Habitat and Scale Shape the Demographic Fate of the Keystone Sea Urchin Paracentrotus lividus in Mediterranean Macrophyte Communities
Visualitza/Obre
Autor/a
Tomas, Fiona
Pinna, Stefania
Farina, Simone
Roca, Guillem
Ceccherelli, Giulia
Romero, Javier
Alcoverro, Teresa
Data de publicació
2012-04-20ISSN
1932-6203
Resum
Demographic processes exert different degrees of control as individuals grow, and in species that span several habitats and
spatial scales, this can influence our ability to predict their population at a particular life-history stage given the previous life
stage. In particular, when keystone species are involved, this relative coupling between demographic stages can have
significant implications for the functioning of ecosystems. We examined benthic and pelagic abundances of the sea urchin
Paracentrotus lividus in order to: 1) understand the main life-history bottlenecks by observing the degree of coupling
between demographic stages; and 2) explore the processes driving these linkages. P. lividus is the dominant invertebrate
herbivore in the Mediterranean Sea, and has been repeatedly observed to overgraze shallow beds of the seagrass Posidonia
oceanica and rocky macroalgal communities. We used a hierarchical sampling design at different spatial scales (100 s, 10 s
and ,1 km) and habitats (seagrass and rocky macroalgae) to describe the spatial patterns in the abundance of different
demographic stages (larvae, settlers, recruits and adults). Our results indicate that large-scale factors (potentially currents,
nutrients, temperature, etc.) determine larval availability and settlement in the pelagic stages of urchin life history. In rocky
macroalgal habitats, benthic processes (like predation) acting at large or medium scales drive adult abundances. In contrast,
adult numbers in seagrass meadows are most likely influenced by factors like local migration (from adjoining rocky habitats)
functioning at much smaller scales. The complexity of spatial and habitat-dependent processes shaping urchin populations
demands a multiplicity of approaches when addressing habitat conservation actions, yet such actions are currently mostly
aimed at managing predation processes and fish numbers. We argue that a more holistic ecosystem management also
needs to incorporate the landscape and habitat-quality level processes (eutrophication, fragmentation, etc.) that together
regulate the populations of this keystone herbivore.
Tipus de document
Article
Versió del document
Versió publicada
Llengua
Anglès
Matèries (CDU)
574 - Ecologia general i biodiversitat
Pàgines
10
Publicat per
Public Library of Science
Publicat a
PLoS ONE
Citació
Prado, Patricia, Fiona Tomàs, Stefania Pinna, Simone Farina, Guillem Roca, Giulia Ceccherelli, Javier Romero, and Teresa Alcoverro. 2012. “Habitat and Scale Shape the Demographic Fate of the Keystone Sea Urchin Paracentrotus Lividus in Mediterranean Macrophyte Communities.” PloS One 7 (4): e35170. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0035170.
Número de l'acord de la subvenció
MICINN/Programa Nacional de Proyectos de Investigación Fundamental/CTM2010-22273-C02/ES/Evaluación experimental del efecto de los atributos del paisaje sobre interacciones funcionales entre elementos del mosaico de ecosistemas costeros/ECOMOS
Programa
Aigües Marines i Continentals
Aquest element apareix en la col·lecció o col·leccions següent(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2576]
Els següents fitxers sobre la llicència estan associats a aquest element:
Excepte que s'indiqui una altra cosa, la llicència de l'ítem es descriu com http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/