Spatial synchrony cascades across ecosystem boundaries and up food webs via resource subsidies

Walter, JA, Emery, KA, Dugan, JE, Hubbard, DM, Bell, TW, Sheppard, LW, Karatayev, VA, Cavanaugh, KC, Reuman, DC and Castorani, MCN 2024 Spatial synchrony cascades across ecosystem boundaries and up food webs via resource subsidies. PNAS, 121 (2). 7, pp. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2310052120

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Abstract/Summary

Cross-ecosystem subsidies are critical to ecosystem structure and function, especially in recipient ecosystems where they are the primary source of organic matter to the food web. Subsidies are indicative of processes connecting ecosystems and can couple ecological dynamics across system boundaries. However, the degree to which such flows can induce cross-ecosystem cascades of spatial synchrony, the tendency for system fluctuations to be correlated across locations, is not well understood. Synchrony has destabilizing effects on ecosystems, adding to the importance of understanding spatiotemporal patterns of synchrony transmission. In order to understand whether and how spatial synchrony cascades across the marine-terrestrial boundary via resource subsidies, we studied the relationship between giant kelp forests on rocky nearshore reefs and sandy beach ecosystems that receive resource subsidies in the form of kelp wrack (detritus). We found that synchrony cascades from rocky reefs to sandy beaches, with spatiotemporal patterns mediated by fluctuations in live kelp biomass, wave action, and beach width. Moreover, wrack deposition synchronized local abundances of shorebirds that move among beaches seeking to forage on wrack-associated invertebrates, demonstrating that synchrony due to subsidies propagates across trophic levels in the recipient ecosystem. Synchronizing resource subsidies likely play an underappreciated role in the spatiotemporal structure, functioning, and stability of ecosystems

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Additional Keywords:	spatial synchrony, resource subsidies, giant kelp, wrack, shorebirds
Subjects:	Marine Sciences Oceanography
Divisions:	Marine Biological Association of the UK > Coastal Ecology Marine Biological Association of the UK > Ocean Biology
Depositing User:	Ms Kristina Hixon
Date made live:	22 Mar 2024 09:39
Last Modified:	22 Mar 2024 09:39
URI:	https://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/10154

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