Widespread habitat loss leads to ecosystem-scale decrease in trophic function

Area of Science:

• Marine ecology
• Ecosystem function
• Habitat loss impacts

Background:

• Natural and human disturbances cause habitat loss, affecting ecosystems.
• Research often focuses on habitat structure, less on ecosystem function.
• Seagrass ecosystems are vital but vulnerable to disturbances.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate how a large-scale seagrass die-off altered energetic resource distribution.
• Assess the impact on three seagrass-associated consumers with different resource use.
• Quantify changes in ecosystem function due to habitat degradation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized long-term benthic habitat monitoring data (2007-2019).
• Employed Bayesian stable isotope mixing models to determine consumer resource use.
• Generated energetic resource landscapes (E-scapes) to measure habitat energetic quality.

Main Results:

• Seagrass die-off reduced trophic function across studied consumer species.
• Species-specific responses were observed, linked to resource use and habitat recovery.
• Energetic resource landscapes revealed significant shifts in resource availability.

Conclusions:

• Habitat loss, exemplified by seagrass die-off, directly alters ecosystem function.
• Understanding species-specific responses to habitat change is crucial.
• Integrating ecosystem function into habitat loss models enhances predictive power for species responses to environmental change.