Managing aquatic habitat structure for resilient trophic interactions.

Autor: Ward CA; Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada., Tunney TD; Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.; Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Gulf Region, Freshwater Habitat Section, Centre for Effectiveness Science, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada., McCann KS; Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America [Ecol Appl] 2023 Apr; Vol. 33 (3), pp. e2814. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Feb 21.
DOI: 10.1002/eap.2814
Abstrakt: Structural habitat (the three-dimensional arrangement of physical matter, abiotic and biotic, at a location) is a foundational element for the resilience and maintenance of biodiversity, yet anthropogenic development is driving the global simplification of aquatic environments. Resource managers regularly seek to conserve aquatic food webs by increasing structural habitat complexity with expected benefits to fisheries; however, the global effectiveness of such actions is unclear. Our synthesis and theoretical analyses found that the response of a consumer-resource interaction (predatory sportfish and forage fish prey) to the addition of prey refuge habitat differed among systems with low and high rates of biomass transfer from resource to consumer (i.e., biomass potential); stabilization was not the rule. Greater prey refuge habitat availability tended to stabilize systems characterized by high biomass potential while simultaneously increasing consumer densities. In contrast, increasing prey refuge habitat availability in systems characterized by low biomass potential tended to mute energy transfer and moved consumer densities toward local extinction. Importantly, biomass potential and prey refuge can have antagonistic effects on stability and relative consumer densities, and it is therefore important to consider the local conditions of a system when using habitat manipulation as a management measure. Further development of our context-dependent perspective to whole food webs, and across different environments, may help to guide structural habitat management to better restore and protect aquatic ecosystems.
(© 2023 The Authors. Ecological Applications published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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