Intertidal macroalgae influence macroinvertebrate distribution across stress scenarios

Umanzor, Schery; Ladah, Lydia B.; Calderón-Aguilera, Luis E.; Zertuche-González, José A.

doi:10.3354/meps12355

Cited by 25 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Thus, on the one hand, intertidal conditions are influenced by the seasonal changes in sea surface temperature (SST), which can be pronounced on temperate shores, which display warm waters in summer and cold waters in winter. On the other hand, an even greater degree of thermal variation can occur at hourly scales once intertidal habitats become exposed to the air at low tide, especially on hot days in spring and summer (Watt and Scrosati, 2013;Lathlean et al, 2014;Umanzor et al, 2017) and cold days in winter (Scrosati and Ellrich, 2018a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Half-hourly changes in intertidal temperature at nine wave-exposed locations along the Atlantic Canadian coast: a 5.5-year study

Scrosati

Ellrich

Freeman

2020

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. Intertidal habitats are unique because they spend alternating periods of submergence (at high tide) and emergence (at low tide) every day. Thus, intertidal temperature is mainly driven by sea surface temperature (SST) during high tides and by air temperature during low tides. Because of that, the switch from high to low tides and vice versa can determine rapid changes in intertidal thermal conditions. On cold-temperate shores, which are characterized by cold winters and warm summers, intertidal thermal conditions can also change considerably with seasons. Despite this uniqueness, knowledge on intertidal temperature dynamics is more limited than for open seas. This is especially true for wave-exposed intertidal habitats, which, in addition to the unique properties described above, are also characterized by wave splash being able to moderate intertidal thermal extremes during low tides. To address this knowledge gap, we measured temperature every half hour during a period of 5.5 years (2014–2019) at nine wave-exposed rocky intertidal locations spanning 415 km of the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. This data set is freely available from the figshare online repository (Scrosati and Ellrich, 2020a; https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12462065.v1). We summarize the main properties of this data set by focusing on location-wise values of daily maximum and minimum temperature and daily SST, which we make freely available as a separate data set in figshare (Scrosati et al., 2020; https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12453374.v1). Overall, this cold-temperate coast exhibited a wide annual SST range, from a lowest overall value of −1.8 ∘C in winter to a highest overall value of 22.8 ∘C in summer. In addition, the latitudinal SST trend along this coast experienced a reversal from winter (when SST increased southwards) to summer (when SST decreased southwards), seemingly driven by alongshore differences in summer coastal upwelling. Daily temperature maxima and minima were more extreme, as expected from their occurrence during low tides, ranging from a lowest overall value of −16.3 ∘C in winter to a highest overall value of 41.2 ∘C in summer. Daily maximum temperature in summer varied little along the coast, while daily minimum temperature in winter increased southwards. This data set is the first of its kind for the Atlantic Canadian coast and exemplifies in detail how intertidal temperature varies in wave-exposed environments on a cold-temperate coast.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Half-hourly changes in intertidal temperature at nine wave-exposed locations along the Atlantic Canadian coast: a 5.5-year study

Scrosati

Ellrich

Freeman

2020

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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“…For instance, red algae typically ascribed to the genus Porphyra (hereafter Porphyra; but see [25]) commonly succeed as epibionts on mussel beds (e.g., [24,[26][27][28]). As mussels, algae are also typical rocky shore engineers and modify the physical environment in comparable ways (i.e., colonizable surface, interstitial space, flow attenuation, and refugia; e.g., [29][30][31][32]). In the particular case of Porphyra, many species in this group thrive at mid to high intertidal elevations because they resist heat and desiccation levels that are usually stressful to other algae [33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Algal Epibionts as Co-Engineers in Mussel Beds: Effects on Abiotic Conditions and Mobile Interstitial Invertebrates

2019

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Mussels and macroalgae have long been recognized as physical ecosystem engineers that modulate abiotic conditions and resources and affect the composition of rocky shore assemblages. Their spatial distributions in the intertidal zone frequently overlap, as many algal species thrive as epibionts on mussel beds. Nonetheless, their potential for combined engineering effects has not been addressed to date. Here we illustrate that Porphyra sp.-a desiccation-resistant macroalga that develops mostly epiphytically onto mussel beds-affects temperature, desiccation levels, and mobile interstitial invertebrates in mussel beds. Specifically, we observed that Porphyra cover (a) reduced temperature at the surface of the mussel bed but not at their base, (b) reduced desiccation both at the surface and base of the mussel bed and, (c) increased the densities of an abundant interstitial species-the amphipod Hyale grandicornis-in several study sites/dates. Additionally, we found that the positive responses of these grazing amphipods to Porphyra were driven by physical habitat modification (engineering) rather than food availability. This suggests that co-engineering by Porphyra and mussels generates abiotic states and focal species responses that would not be predictable from their individual effects. We expect that increased appreciation of co-engineering aids our understanding of complex ecological dynamics.

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“…Meiofauna species from phytal communities are known to be host-specific [40][41][42][43] and the increase in algae morphotypes results in a diversified meiofaunal community. Biological substrates can influence the composition and structure of the associated fauna by its architecture [8], the amount of sediment accumulated on it [12,44], the protection it offers against predators [13,45], shelter from extreme physical condition [46,47] and the provision of food resources [10]. In the current study, sponge communities were differentiated by the occurrence of meiofaunal oligochaetes, which are ectocommensals of sponges [48,49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…However, the "Turf" environment creates an intricate mesh of filaments that accumulates much more sediment when compared to the "Algae" environment, probably influencing species abundances and composition. Given the different macroalgal morphologies, it is also possible that differences in irradiance and temperature between the two substrates, especially at daytime and low tide [47], might have played a role. Although the mechanism is not clear, the habitat heterogeneity created by the substrates had an important role in favoring the occurrence of rare species therefore maintaining the regional diversity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Habitat Heterogeneity at Distinct Spatial Scales on Hard-Bottom-Associated Communities

et al. 2020

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For marine benthic communities, environmental heterogeneity at small spatial scales are mostly due to biologically produced habitat heterogeneity and biotic interactions, while at larger spatial scales environmental factors may prevails over biotic features. In this study, we investigated how community structure and β-diversity of hard-bottom-associated meio- and macrofauna varied in relation to small-scale (cm–m) changes in biological substrate (an algae “turf” dominated by the macroalgae Gelidium sp., the macroalgae Caulerpa racemosa and the sponge Hymeniacidon heliophile) in a rocky shore and in relation to larger-scale (10’s m) changes in environmental conditions of the same biological substrate (the macroalgae Bostrychia sp) in different habitats (rocky shore vs. mangrove roots). Results showed that both substrate identity and the surrounding environment were important in structuring the smaller-sized meiofauna, particularly the nematode assemblages, whereas the larger and more motile macrofauna was influenced only by larger-scale changes in the surrounding ecosystem. This implies that the macrofauna explores the environment in a larger spatial scale compared to the meiofauna, suggesting that effects of spatial heterogeneity on communities are dependent on organism size and mobility. Changes in taxa composition between environments and substrates highlight the importance of habitat diversity at different scales for maintaining the diversity of the associated fauna.

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Intertidal macroalgae influence macroinvertebrate distribution across stress scenarios

Cited by 25 publications

References 49 publications

Half-hourly changes in intertidal temperature at nine wave-exposed locations along the Atlantic Canadian coast: a 5.5-year study

Half-hourly changes in intertidal temperature at nine wave-exposed locations along the Atlantic Canadian coast: a 5.5-year study

Algal Epibionts as Co-Engineers in Mussel Beds: Effects on Abiotic Conditions and Mobile Interstitial Invertebrates

The Effects of Habitat Heterogeneity at Distinct Spatial Scales on Hard-Bottom-Associated Communities

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