scholarly journals Invasive plants have different effects on trophic structure of green and brown food webs in terrestrial ecosystems: a meta-analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. McCary ◽  
Robin Mores ◽  
Monica A. Farfan ◽  
David H. Wise
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 690-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Yue ◽  
Yan Peng ◽  
Dario A. Fornara ◽  
Koenraad Van Meerbeek ◽  
Lars Vesterdal ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 2629-2647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann Lelièvre ◽  
Jozée Sarrazin ◽  
Julien Marticorena ◽  
Gauthier Schaal ◽  
Thomas Day ◽  
...  

Abstract. Hydrothermal vent sites along the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the north-east Pacific host dense populations of Ridgeia piscesae tubeworms that promote habitat heterogeneity and local diversity. A detailed description of the biodiversity and community structure is needed to help understand the ecological processes that underlie the distribution and dynamics of deep-sea vent communities. Here, we assessed the composition, abundance, diversity and trophic structure of six tubeworm samples, corresponding to different successional stages, collected on the Grotto hydrothermal edifice (Main Endeavour Field, Juan de Fuca Ridge) at 2196 m depth. Including R. piscesae, a total of 36 macrofaunal taxa were identified to the species level. Although polychaetes made up the most diverse taxon, faunal densities were dominated by gastropods. Most tubeworm aggregations were numerically dominated by the gastropods Lepetodrilus fucensis and Depressigyra globulus and polychaete Amphisamytha carldarei. The highest diversities were found in tubeworm aggregations characterised by the longest tubes (18.5 ± 3.3 cm). The high biomass of grazers and high resource partitioning at a small scale illustrates the importance of the diversity of free-living microbial communities in the maintenance of food webs. Although symbiont-bearing invertebrates R. piscesae represented a large part of the total biomass, the low number of specialised predators on this potential food source suggests that its primary role lies in community structuring. Vent food webs did not appear to be organised through predator–prey relationships. For example, although trophic structure complexity increased with ecological successional stages, showing a higher number of predators in the last stages, the food web structure itself did not change across assemblages. We suggest that environmental gradients provided by the biogenic structure of tubeworm bushes generate a multitude of ecological niches and contribute to the partitioning of nutritional resources, releasing communities from competition pressure for resources and thus allowing species to coexist.


2008 ◽  
Vol 105 (46) ◽  
pp. 17848-17851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kaspari ◽  
Stephen P. Yanoviak ◽  
Robert Dudley

Sodium is an essential nutrient whose deposition in rainfall decreases with distance inland. The herbivores and microbial decomposers that feed on sodium-poor vegetation should be particularly constrained along gradients of decreasing sodium. We studied the use of sucrose and NaCl baits in 17 New World ant communities located 4–2757 km inland. Sodium use was higher in genera and subfamilies characterized as omnivores/herbivores compared with those classified as carnivores and was lower in communities embedded in forest litter than in those embedded in abundant vegetation. Sodium use was increased in ant communities further inland, as was preference for the baits with the highest sodium concentration. Sucrose use, a measure of ant activity, peaked in communities 10–100 km inland. We suggest that the geography of ant activity is shaped by sodium toxicity near the shore and by sodium deficit farther inland. Given the importance of ants in terrestrial ecosystems, changing patterns of rainfall with global change may ramify through inland food webs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enqing Hou ◽  
Yiqi Luo ◽  
Yuanwen Kuang ◽  
Chengrong Chen ◽  
Xiankai Lu ◽  
...  

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