Abstract
The co-occurrence of several species, all of which share similar resource requirements, remains a paradox in ecology. Here, I evaluated resource use along multiple environmental axes to understand the potential for niche partitioning and complementarity in a guild of suspension-feeding rocky shore invertebrates. I focused on the mussels Perna canaliculus, Mytilus galloprovincialis, Aulacomya maoriana, and Xenostrobus pulex, all of which coexist along the coastline of the South Island of New Zealand. I quantified the mussels’ distributions, both vertically on the shore and within the three-dimensional mussel bed matrix, and used carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope ratios to compare species’ diets. Mussels exhibited niche partitioning along all resource axes. Given the mussels’ use of different spatial and food resources, I evaluated the potential for complementarity with respect to mussels’ roles as mediators of an important spatial subsidy, carbon inputs from the nearshore ocean into rocky-shore ecosystems. In these systems, mussels are basal species, capturing and consuming particulate organic matter in the ocean and making it available for local consumption within the benthic community. I found that mussel diversity matters; even the most productive species—Perna canaliculus—only contributed about half of the mussel-mediated carbon that accumulated over a year. Multiple co-occurring species are, therefore, likely to provide more carbon at the base of the intertidal food web than any one species living independently, and complementarity in resource use along multiple environmental axes is likely an important mechanism underlying this relationship.
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Acknowledgements
I thank A. Badten, G. Bernatchez, B. Bracken, K. Bracken, C. Bracken-Sorte, A. Gannett, K. Monuki, B. Nguyen, and C. Sorte for field and/or laboratory assistance. C. Layman, C. Sorte, members of the UC Irvine Marine Biodiversity Lab (especially S. Bedgood, A. Henry, and L. Pandori), and two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments on the manuscript. I thank S. Lilley, D. Schiel, P. South, R. Taylor, and M. Turnbull in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury for logistical support. Field accommodations and laboratory facilities were provided by the Edward Percival Field Station in Kaikoura, New Zealand. This work was conducted under Ministry for Primary Industries Special Permit 590 issued to the University of Canterbury to take and possess aquatic life for education and investigative research. I acknowledge that this research was conducted on the lands of the Ngāti Rārua, Ngāi Tahu, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira iwi.
Funding
This study was funded by a Visiting Erskine Fellowship in Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; an NSF ADVANCE Dependent Care Travel Award from the UC Irvine Office of Inclusive Excellence; and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.
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MESB conceived, designed, and executed this study and wrote the manuscript. No other person is entitled to authorship.
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Bracken, M.E.S. Complementarity in spatial subsidies of carbon associated with resource partitioning along multiple niche axes. Oecologia 193, 425–436 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04691-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04691-z