Complementary influences of co-occurring physical ecosystem engineers on species richness: insights from a Patagonian rocky shore

BAGUR, M.; JORGE LUIS CEFERINO GUTIERREZ; ARRIBAS, L. P.; PALOMO, M.G.

BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2016

0960-3115

Structural modification of the environment by physical ecosystemengineers often allow for the occurrence of species that are not able toestablish in unengineered habitats, thus leading to increased species richnessat the landscape-level (i.e., areas encompassing engineered and unengineeredhabitats). Unlike previous studies that focused on the contribution of a singleengineering species to landscape-level species richness, this study evaluateswhether co-occurring engineers  ? i.e.intertidal mussels (primarily Perumytiluspurpuratus) and rock boring bivalves (Lithophagapatagonica) ? contribute tolandscape-level species richness in a similar or complementary way. Our resultsshow that both mussel- and Lithophaga-engineeredpatches harbor a substantial number of invertebrate species in addition tothose occurring in the unenegineered rock substrate. However, the distinctivehabitat patches created by each engineer add exclusive subsets of species tothe study area, which implies that mussel- and Lithophaga-engineered patches complementarily contribute to overallspecies richness in our intertidal landscape. Here we postulate thatcomplementary engineering effects on landscape-level species richness willoccur when the engineered patches structurally differ from each other and,thus, vary in their relative ability to modulate two or more abiotic conditionsand/or resources that prevent species establishment in the unengineered state.In spite of the inherently small spatial scale of our study, it highlights thepotential for complementary engineering impacts at the larger scales that areusually implied in biodiversity management and conservation and outlines asimple conceptual basis and approach to address them.