Drought, Mutualism Breakdown, and Landscape-Scale Degradation of Seagrass Beds.

Autor:	de Fouw J; Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, the Netherlands., Govers LL; Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Aquatic Ecology and Environmental Biology Group, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands., van de Koppel J; Conservation Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 140, 4400 CA Yerseke, the Netherlands., van Belzen J; Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 140, 4400 CA Yerseke, the Netherlands., Dorigo W; Department of Geodesy and Geo-Information, Vienna University of Technology, Gusshausstrasse 27-29, 1040 Vienna, Austria; Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium., Sidi Cheikh MA; Conservation Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, the Netherlands., Christianen MJ; Conservation Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, the Netherlands., van der Reijden KJ; Conservation Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, the Netherlands., van der Geest M; Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, the Netherlands; Conservation Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, the Netherlands., Piersma T; Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, the Netherlands; Conservation Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, the Netherlands., Smolders AJ; Aquatic Ecology and Environmental Biology Group, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands; B-WARE Research Centre, Radboud University, Mercator 3, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED Nijmegen, the Netherlands., Olff H; Conservation Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, the Netherlands., Lamers LP; Aquatic Ecology and Environmental Biology Group, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands., van Gils JA; Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, the Netherlands., van der Heide T; Aquatic Ecology and Environmental Biology Group, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Conservation Ecology, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, P.O. Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: t.vanderheide@science.ru.nl.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Current biology : CB [Curr Biol] 2016 Apr 25; Vol. 26 (8), pp. 1051-6. Date of Electronic Publication: 2016 Mar 10.
DOI:	10.1016/j.cub.2016.02.023
Abstrakt:	In many marine ecosystems, biodiversity critically depends on foundation species such as corals and seagrasses that engage in mutualistic interactions [1-3]. Concerns grow that environmental disruption of marine mutualisms exacerbates ecosystem degradation, with breakdown of the obligate coral mutualism ("coral bleaching") being an iconic example [2, 4, 5]. However, as these mutualisms are mostly facultative rather than obligate, it remains unclear whether mutualism breakdown is a common risk in marine ecosystems, and thus a potential accelerator of ecosystem degradation. Here, we provide evidence that drought triggered landscape-scale seagrass degradation and show the consequent failure of a facultative mutualistic feedback between seagrass and sulfide-consuming lucinid bivalves that in turn appeared to exacerbate the observed collapse. Local climate and remote sensing analyses revealed seagrass collapse after a summer with intense low-tide drought stress. Potential analysis-a novel approach to detect feedback-mediated state shifts-revealed two attractors (healthy and degraded states) during the collapse, suggesting that the drought disrupted internal feedbacks to cause abrupt, patch-wise degradation. Field measurements comparing degraded patches that were healthy before the collapse with patches that remained healthy demonstrated that bivalves declined dramatically in degrading patches with associated high sediment sulfide concentrations, confirming the breakdown of the mutualistic seagrass-lucinid feedback. Our findings indicate that drought triggered mutualism breakdown, resulting in toxic sulfide concentrations that aggravated seagrass degradation. We conclude that external disturbances can cause sudden breakdown of facultative marine mutualistic feedbacks. As this may amplify ecosystem degradation, we suggest including mutualisms in marine conservation and restoration approaches. (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
Externí odkaz:	Zobrazit plný text záznamu