2024-03-28T10:29:45Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1769092020-01-27T10:06:16Zcom_10261_88com_10261_8col_10261_341
Biogenic habitat shifts under long-term ocean acidification show nonlinear community responses and unbalanced functions of associated invertebrates
Milazzo, Marco
Alessi, C.
Quattrocchi, Federico
Chemello, Renato
D'Agostaro, R.
Gil, João
Vaccaro, A. M.
Mirto, S.
Gristina, M.
Badalamenti, F.
Carbon dioxide
Ocean acidification
Phase shift
Transplant
CO2 vents
Vermetid reef
Este artículo contiene 8 páginas, 4 figuras.
Experiments have shown that increasing dissolved CO2 concentrations (i.e. Ocean Acidification, OA) in marine
ecosystems may act as nutrient for primary producers (e.g. fleshy algae) or a stressor for calcifying species
(e.g., coralline algae, corals, molluscs). For the first time, rapid habitat dominance shifts and altered competitive
replacement from a reef-forming to a non-reef-forming biogenic habitat were documented over one-year
exposure to low pH/high CO2 through a transplant experiment off Vulcano Island CO2 seeps (NE Sicily, Italy).
Ocean acidification decreased vermetid reefs complexity via a reduction in the reef-building species density,
boosted canopy macroalgae and led to changes in composition, structure and functional diversity of the associated
benthic assemblages. OA effects on invertebrate richness and abundance were nonlinear, being maximal
at intermediate complexity levels of vermetid reefs and canopy forming algae. Abundance of higher order
consumers (e.g. carnivores, suspension feeders) decreased under elevated CO2 levels. Herbivores were
non-linearly related to OA conditions, with increasing competitive release only of minor intertidal grazers
(e.g. amphipods) under elevated CO2 levels.
Our results support the dual role of CO2 (as a stressor and as a resource) in disrupting the state of rocky shore
communities, and raise specific concerns about the future of intertidal reef ecosystem under increasing CO2 emissions. We contribute to inform predictions of the complex and nonlinear community effects of OA on biogenic
habitats, but at the sametime encourage the use ofmultiple natural CO2 gradients in providing quantitative
data on changing community responses to long-term CO2 exposure.
2019-02-28T10:29:49Z
2019-02-28T10:29:49Z
2019
artículo
Science of the Total Environment 667 : 41-48 (2019)
0048-9697
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/176909
1879-1026
eng
Sí
closedAccess
Elsevier