Belowground herbivory increases vulnerability of New England salt marshes to die-off

Ecology

Volumn 93, Issue 9, 2012, Pages 2085-2094

  Coverdale, Tyler C ^a   Altieri, Andrew H ^b   Bertness, Mark D ^a   Kotanen, P M ^c  

^a BROWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE   (Panama)

^c NONE

Author keywords

Aboveground herbivory; Belowground grazing; Burrowing; Cordgrass die off; Herbivory; Salt marsh; Sesarma reticulatum; Spartina alterniflora

Indexed keywords

BURROWING; COASTAL WETLAND; CRAB; GRASS; HABITAT LOSS; HERBIVORY; OVERGRAZING; PLANT COMMUNITY; POPULATION DENSITY; RHIZOME; SALTMARSH; TOP-DOWN CONTROL; VULNERABILITY;

CAPE COD; MASSACHUSETTS; UNITED STATES;

DECAPODA (CRUSTACEA); SESARMA; SESARMA RETICULATUM; SPARTINA; SPARTINA ALTERNIFLORA;

EID: 84866900045     PISSN: 00129658     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/12-0010.1     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. Alberti, J., M. Escapa, O. Iribarne, B. Silliman, and M. Bertness. 2008. Crab herbivory regulates plant facilitative and competitive processes in Argentinean marshes. Ecology 89:155-164.
2. Altieri, A. H., M. D. Bertness, T. C. Coverdale, N. C. Herrmann, and C. Angelini. 2012. A trophic cascade triggers collapse of a salt marsh ecosystem with intensive recreational fishing. Ecology 93:1402-1410.
3. Andersen, D. C. 1987. Belowground herbivory in natural communities: a review emphasizing fossorial animals. Quarterly Review of Biology 62:261-286.
4. Barbier, E. B., S. D. Hacker, C. Kennedy, E. W. Koch, A. C. Stier, and B. R. Silliman. 2011. The value of estuarine and coastal ecosystem services. Ecological Monographs 81:169-193.
5. Benner, R., M. L. Fogel, and E. K. Sprague. 1991. Diagenesis of belowground biomass of Spartina alterniflora in salt-marsh sediments. Limnology and Oceanography 36:1358-1374.
6. Bertness, M. D. 1991. Zonation of Spartina alterniflora and Spartina patens in a New England salt marsh. Ecology 72:138-148.
7. Bertness, M. D., C. M. Crain, C. Holdredge, and N. Sala. 2008. Eutrophication and consumer control of New England salt marsh primary production. Conservation Biology 22:131-139.
8. Bertness, M. D., C. Holdredge, and A. H. Altieri. 2009. Substrate mediates consumer control of salt marsh cordgrass on Cape Cod, New England. Ecology 90:2108-2117.
9. Bertness, M. D., and T. Miller. 1984. The distribution and dynamics of Uca pugnax burrows in a New England salt marsh. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology 83:211-237.
10. Bertness, M. D., and B. R. Silliman. 2008. Consumer control of salt marshes driven by human disturbance. Conservation Biology 22:618-623.
11. Bezemer, T. M., and N. M. van Dam. 2005. Linking aboveground and belowground interactions via induced plant defenses. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20:617-624.
12. Bezemer, T. M., R. Wagenaar, N. M. Van Dam, and F. L. Wäckers. 2003. Interactions between above- and belowground insect herbivores as mediated by the plant defense system. Oikos 101:555-562.
13. Brown, V. K., and A. C. Gange. 1989. Herbivory by soildwelling insects depresses plant species richness. Functional Ecology 3:667-671.
14. Cantor, L. F., and T. G. Whitham. 1989. Importance of belowground herbivory: pocket gophers may limit aspen to rock outcrop refugia. Ecology 70:962-970.
15. Coverdale, T. C. 2010. Historical development of Cape Cod salt marshes triggers current runaway herbivory and marsh dieoff. Honors Thesis. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
16. Erb, M., J. Ton, J. Degenhardt, and T. C. J. Turlings. 2008. Interactions between arthropod-induced aboveground and belowground defenses in plants. Plant Physiology 146:867-874.
17. Gleason, M. L., D. A. Elmenr, N. C. Pien, and J. S. Fisher. 1979. Effects of stem density upon sediment retention by salt marsh cord grass, Spartina alterniflora Loisel. Estuaries 2:271-273.
18. Hik, D. S., and R. L. Jefferies. 1990. Increases in the net aboveground primary production of a salt-marsh forage grass: a test of the predictions of the herbivore-optimization model. Journal of Ecology 78:180-195.
19. Holdredge, C., M. D. Bertness, and A. H. Altieri. 2009. Role of crab herbivory in die-off of New England salt marshes. Conservation Biology 23:672-679.
20. Jefferies, R. L., A. P. Jano, and K. F. Abraham. 2006. A biotic agent promotes large-scale catastrophic change in the coastal marshes of Hudson Bay. Journal of Ecology 94:234-242.
21. Kaplan, I., R. Halitschke, A. Kessler, S. Sardanelli, and R. F. Denno. 2008. Constitutive and induced defenses to herbivory in above- and belowground plant tissues. Ecology 89:392-406.
22. Maron, J. L. 1998. Insect herbivory above- and belowground: individual and joint effects on plant fitness. Ecology 79:1281-1293.
23. McGinley, M. A., and T. G. Whitham. 1985. Central place foraging by beavers (Castor canadensis): a test of foraging predictions and the impact of selective feeding on the growth form of cottonwoods (Populus fremonti). Oecologia 66:558-562.
24. Niering, W. A., and R. S. Warren. 1980. Vegetation patterns and processes in New England salt marshes. BioScience 30:301-307.
25. Odum, E. F. 1971. Fundamentals of ecology. W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
26. Paige, K. N., and T. G. Whitham. 1987. Overcompensation in response to mammalian herbivory: the advantage of being eaten. American Naturalist 129:407-416.
27. Preisser, E. L. 2003. Field evidence for a rapidly cascading underground food web. Ecology 84:869-874.
28. Preisser, E. L., C. J. Dugaw, B. Dennis, and D. R. Strong. 2006. Plant facilitation of a belowground predator. Ecology 87:1116-1123.
29. Rasmann, S., and T. C. J. Turlings. 2007. Simultaneous feeding by aboveground and belowground herbivores attenuates plant-mediated attraction of their respective natural enemies. Ecology Letters 10:926-936.
30. Redfield, A. C. 1965. Ontogeny of a salt marsh estuary. Science 147:50-55.
31. Seiple, W. 1979. Distribution, habitat preferences and breeding periods in the crustaceans Sesarma cinerum and Sesarma reticulatum (Brachyura: Decapoda: Grapsidae). Marine Biology 52:77-86.
32. Shumway, S. W., and M. D. Bertness. 1994. Patch size effects on marsh plant secondary succession mechanisms. Ecology 75:564-568.
33. Silliman, B. R., J. van de Koppel, M. D. Bertness, L. E. Stanton, and I. A. Mendelssohn. 2005. Drought, snails, and large-scale die-off of southern U.S. salt marshes. Science 310:1803-1806.
34. Smith, S. M. 2009. Multi-decadal changes in salt marshes of Cape Cod, MA: photographic analyses of vegetation loss, species shifts, and geomorphic change. Northeastern Naturalist 16:183-208.
35. Smith, T. J., III, and W. E. Odum. 1981. The effects of grazing by snow geese on coastal salt marshes. Ecology 62:98-106.
36. Stein, C., S. B. Unsicker, A. Kahmen, M. Wagner, V. Audorff, H. Auge, D. Prati, and W. W. Weisser. 2010. Impact of invertebrate herbivory in grasslands depends on plant species diversity. Ecology 91:1639-1650.
37. Strong, D. R., and D. A. Phillips. 2001. Notes from the underground. Communication and control in the rhizosphere. Plant Physiology 127:727-730.
38. Strong, D. R., A. V. Whipple, A. L. Child, and B. Dennis. 1999. Model selection for a subterranean trophic cascade: rootfeeding caterpillars and entomopathogenic nematodes. Ecology 80: 2750-2761.
39. Wäckers, F. L., and T. M. Bezemer. 2003. Root herbivory induces an above-ground indirect defence. Ecology Letters 6:9-12.
40. Warner, G. F. 1969. The occurrence and distribution of crabs in Jamaican mangrove swamp. Journal of Animal Ecology 38:379-389.
41. Warren, J. H. 1990. Role of burrows as refuges from subtidal predators of temperate mangrove crabs. Marine Ecology Progress Series 67:295-299.