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Production of mobile invertebrate communities on shallow reefs from temperate to tropical seas

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posted on 2023-05-20, 20:24 authored by Kate FraserKate Fraser, Lefcheck, JS, Scott LingScott Ling, Mellin, C, Richard Stuart-SmithRichard Stuart-Smith, Graham EdgarGraham Edgar
Primary productivity of marine ecosystems is largely driven by broad gradients in environmental and ecological properties. By contrast, secondary productivity tends to be more variable, influenced by bottom-up (resource-driven) and top-down (predatory) processes, other environmental drivers, and mediation by the physical structure of habitats. Here, we use a continental-scale dataset on small mobile invertebrates (epifauna), common on surfaces in all marine ecosystems, to test influences of potential drivers of temperature-standardized secondary production across a large biogeographic range. We found epifaunal production to be remarkably consistent along a temperate to tropical Australian latitudinal gradient of 28.6°, spanning kelp forests to coral reefs (approx. 3500 km). Using a model selection procedure, epifaunal production was primarily related to biogenic habitat group, which explained up to 45% of total variability. Production was otherwise invariant to predictors capturing primary productivity, the local biomass of fishes (proxy for predation pressure), and environmental, geographical, and human impacts. Highly predictable levels of epifaunal productivity associated with distinct habitat groups across continental scales should allow accurate modelling of the contributions of these ubiquitous invertebrates to coastal food webs, thus improving understanding of likely changes to food web structure with ocean warming and other anthropogenic impacts on marine ecosystems.

History

Publication title

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volume

287

Issue

1941

Article number

20201798

Number

20201798

Pagination

1-10

ISSN

0962-8452

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Royal Soc London

Place of publication

6 Carlton House Terrace, London, England, Sw1Y 5Ag

Rights statement

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Marine biodiversity

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

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