Understanding how intra-specific differences in plant traits mediate vulnerability to herbivores of relevant habitat-forming plants is vital to attain a better knowledge on the drivers of the structure and functioning of ecosystems. Such studies, however, are rare in seagrass-mesograzer systems despite the increasingly recognized relevance of mesograzers as seagrass consumers....
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Vulnerability to Mesograzers
Begoña Martínez-Crego1*, Pedro Arteaga1, Fiona Tomas2,3, Rui Santos1
1 Centre of
Understanding how intra-specific differences in plant traits mediate vulnerability to herbivores of relevant habitat-forming plants is vital to attain a better knowledge on the drivers of the structure and functioning of ecosystems. Such studies, however, are rare in seagrass-mesograzer systems despite the increasingly recognized relevance of mesograzers as seagrass consumers....
Climate-driven changes in biotic interactions can profoundly alter ecological
communities, particularly when they impact foundation species. In marine systems,
changes in herbivory and the consequent loss of dominant habitat forming species can
result in dramatic community phase shifts, such as from coral to macroalgal
dominance when tropical fish herbivory decreases,...
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Nakamura14,
Moninya Roughan2,15, Erik van Sebille16, Alex Sen Gupta16, Dan A. Smale11,17, Fiona
Climate-driven changes in biotic interactions can profoundly alter ecological
communities, particularly when they impact foundation species. In marine systems,
changes in herbivory and the consequent loss of dominant habitat forming species can
result in dramatic community phase shifts, such as from coral to macroalgal
dominance when tropical fish herbivory decreases,...
Full Text:
),
e17356. (doi:e17356
10.1371/journal.pone.0017356).
20. Vergés A., Tomas F., Cebrian E., Ballesteros E