Habitat-Mediated Facilitation and Counteracting Ecosystem Engineering Interactively Influence Ecosystem Responses to Disturbance

Recovery of an ecosystem following disturbance can be severely hampered or even shift altogether when a point disturbance exceeds a certain spatial threshold. Such scale-dependent dynamics may be caused by preemptive competition, but may also result from diminished self-facilitation due to weakened ecosystem engineering. Moreover, disturbance can facilitate colonization by engineering species that alter abiotic conditions in ways that exacerbate stress on the original species. Consequently, establishment of such counteracting engineers might reduce the spatial threshold for the disturbance, by effectively slowing recovery and increasing the risk for ecosystem shifts to alternative states. We tested these predictions in an intertidal mudflat characterized by a two-state mosaic of hummocks (humps exposed during low tide) dominated by the sediment-stabilizing seagrass Zostera noltii) and hollows (low-tide waterlogged depressions dominated by the bioturbating lugworm Arenicola marina). In contrast to expectations, seagrass recolonized both natural and experimental clearings via lateral expansion and seemed unaffected by both clearing size and lugworm addition. Near the end of the growth season, however, an additional disturbance (most likely waterfowl grazing and/or strong hydrodynamics) selectively impacted recolonizing seagrass in the largest (1 m2) clearings (regardless of lugworm addition), and in those medium (0.25 m2) clearings where lugworms had been added nearly five months earlier. Further analyses showed that the risk for the disturbance increased with hollow size, with a threshold of 0.24 m2. Hollows of that size were caused by seagrass removal alone in the largest clearings, and by a weaker seagrass removal effect exacerbated by lugworm bioturbation in the medium clearings. Consequently, a sufficiently large disturbance increased the vulnerability of recolonizing seagrass to additional disturbance by weakening seagrass engineering effects (sediment stabilization). Meanwhile, the counteracting ecosystem engineering (lugworm bioturbation) reduced that threshold size. Therefore, scale-dependent interactions between habitat-mediated facilitation, competition and disturbance seem to maintain the spatial two-state mosaic in this ecosystem

Switching from negative to positive density-dependence among populations of a cobble beach plant

© Springer-Verlag 2008Interactions among species occur across a continuum from negative to positive and can have a critical role in shaping population and community dynamics. Growing evidence suggests that inter- and intra-specific interactions can vary in strength or even switch direction (i.e., negative to positive) depending on environmental conditions, consumer pressure, and also among life-history stages. We tested the hypothesis that seedlings and adults of the intertidal annual forb Suaeda linearis growing on New England shores exhibit positive density-dependence under physically stressful conditions high on the shore (i.e., greater temperatures, evaporative stress), but negative density-dependence under physically milder conditions low on the shore. Among experimental treatments of plant density (dense versus sparse) at each shore height, plant biomass, length, and number of leaves/branches were greater in dense stands high on the shore (positive density-dependence), but greater in sparse stands low on the shore (negative density-dependence). Such responses were consistent among life-history stages and generally consistent between sites. As a more direct measure of fitness, per capita seed production was also positively density-dependent high on the shore, but negatively density-dependent low on the shore. These results support the current theory predicting an increase in the frequency of positive interactions with increasing environmental stress and further emphasize the previously understated role of positive interactions in shaping and maintaining populations and communities.William M. Goldenheim, Andrew D. Irving and Mark D. Bertnes

Switching from negative to positive density-dependence among populations of a cobble beach plant

Interactions among species occur across a continuum from negative to positive and can have a critical role in shaping population and community dynamics. Growing evidence suggests that inter- and intra-specific interactions can vary in strength or even switch direction (i.e., negative to positive) depending on environmental conditions, consumer pressure, and also among life-history stages. We tested the hypothesis that seedlings and adults of the intertidal annual forb Suaeda linearis growing on New England shores exhibit positive density-dependence under physically stressful conditions high on the shore (i.e., greater temperatures, evaporative stress), but negative density-dependence under physically milder conditions low on the shore. Among experimental treatments of plant density (dense versus sparse) at each shore height, plant biomass, length, and number of leaves/branches were greater in dense stands high on the shore (positive density-dependence), but greater in sparse stands low on the shore (negative density-dependence). Such responses were consistent among life-history stages and generally consistent between sites. As a more direct measure of fitness, per capita seed production was also positively density-dependent high on the shore, but negatively density-dependent low on the shore. These results support the current theory predicting an increase in the frequency of positive interactions with increasing environmental stress and further emphasize the previously understated role of positive interactions in shaping and maintaining populations and communities