Ecosystem engineering by seagrasses interacts with grazing to shape an intertidal landscape

PLoS ONE

Volumn 7, Issue 8, 2012, Pages

  van der Heide, Tjisse ^a   Eklöf, Johan S ^a,d,e   van Nes, Egbert H ^b   van der Zee, Els M ^a,c   Donadi, Serena ^a   Weerman, Ellen J ^a   Olff, Han ^a   Eriksson, Britas Klemens ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN   (Netherlands)

^b WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^c ROYAL NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SEA RESEARCH   (Netherlands)

^d UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG   (Sweden)

^e STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; DUCKS AND GEESE; EBB TIDE; ECOSYSTEM; ENGINEERING; GRAZING; HABITAT PATCHINESS; INTERTIDAL ZONE; LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY; MEASUREMENT; MOSAICISM; NONHUMAN; PLANT DENSITY; PLANT ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION; PLANT GROWTH; POPULATION DENSITY; SEAGRASS; SEASONAL VARIATION; SEDIMENT;

ANIMALS; BIOMASS; COMPUTER SIMULATION; CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES; ECOLOGY; ECOSYSTEM; ENGINEERING; GEESE; GEOLOGIC SEDIMENTS; MODELS, STATISTICAL; MODELS, THEORETICAL; OCEANS AND SEAS; SEASONS; TIME FACTORS; ZOSTERACEAE;

ANAS PENELOPE; ANATIDAE; BRANTA; ZOSTERA NOLTII;

EID: 84864705835     PISSN: None     EISSN: 19326203     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042060     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Eriksson BK, van der Heide T, van de Koppel J, Piersma T, van der Veer HW, et al. (2010) Major Changes in the Ecology of the Wadden Sea: Human Impacts, Ecosystem Engineering and Sediment Dynamics. Ecosystems 13: 752-764.
2. Hastings A, Byers JE, Crooks JA, Cuddington K, Jones CG, et al. (2007) Ecosystem engineering in space and time. Ecology Letters 10: 153-164.
3. Person BT, Herzog MP, Ruess RW, Sedinger JS, Anthony RM, et al. (2003) Feedback dynamics of grazing lawns: coupling vegetation change with animal growth. Oecologia 135: 583-592.
4. Pringle RM, Doak DF, Brody AK, Jocque R, Palmer TM, (2010) Spatial Pattern Enhances Ecosystem Functioning in an African Savanna. Plos Biology 8: e1000377.
5. Jones CG, Lawton JH, Shachak M, (1994) Organisms as ecosystem engineers. Oikos 69: 373-386.
6. Jones CG, Lawton JH, Shachak M, (1997) Positive and negative effects of organisms as physical ecosystem engineers. Ecology 78: 1946-1957.
7. Jones CG, Gutierrez JL, Byers JE, Crooks JA, Lambrinos JG, et al. (2010) A framework for understanding physical ecosystem engineering by organisms. Oikos 119: 1862-1869.
8. Kefi S, Rietkerk M, van Baalen M, Loreau M, (2007) Local facilitation, bistability and transitions in arid ecosystems. Theoretical Population Biology 71: 367-379.
9. Weerman EJ, Herman PMJ, Van de Koppel J, (2011) Top-down control inhibits spatial self-organization of a patterned landscape. Ecology 92: 487-495.
10. Eklöf JS, van der Heide T, Donadi S, van der Zee EM, O'Hara R, et al. (2011) Habitat-Mediated Facilitation and Counteracting Ecosystem Engineering Interactively Influence Ecosystem Responses to Disturbance. PLoS ONE 6: e23229.
11. van Wesenbeeck BK, van de Koppel J, Herman PMJ, Bakker JP, Bouma TJ, (2007) Biomechanical warfare in ecology; negative interactions between species by habitat modification. Oikos 116: 742-750.
12. Cromsigt J, Olff H, (2008) Dynamics of grazing lawn formation: an experimental test of the role of scale-dependent processes. Oikos 117: 1444-1452.
13. McNaughton SJ, (1984) Grazing lawns- Animals in herds, plant form, and coevolution. American Naturalist 124: 863-886.
14. Bos AR, Bouma TJ, de Kort GLJ, Van Katwijk MM, (2007) Ecosystem engineering by annual intertidal seagrass beds: sediment accretion and modification. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science 74: 344-348.
15. van der Heide T, van Nes EH, Geerling GW, Smolders AJP, Bouma TJ, et al. (2007) Positive feedbacks in seagrass ecosystems - Implications for success in conservation and restoration. Ecosystems 10: 1311-1322.
16. van der Heide T, Van Nes EH, van Katwijk MM, Olff H, Smolders AJP, (2011) Positive feedbacks in seagrass ecosystems - Evidence from large-scale empirical data. PLoS ONE 6: e16504.
17. Ganter B, (2000) Seagrass (Zostera spp.) as food for Brent geese (Branta bernicla): an overview. Helgoland Marine Research 54: 63-70.
18. Fox AD, (1996) Zostera exploitation by Brent geese and Wigeon on the Exe estuary, southern England. Bird Study 43: 257-268.
19. Percival SM, Evans PR, (1997) Brent Geese Branta bernicla and Zostera; Factors affecting the exploitation of a seasonally declining food resource. Ibis 139: 121-128.
20. Vermaat JE, Hootsmans MJM, Nienhuis PH, (1987) Seasonal dynamics and leaf growth of Zostera noltii Hornem, a perennial intertidal seagrass. Aquatic Botany 28: 287-299.
21. Rietkerk M, Dekker SC, de Ruiter PC, van de Koppel J, (2004) Self-organized patchiness and catastrophic shifts in ecosystems. Science 305: 1926-1929.
22. Hassell MP, Comins HN, May RM, (1991) Spatial structure and chaos in insect population-dynamics. Nature 353: 255-258.
23. Maron JL, Harrison S, (1997) Spatial pattern formation in an insect host-parasitoid system. Science 278: 1619-1621.
24. van der Heide T, Bouma TJ, van Nes EH, van de Koppel J, Scheffer M, et al. (2010) Spatial self-organized patterning in seagrasses along a depth gradient of an intertidal ecosystem. Ecology 91: 362-369.
25. Bell SS, Robbins BD, Jensen SL, (1999) Gap dynamics in a seagrass landscape. Ecosystems 2: 493-504.
26. Marba N, Duarte CM, (1995) Coupling of Seagrass (Cymodocea-Nodosa) Patch Dynamics to Subaqueous Dune Migration. Journal of Ecology 83: 381-389.
27. Patriquin DG, (1975) "Migration". of blowouts in seagrass beds at Barbados and Carriacou, West Indies, and its ecological and geological implications Aquatic Botany 1: 163-189.
28. Robbins BD, Bell SS, (1994) Seagrass landscapes- A terrestrial approach to the marine subtidal environment. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 9: 301-304.
29. Fonseca M, Whitfield PE, Kelly NM, Bell SS, (2002) Modeling seagrass landscape pattern and associated ecological attributes. Ecological Applications 12: 218-237.
30. Moore KA, (2004) Influence of seagrasses on water quality in shallow regions of the lower Chesapeake Bay. Journal of Coastal Research. pp. 162-178.
31. van der Heide T, Smolders AJP, Rijkens BGA, van Nes EH, van Katwijk MM, et al. (2008) Toxicity of reduced nitrogen in eelgrass (Zostera marina) is highly dependent on shoot density and pH. Oecologia 158: 411-419.
32. Heck KL, Valentine JF, (2006) Plant-herbivore interactions in seagrass meadows. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 330: 420-436.
33. Zipperle AM, Coyer JA, Reise K, Stam WT, Olsen JL, (2010) Waterfowl grazing in autumn enhances spring seedling recruitment of intertidal Zostera noltii. Aquatic Botany 93: 202-205.
34. Eklof JS, McMahon K, Lavery PS, (2009) Effects of multiple disturbances in seagrass meadows: shading decreases resilience to grazing. Marine and Freshwater Research 60: 1317-1327.
35. Orth RJ, Carruthers TJB, Dennison WC, Duarte CM, Fourqurean JW, et al. (2006) A global crisis for seagrass ecosystems. Bioscience 56: 987-996.
36. Waycott M, Duarte CM, Carruthers TJB, Orth RJ, Dennison WC, et al. (2009) Accelerating loss of seagrasses across the globe threatens coastal ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106: 12377-12381.
37. Eklöf JS, Alsterberg C, Havenhand JN, Sundbäck K, Wood HL, et al. (2012) Experimental climate change weakens the insurance effect of biodiversity. Ecology Letters. DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01810.x.
38. van der Heide T, Govers LL, de Fouw J, Olff H, van der Geest M, et al. (2012) A Three-Stage Symbiosis Forms the Foundation of Seagrass Ecosystems. Science 336: 1353-1472.
39. Kefi S, Rietkerk M, Alados CL, Pueyo Y, Papanastasis VP, et al. (2007) Spatial vegetation patterns and imminent desertification in Mediterranean arid ecosystems. Nature 449: 213-U215.
40. Lin Y, Han GD, Zhao ML, Chang SX, (2010) Spatial vegetation patterns as early signs of desertification: a case study of a desert steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. Landscape Ecology 25: 1519-1527.
41. Weerman EJ, van Belzen J, Rietkerk M, Temmerman S, Kefi S, et al. (2012) Changes in diatom patch-size distribution and degradation in a spatially self-organized intertidal mudflat ecosystem. Ecology In press.
42. Nacken N, Reise K, (2000) Effects of herbivorous birds on intertidal seagrass beds in the northern Wadden Sea. Helgoland Marine Research 54: 87-94.