Journal article
Storm effects on intertidal invertebrates: increased beta diversity of few individuals and species
PeerJ, Vol.5, e3360
2017
Abstract
Climate change is predicted to lead to more extreme weather events, including changes to storm frequency, intensity and location. Yet the ecological responses to storms are incompletely understood for sandy shorelines, the globe's longest landocean interface. Here we document how storms of different magnitude impacted the invertebrate assemblages on a tidal flat in Brazil. We specifically tested the relationships between wave energy and spatial heterogeneity, both for habitat properties (habitat heterogeneity) and fauna (β-diversity), predicting that larger storms redistribute sediments and hence lead to spatially less variable faunal assemblages. The sediment matrix tended to become less heterogeneous across the flat after high-energy wave events, whereas β-diversity increased after storms. This higher β-diversity was primarily driven by species losses. Significantly fewer species at a significantly lower density occurred within days to weeks after storms. Negative density and biomass responses to storm events were most prominent in crustaceans. Invertebrate assemblages appeared to recover within a short time (weeks to months) after storms, highlighting that most species typical of sedimentary shorelines are, to some degree, resilient to shortterm changes in wave energy. Given that storm frequency and intensity are predicted to change in the coming decades, identifying properties that determine resilience and recovery of ecosystems constitute a research priority for sedimentary shorelines and beyond.
Details
- Title
- Storm effects on intertidal invertebrates: increased beta diversity of few individuals and species
- Authors
- Guilherme N Corte (Author) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, BrazilThomas Schlacher (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringHelio J Checon (Author) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, BrazilCarlos A M Barnoza (Author) - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, BrazilEduardo Siegle (Author) - Universidade de São Paulo, BrazilRoss A Coleman (Author) - University of SydneyAntonia Cecilia Z Amaral (Author) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil
- Publication details
- PeerJ, Vol.5, e3360; 18
- Publisher
- PeerJ, Ltd.
- Date published
- 2017
- DOI
- 10.7717/peerj.3360
- ISSN
- 2167-8359
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2017 Corte et al. Licence. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451281502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
21 File views/ downloads
687 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Multidisciplinary Sciences
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites