how interconnectedness affects the relevance of alternative stable states using dynamical models of California rocky reef communities that incorporate observed environmental stochasticity and feedback loops in kelp-urchin-predator interactions. Our models demonstrate the potential for localized alternative states despite high interconnectedness likely due to feedbacks affecting dispersers as they settle into local communities. Regionally, such feedbacks affecting settlement can produce a mosaic of alternative stable states that span local (10-20 km) scales despite the synchronizing effect of long-distance dispersal. The specific spatial scale and duration of each state predominantly depend on the scales of environmental variation and on local dynamics (here, fishing). Model predictions reflect observed scales of community states in California rocky reefs and suggest how alternative states co-occur in the wide array of marine and terrestrial systems with settlement feedbacks.

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“…The Northern Channel Islands (NCI) are outside of the present‐day range of sea otters, but host two additional major urchin predator species, which, along with sunflower sea stars, comprised a diverse predator guild that likely fostered robust kelp forests in the region (Steneck et al ). CA sheephead and CA spiny lobsters are both generalist predators that prey upon purple urchins ( Stronglyocentrotus purpuratus ), with both species increasing their effectiveness as urchin predators with increasing body size (Behrens and Lafferty , Eurich et al , Hamilton et al , Hamilton and Caselle , Selden et al ). The waters surrounding the western NCI, where the present study was conducted, have a mosaic of protection status through a network of MPAs that was established in 2003.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trophic redundancy and predator size class structure drive differences in kelp forest ecosystem dynamics

Eisaguirre

Davis

et al. 2020

Ecology

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Ecosystems are changing at alarming rates because of climate change and a wide variety of other anthropogenic stressors. These stressors have the potential to cause phase shifts to less productive ecosystems. A major challenge for ecologists is to identify ecosystem attributes that enhance resilience and can buffer systems from shifts to less desirable alternative states. In this study, we used the Northern Channel Islands, California, as a model kelp forest ecosystem that had been perturbed from the loss of an important sea star predator due to a sea star wasting disease. To determine the mechanisms that prevent phase shifts from productive kelp forests to less productive urchin barrens, we compared pre-and postdisease predator assemblages as predictors of purple urchin densities. We found that prior to the onset of the disease outbreak, the sunflower sea star exerted strong predation pressures and was able to suppress purple urchin populations effectively. After the disease outbreak, which functionally extirpated the sunflower star, we found that the ecosystem response-urchin and algal abundances-depended on the abundance and/or size of remaining predator species. Inside Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), the large numbers and sizes of other urchin predators suppressed purple urchin populations resulting in kelp and understory algal growth. Outside of the MPAs, where these alternative urchin predators are fished, less abundant, and smaller, urchin populations grew dramatically in the absence of sunflower stars resulting in less kelp at these locations. Our results demonstrate that protected trophic redundancy inside MPAs creates a net of stability that could limit kelp forest ecosystem phase shifts to less desirable, alternative states when perturbed. This highlights the importance of harboring diversity and managing predator guilds.

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California spiny lobster preference for urchins from kelp forests: implications for urchin barren persistence

Cited by 25 publications

References 40 publications

Protection of large predators in a marine reserve alters size-dependent prey mortality

Protection of large predators in a marine reserve alters size-dependent prey mortality

At what spatial scales are alternative stable states relevant in highly interconnected ecosystems?

Trophic redundancy and predator size class structure drive differences in kelp forest ecosystem dynamics

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