4.7 Article

Microhabitat change alters abundances of competing species and decreases species richness under ocean acidification

期刊

SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
卷 645, 期 -, 页码 615-622

出版社

ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.168

关键词

Species interactions; Niche overlap; Biodiversity; CO2 vents; Habitat use; Diet

资金

  1. Australian Research Council Future fellowship [FT120100183]
  2. Environment Institute
  3. ARC Future Fellowship [FT0991953]

向作者/读者索取更多资源

Niche segregation allows competing species to capture resources in contrasting ways so they can co-exist and maintain diversity, yet global change is simplifying ecosystems and associated niche diversity. Whether climate perturbations alter niche occupancy among co-occurring species and affect species diversity is a key, but unanswered question. Using CO2 vents as natural analogues of ocean acidification, we show that competing fish species with overlapping diets are partially segregated across microhabitat niches and differently-orientated substrata under ambient CO2 conditions. Under elevated CO2, benthic microhabitats experienced a significant increase in non-calcifying turf and fleshy algae but a sharp reduction in calcareous algae. The increased availability of turf and fleshy algae supported increased densities of a competitively dominant species, whilst the reduction in calcifying algal microhabitats decreased densities of several subordinate species. The change in microhabitat availability also drove an increased overlap in microhabitat use among competing fishes at the vents, associated with a reduced fish species richness on horizontal substrates. We conclude that loss of preferred microhabitat niches, exacerbated by population proliferation of competitively dominant species, can drive population losses of less common and subordinate species, and reduce local species richness. The indirect effects of ocean acidification on microhabitat availability can therefore impair maintenance of species populations, and drive changes in local community and biodiversity patterns. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

作者

我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。

评论

主要评分

4.7
评分不足

次要评分

新颖性
-
重要性
-
科学严谨性
-
评价这篇论文

推荐

暂无数据
暂无数据