Journal
ESTUARINE COASTAL AND SHELF SCIENCE
Volume 181, Issue -, Pages 277-283Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecss.2016.08.036
Keywords
Coastal defences; Intertidal; Rocky shores; Macroalgae; Benthic communities; Coastal urbanisation
Categories
Funding
- European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE - Operational Competitiveness Programmeand national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology [PEst-C/MAR/LA0015/2013]
- Strategic Funding through national fundsprovided by FCT and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in the framework of the programme PT
- FCT [SFRH/BDP/63040/2009]
- cE3c [UID/BIA/00329/2013]
- FRCT [M3.1.5/F/098/2012]
- CIRN/UAc (Centre of Natural Resources of University of the Azores)
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [UID/Multi/04423/2013, UID/BIA/00329/2013, PEst-C/MAR/LA0015/2013] Funding Source: FCT
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Macroalgal canopies are important ecosystem engineers, contributing to coastal productivity and supporting a rich assemblage of associated flora and fauna. However, they are often absent from infrastructures such as coastal defences and there has been a worldwide decline in their distribution in urbanised coastal areas. The macroalga Fucus spiralis is the only high-shore canopy forming species present in the Azores. It is widely distributed in the archipelago but is never found on coastal infrastructures. Here we evaluate factors that may potentially limit its establishment on artificial structures. A number of observational and manipulative experiments were used to test the hypotheses that: (i) limited-dispersal ability limits the colonisation of new plants onto artificial structures, (ii) vertical substratum slope negatively influences the survivorship of recruits, and (iii) vertical substratum slope also negatively influences the survivorship and fitness of adults. Results showed that the limited dispersal from adult plants may be a more important factor than slope in limiting the species ability to colonise coastal infrastructures, since the vertical substratum slope does not affect its fitness or survivorship. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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