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Species identity drives ecosystem function in a subsidy-dependent coastal ecosystem

  • Ecosystem ecology – original research
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Abstract

Declines in species diversity carry profound implications for ecosystem functioning. Communities of primary producers and consumers interact on evolutionary as well as ecological time scales, shaping complex relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In subsidized ecosystems, resource inputs are independent of consumer actions, offering a simplified view of the relationship between species diversity and function for higher trophic levels. With food webs supported by substantial but variable inputs of detritus from adjacent marine ecosystems, sandy beaches are classic examples of subsidized ecosystems. We investigated effects of consumer species diversity and identity on a key ecological function, consumption of kelp wrack from nearshore giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) forests. We assessed effects of species richness on kelp consumption by experimentally manipulating richness of six common species of invertebrate detritivores in laboratory mesocosms and conducting field assays of kelp consumption on beaches. Consumer richness had no effect on kelp consumption in the field and a slight negative effect in laboratory experiments. Kelp consumption was most strongly affected by the species composition of the detritivore community. Species identity and body size of intertidal detritivores drove variation in kelp consumption rates in both experiments and field assays. Our results provide further evidence that species traits, rather than richness per se, influence ecosystem function most, particularly in detrital-based food webs with high functional redundancy across species. On sandy beaches, where biodiversity is threatened by rising sea levels and expanding development, our findings suggest that loss of large-bodied consumer species could disproportionally impact ecosystem function.

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Availability of data and material

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Nicholas Schooler, David Hubbard, Jessica Madden and numerous undergraduate interns for their laboratory and field support. Helpful comments from David Hubbard contributed to our experiment and analysis. We thank the reviewers and the handling editor for their constructive and insightful suggestions that improved our revised manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge support from the U.S. National Science Foundation for J. Dugan and R. Miller (OCE 1458845) and for the Santa Barbara Coastal Long-Term Ecological Research program (SBC LTER, OCE 1232779 & 1831937).

Funding

This study was supported by Grants from the US National Science Foundation including OCE 1458845 and the Santa Barbara Coastal Long-Term Ecological Research project (OCE 1232779, OCE 1831937).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Kyle A. Emery, Jenifer E. Dugan & Robert J. Miller

  2. School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9SS, Fife, UK

    R. A. Bailey

Authors
  1. Kyle A. Emery
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  2. Jenifer E. Dugan
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  3. R. A. Bailey
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  4. Robert J. Miller
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Contributions

KAE, JED and RJM conceived and designed the study, KAE performed the experiments, KAE and RAB conducted the data analyses, and all authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kyle A. Emery.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All applicable institutional and/or national guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

Additional information

Communicated by Peter S Petraitis.

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Emery, K.A., Dugan, J.E., Bailey, R.A. et al. Species identity drives ecosystem function in a subsidy-dependent coastal ecosystem. Oecologia 196, 1195–1206 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05002-w

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