Journal article
Environmental control of community organisation on ocean-exposed sandy beaches
Marine and Freshwater Research, Vol.64(2), pp.119-129
2013
Abstract
Models of faunal communities on open-coast beaches emphasise the primacy of environmental conditions in determining species richness and abundance. What remains unresolved under this 'physical-control paradigm' includes the following two aspects: (1) how habitat properties relate to structural traits of communities; and (2) how environmental conditions shape communities when habitat properties change over time. Here, we test these by modelling the relationship between a broad range of environmental drivers and assemblage structure. Our models draw on a sizeable dataset (15600 cores collected over 4 years) of benthic invertebrates from beaches in eastern Australia; we also include a test of whether human disturbance (vehicles) alters the relationships between environmental predictors and faunal communities. A suite of physical factors, comprising habitat features (i.e. moisture level, grain size, beach slope) and wave parameters, explained variation in community structure. Novel aspects are the role of sea-surface temperature (SST) as a driver of biological structure on beaches, and that human impacts can override the sediment-animal relationships that are normally important. More generally, theoretical and empirical models of beach-community organisation should incorporate multiple environmental drivers, include broader structural aspect of assemblages, and recognise the role of human habitat alterations in shaping these fauna-environment links.
Details
- Title
- Environmental control of community organisation on ocean-exposed sandy beaches
- Authors
- Thomas Schlacher (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringLuke Thompson (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
- Publication details
- Marine and Freshwater Research, Vol.64(2), pp.119-129
- Publisher
- C S I R O Publishing
- Date published
- 2013
- DOI
- 10.1071/MF12172
- ISSN
- 1323-1650
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450272902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
1 File views/ downloads
634 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Web Of Science research areas
- Fisheries
- Limnology
- Marine & Freshwater Biology
- Oceanography
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites