Predicting diversity in benthic macro-scale communities associated with mussel matrices in three Pacific ecoregions

Lynn Wilbur; Frithjof C. Küpper; Nikolaos Katsiaras; Vasilis Louca

doi:10.1111/maec.12741

Predicting diversity in benthic macro-scale communities associated with mussel matrices in three Pacific ecoregions

Lynn Wilbur, Frithjof C. Küpper, Nikolaos Katsiaras, Vasilis Louca^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Abstract Marine mussels are ubiquitous and their tough byssal threads allow for the formation of expansive, age-aggregated mats known as mussel matrices which can host marine invertebrates and algal macro-benthic communities playing an important role in food-web dynamics. Yet, despite the significant implications for biodiversity and intertidal ecosystem functioning, the role of mussel size, individual morphology and community arrangement in determining the structure of the associated community has never been investigated. Species representative of the green, brown and red marine algal phyla as well as polychaetes, crustaceans and gastropods were sampled from mussel matrices in the Guayaquil (GUAY), Humboldtian (HWS, HNS) and North American Pacific Fjordland (NAPF) marine ecoregions. Linear mixed effects modelling (LMM) and linear effects modelling (LEM) were used to determine the effect of mussel matrices as a predictor of species diversity by incorporating variability due to ecoregion and sampling site. Shell length and stratum index demonstrated significant effect on species richness (Sobs) and Menhinick's richness (D), while stratum index demonstrated an effect on species diversity (H). In the linear mixed model analysis, shell length explained most of the variation in Menhinick's richness (D) and observed species richness (Sobs), while stratum index explained most of the variation in (D) in the linear effects model. Our findings reveal that the level of complexity in mussel assemblages plays a major role in determining species diversity.

Original language	English
Article number	e12741
Number of pages	15
Journal	Marine Ecology
Volume	44
Issue number	2
Early online date	17 Mar 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/maec.12741
Publication status	Published - 18 Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

Scottish Funding Council. Grant Number: HR09011
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Appreciations are due to the staff members of the Reserva Punta San Juan and the Center for Environmental Sustainability of Universidad de Cayetano Heredia in Lima Peru for their assistance with permitting and fieldwork, to the Ministero de la Producción de Peru for the permit to collect marine specimens, the Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales for permission to work in the Reserve, Shaleyla Kalez of EcoOceanica for her assistance with logistics in the northernmost ecoregion of Peru and Prof. Aldo Pacheco from the Universidad de Cayetano for his assistance with logistics and species identification in Antofagasta Chile (Bruno Ibaniez-Erquiaga MSc (UPCH) for his assistance in the field). This study was partially supported by the University of Aberdeen, School of Biological Sciences. We would also like to thank the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Data are available from authors at request.

Data Availability Statement

Data available from authors at request.

Keywords

epifaunal community
intertidal zone
species richness
stratum index

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

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Wilbur_etal_ME_Predicting_diversity_in_VOR
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.© 2023 The Authors. Marine Ecology published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 2.17 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Abstract Marine mussels are ubiquitous and their tough byssal threads allow for the formation of expansive, age-aggregated mats known as mussel matrices which can host marine invertebrates and algal macro-benthic communities playing an important role in food-web dynamics. Yet, despite the significant implications for biodiversity and intertidal ecosystem functioning, the role of mussel size, individual morphology and community arrangement in determining the structure of the associated community has never been investigated. Species representative of the green, brown and red marine algal phyla as well as polychaetes, crustaceans and gastropods were sampled from mussel matrices in the Guayaquil (GUAY), Humboldtian (HWS, HNS) and North American Pacific Fjordland (NAPF) marine ecoregions. Linear mixed effects modelling (LMM) and linear effects modelling (LEM) were used to determine the effect of mussel matrices as a predictor of species diversity by incorporating variability due to ecoregion and sampling site. Shell length and stratum index demonstrated significant effect on species richness (Sobs) and Menhinick's richness (D), while stratum index demonstrated an effect on species diversity (H). In the linear mixed model analysis, shell length explained most of the variation in Menhinick's richness (D) and observed species richness (Sobs), while stratum index explained most of the variation in (D) in the linear effects model. Our findings reveal that the level of complexity in mussel assemblages plays a major role in determining species diversity.",

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AU - Louca, Vasilis

N1 - Scottish Funding Council. Grant Number: HR09011 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Appreciations are due to the staff members of the Reserva Punta San Juan and the Center for Environmental Sustainability of Universidad de Cayetano Heredia in Lima Peru for their assistance with permitting and fieldwork, to the Ministero de la Producción de Peru for the permit to collect marine specimens, the Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales for permission to work in the Reserve, Shaleyla Kalez of EcoOceanica for her assistance with logistics in the northernmost ecoregion of Peru and Prof. Aldo Pacheco from the Universidad de Cayetano for his assistance with logistics and species identification in Antofagasta Chile (Bruno Ibaniez-Erquiaga MSc (UPCH) for his assistance in the field). This study was partially supported by the University of Aberdeen, School of Biological Sciences. We would also like to thank the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Data are available from authors at request.

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N2 - Abstract Marine mussels are ubiquitous and their tough byssal threads allow for the formation of expansive, age-aggregated mats known as mussel matrices which can host marine invertebrates and algal macro-benthic communities playing an important role in food-web dynamics. Yet, despite the significant implications for biodiversity and intertidal ecosystem functioning, the role of mussel size, individual morphology and community arrangement in determining the structure of the associated community has never been investigated. Species representative of the green, brown and red marine algal phyla as well as polychaetes, crustaceans and gastropods were sampled from mussel matrices in the Guayaquil (GUAY), Humboldtian (HWS, HNS) and North American Pacific Fjordland (NAPF) marine ecoregions. Linear mixed effects modelling (LMM) and linear effects modelling (LEM) were used to determine the effect of mussel matrices as a predictor of species diversity by incorporating variability due to ecoregion and sampling site. Shell length and stratum index demonstrated significant effect on species richness (Sobs) and Menhinick's richness (D), while stratum index demonstrated an effect on species diversity (H). In the linear mixed model analysis, shell length explained most of the variation in Menhinick's richness (D) and observed species richness (Sobs), while stratum index explained most of the variation in (D) in the linear effects model. Our findings reveal that the level of complexity in mussel assemblages plays a major role in determining species diversity.

AB - Abstract Marine mussels are ubiquitous and their tough byssal threads allow for the formation of expansive, age-aggregated mats known as mussel matrices which can host marine invertebrates and algal macro-benthic communities playing an important role in food-web dynamics. Yet, despite the significant implications for biodiversity and intertidal ecosystem functioning, the role of mussel size, individual morphology and community arrangement in determining the structure of the associated community has never been investigated. Species representative of the green, brown and red marine algal phyla as well as polychaetes, crustaceans and gastropods were sampled from mussel matrices in the Guayaquil (GUAY), Humboldtian (HWS, HNS) and North American Pacific Fjordland (NAPF) marine ecoregions. Linear mixed effects modelling (LMM) and linear effects modelling (LEM) were used to determine the effect of mussel matrices as a predictor of species diversity by incorporating variability due to ecoregion and sampling site. Shell length and stratum index demonstrated significant effect on species richness (Sobs) and Menhinick's richness (D), while stratum index demonstrated an effect on species diversity (H). In the linear mixed model analysis, shell length explained most of the variation in Menhinick's richness (D) and observed species richness (Sobs), while stratum index explained most of the variation in (D) in the linear effects model. Our findings reveal that the level of complexity in mussel assemblages plays a major role in determining species diversity.

KW - epifaunal community

KW - intertidal zone

KW - species richness

KW - stratum index

U2 - 10.1111/maec.12741

DO - 10.1111/maec.12741

M3 - Article

SN - 0173-9565

VL - 44

JO - Marine Ecology

JF - Marine Ecology

IS - 2

M1 - e12741

ER -

Predicting diversity in benthic macro-scale communities associated with mussel matrices in three Pacific ecoregions

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Keywords

UN SDGs

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