Foundational biodiversity effects propagate through coastal food webs via multiple pathways

Area of Science:

• Marine Ecology
• Ecosystem Functioning
• Biodiversity Research

Background:

• Limited understanding of how biodiversity impacts ecosystem functioning across trophic levels.
• Foundation species, like seaweeds, play a critical role in structuring ecological communities.
• Previous research primarily focused on terrestrial ecosystems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the pathways linking foundation species diversity to benthic consumer community structure and function.
• To explore how manipulating seaweed richness affects invertebrate abundance, biomass, and diversity.
• To understand the direct and indirect effects of macroalgal diversity on associated fauna.

Main Methods:

• Experimental manipulation of habitat-forming seaweed richness in a western Atlantic estuary.
• Utilized structural equation modeling to analyze community responses.
• Quantified invertebrate abundance, biomass, and diversity as key metrics.

Main Results:

• Increased macroalgal richness positively influenced invertebrate abundance, biomass, and diversity.
• Direct effects of seaweed richness on substrate quality and indirect effects via habitat biomass were identified.
• While one seaweed species dominated consumer responses, complementarity was observed for invertebrate richness.

Conclusions:

• Biodiversity in foundation species can propagate through multiple pathways to support food web stability.
• Findings extend terrestrial biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research to marine environments.
• Highlights the ecological consequences of human-induced alterations to marine biodiversity and habitats.