INVESTIGADORES
IRIBARNE Oscar Osvaldo
artículos
Título:
Mollusks as ecosystem engineers: The role of shell production in aquatic habitats
Autor/es:
GUTIERREZ, J.; O. IRIBARNE,
Revista:
EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS
Editorial:
JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD
Referencias:
Lugar: LOndres; Año: 2003 vol. 101 p. 79 - 99
ISSN:
0197-9337
Resumen:
Mollusk shells are abundant, persistent, ubiquitous physical structures in aquatic
habitats. Using an ecosystem engineering perspective, we identify general roles of
mollusk shell production in aquatic ecosystems. Shells are substrata for attachment of
epibionts, provide refuges from predation, physical or physiological stress, and
control transport of solutes and particles in the benthic environment. Changes in
availability of these resources caused by shell production have important consequences
for other organisms. Colonization of shelled habitat depends on individual
shell traits and spatial arrangement of shells, which determine access of organisms to
resources and the degree to which biotic or abiotic forces are modulated. Shell
production will increase species richness at the landscape level if shells create
resources that are not otherwise available and species are present that use these
resources. Changes in the availability of resources caused by shells and the resulting
effects on other organisms have both positive and negative feedbacks to these
engineers. Positive feedbacks appear to be most frequently mediated by changes in
resource availability, whereas negative feedbacks appear to be most frequently
mediated by organisms. Given the diversity of species that depend upon resources
controlled by shells and rapid changes in global shell production that are occurring
due to human activities, we suggest that shell producers should not be neglected as
a targets of conservation, restoration and habitat management