Marine benthic ecological functioning over decreasing taxonomic richness

Törnroos, Anna; Bonsdorff, Erik; Bremner, Julie; Blomqvist, Mats; Josefson, Alf B.; Garcia, Cécile; Warzocha, Jan

doi:10.1016/j.seares.2014.04.010

Cited by 69 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…The latter observation suggests that the identity of the species with its particular trophic trait, together with the balanced distribution of the individuals among the species, would be the drivers for the maintenance of the molluscan food web under environmental stress, such as during the peak of tourists in summer. In this line, Törnroos et al, (2015) found that decreases in taxonomic richness involve decline in functional properties of benthos, but the functional richness may still remain comparatively high even at low taxon richness. Moore et al, (2004) considered that a detritus based food web results in a more diverse, stable and structured community.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Seasonality and trophic diversity in molluscan assemblages from the Bay of Tunis (southern Mediterranean Sea)

et al. 2016

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Soft bottom molluscan assemblages from the Bay of Tunis have been studied in order to analyse their seasonality and trophic diversity in relation to environmental variables. A total of 147 species of molluscs was identified, with gastropods displaying the highest species richness and bivalves the highest abundances, and including five non-indigenous species such as the dominant ectoparasite Polycerella emertoni. Carnivorous and scavenger gastropods were among the most frequent species, reflecting a diverse benthic community. Seasonal changes were significant, being more acute at 3-4 m than at 10-15 m depth, and were driven mainly by seawater temperature and percentage of organic matter in the sediment. The high affluence of tourists in summer was coincident with high decreases in species richness and abundance of molluscs, together with a strong siltation of the sediment. Nevertheless, most trophic groups remained and the trophic diversity was relatively high. Significant relationships were found between the index of trophic diversity and Shannon-Wiener diversity and evenness indices, suggesting that the identity of the species with its particular trophic trait, together with the good distribution of the individuals among the species (density) would be the drivers for the maintenance of the molluscan food web under environmental stress. The abundance of P. emertoni altered the trophic structure of the molluscan assemblage, with the ectoparasite trophic group reaching an unusual punctual higher dominance. Soft bottom molluscan assemblages of the Bay of Tunis should be taken into account in monitoring programs for anthropogenic impacts and non-indigenous species trends throughout the Mediterranean basin.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Information on alterations of ecosystem functioning (such as trophism) is found in studies regarding functional diversity (e.g. number of taxa per trait category), and they include reductions in species richness which are further predicted to increase due to the unstoppable human impact in coastal areas (Törnroos et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonality and trophic diversity in molluscan assemblages from the Bay of Tunis (southern Mediterranean Sea)

et al. 2016

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“…Roles are often repeated across species within assemblages, suggesting that different species differ in either their performance or influence. For example, Törnroos et al (2014) found that 66% of all of the possible traits measured in marine benthic macrofaunal species (in Northern Europe) were still expressed despite a reduction in species richness from 151 to 6 taxa, indicating that most traits (hence functional roles) are shared and categorical descriptions of species role are replicated within natural assemblages. This suggests that identity effects are not just an expression of the species functional role, as assessed with BTA, but also 'role performance' and/or 'role influence' are relevant in determining the species contribution to the overall functioning of the system.…”

Section: Operational Requirement 4: How Does Biodiversity Generate Ecmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine biodiversity and ecosystem function relationships: The potential for practical monitoring applications

Strong

Andonegi

Bizsel³

et al. 2015

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

126

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There is an increasing demand for environmental assessments of the marine environment to include ecosystem function. However, existing schemes are predominantly based on taxonomic (i.e. structural) measures of biodiversity. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function (BEF) relationships are suggested to provide a mechanism for converting taxonomic information into surrogates of ecosystem function. This review assesses the evidence for marine BEF relationships and their potential to be used in practical monitoring applications (i.e. operationalized).Five key requirements were identified for the practical application of BEF relationships: 1) a complete understanding of strength, direction and prevalence of marine BEF relationships, 2) an understanding of which biological components are influential within specific BEF relationships, 3) the biodiversity of the selected biological components can be measured easily, 4) detail which ecological mechanisms are the most important for generating marine BEF relationships, e.g. identity effects or complementarity, and 5) establish what proportion of the overall functional variance is explained by biodiversity, and hence BEF relationships.Many positive and some negative BEF relationships were found within the literature, although many reproduced poorly the natural species richness, trophic structures or multiple functions of real ecosystems. Null relationships were also reported. The consistency of the positive and negative relationships was often low that compromised the ability to generalize BEF relationships and confident application of BEF within marine monitoring. Equally, some biological components and functions have received little or no investigation.Expert judgement was used to attribute biological components using spatial extent, presence and functional rate criteria. This approach highlighted the main contributing biological components to the ecosystem functions, and that many of the particularly influential components were found to have received the least amount of research attention.The need for biodiversity to be measureable (requirement 3) is possible for most biological components although difficult within the functionally important microbes. 3Identity effects underpinned most marine BEF relationships (requirement 4). As such, processes that translated structural biodiversity measures into functional diversity were found to generate better BEF relationships.The analysis of the contribution made by biodiversity, over abiotic influences, to the total expression of a particular ecosystem function was rarely measured or considered (requirement 5). Hence it is not possible to determine the overall importance of BEF relationships within the total ecosystem functioning observed. In the few studies where abiotic factors had been considered, it was clear that these modified BEF relationships and have their own direct influence on functional rate.Based on the five requirements, the information required for immediate 'operationalization' of BEF relationships within marin...

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“…The approach is particularly suited to compare multivariate patterns of the structure of communities and those of their biological traits (e.g. Bremner, 2008;Bremner et al, 2006aBremner et al, , 2006bHewitt et al, 2008;Marchini et al, 2008;Törnroos and Bonsdorff, 2012;Törnroos et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resistance of polychaete species and trait patterns to simulated species loss in coastal lagoons

Faulwetter

Papageorgiou

Koulouri

et al. 2015

Journal of Sea Research

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Marine benthic ecological functioning over decreasing taxonomic richness

Cited by 69 publications

References 45 publications

Seasonality and trophic diversity in molluscan assemblages from the Bay of Tunis (southern Mediterranean Sea)

Seasonality and trophic diversity in molluscan assemblages from the Bay of Tunis (southern Mediterranean Sea)

Marine biodiversity and ecosystem function relationships: The potential for practical monitoring applications

Resistance of polychaete species and trait patterns to simulated species loss in coastal lagoons

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