Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 296, Issue 5568, Pages 736-739Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1069811
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In the low intertidal zone at Tatoosh Island, Washington, United States, minimal estimates of primary production can vary from 0 to an average of 86 kilograms of wet mass per square meter per year when the grazing assemblage is manipulated. Highly productive annual kelps (Laminariales) replace less productive perennial species when macroscopic grazers are reduced or absent, resulting in monodominant assemblages of Alaria marginata. Experiments were repeated in seven consecutive years. Increased species richness makes no significant additional contribution to annual production. Rather, a competitively superior species is favored when its enemies are reduced, suggesting that terrestrial perspectives on the rote of biodiversity that are developed without considering consumers may not be general.
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