Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 286, Issue 1906, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0846
Keywords
marine food web; Strongylocentrotus purpuratus; Macrocystis; suspension feeders; detritivores; invertebrates
Categories
Funding
- US. National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research programme under Division of Ocean Sciences [9982105, 0620276]
- NSF BioOcean award [0962306]
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Program [NNX14AR62A]
- Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Environmental Studies Program (BOEM) [MC15AC00006]
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Santa Barbara Channel Marine Biodiversity Observation Network
- Directorate For Geosciences [0620276, 9982105] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Ocean Sciences [0620276, 9982105] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Detritus can fundamentally shape and sustain food webs, and shredders can facilitate its availability. Most of the biomass of the highly productive giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, becomes detritus that is exported or falls to the seafloor as litter. We hypothesized that sea urchins process kelp litter through shredding, sloppy feeding and egestion, making kelp litter more available to benthic consumers. To test this, we conducted a mesocosm experiment in which an array of kelp forest benthic consumers were exposed to C-13- and N-15-labelled Macrocystis with or without the presence of sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Our results showed that several detritivore species consumed significant amounts of kelp, but only when urchins were present. Although they are typically portrayed as antagonistic grazers in kelp forests, sea urchins can have a positive trophic role, capturing kelp litter before it is exported and making it available to a suite of benthic detritivores.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available