Macroalgal Composition Determines the Structure of Benthic Assemblages Colonizing Fragmented Habitats
Macroalgal Composition Determines the Structure of Benthic Assemblages Colonizing Fragmented Habitats
复制标题
巨藻的组成决定了栖息在破碎生境的底栖生物群落的结构
作者：
M. Matias;F. Arenas;M. Rubal;I. Pinto
了解沿海栖息地破碎化的后果是海洋生态学讨论的一个重要话题。对碎片化影响的研究揭示了复杂且依赖于环境的生物反应，这阻碍了不同栖息地或研究生物体的概括。由于大多数研究都集中在单一类型的栖息地或斑块上，因此很少研究海洋环境破碎化对异质栖息地的影响。在这项研究中，我们评估了不同程度的破碎化的影响（即在不损失整体栖息地的情况下减小斑块的大小）。我们使用定殖于潮间带大型藻类（例如结壳藻类、草皮藻类和树冠藻类）代表性形态群的大型无脊椎动物组合来测量这些影响。为此，我们通过操纵裸露岩石的数量或混合组合中不同物种的空间排列，构建了具有不同形态群组合和增加破碎程度的人工组合。总的来说，我们的结果表明：1）碎片化并没有显着影响大型无脊椎动物的组合； 2）在更大的破碎水平下，混合藻类组合中的物种数量更多，这表明更高的栖息地复杂性促进了物种的定植。我们的结果表明，预测异质栖息地破碎化的后果取决于构成这些栖息地的形态群的类型和多样性。
Understanding the consequences of fragmentation of coastal habitats is an important topic of discussion in marine ecology. Research on the effects of fragmentation has revealed complex and context-dependent biotic responses, which prevent generalizations across different habitats or study organisms. The effects of fragmentation in marine environments have been rarely investigated across heterogeneous habitats, since most studies have focused on a single type of habitat or patch. In this study, we assessed the effects of different levels of fragmentation (i.e. decreasing size of patches without overall habitat loss). We measured these effects using assemblages of macro-invertebrates colonizing representative morphological groups of intertidal macroalgae (e.g. encrusting, turf and canopy-forming algae). For this purpose, we constructed artificial assemblages with different combinations of morphological groups and increasing levels of fragmentation by manipulating the amount of bare rock or the spatial arrangement of different species in mixed assemblages. In general, our results showed that 1) fragmentation did not significantly affect the assemblages of macroinvertebrates; 2) at greater levels of fragmentation, there were greater numbers of species in mixed algal assemblages, suggesting that higher habitat complexity promotes species colonization. Our results suggest that predicting the consequences of fragmentation in heterogeneous habitats is dependent on the type and diversity of morphological groups making up those habitats.