Herbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.

Salt marsh die-off is a Western Atlantic conservation problem that has recently spread into Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA. It has been hypothesized to be driven by: 1) eutrophication decreasing plant investment into belowground biomass causing plant collapse, 2) boat wakes eroding creek banks,...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Mark D Bertness, Caitlin P Brisson, Matthew C Bevil, Sinead M Crotty
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/54121b4221b34bffb871e3a54ad0545d
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:54121b4221b34bffb871e3a54ad0545d
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:54121b4221b34bffb871e3a54ad0545d2021-11-18T08:26:55ZHerbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0092916https://doaj.org/article/54121b4221b34bffb871e3a54ad0545d2014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24651837/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Salt marsh die-off is a Western Atlantic conservation problem that has recently spread into Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA. It has been hypothesized to be driven by: 1) eutrophication decreasing plant investment into belowground biomass causing plant collapse, 2) boat wakes eroding creek banks, 3) pollution or disease affecting plant health, 4) substrate hardness controlling herbivorous crab distributions and 5) trophic dysfunction releasing herbivorous crabs from predator control. To distinguish between these hypotheses we quantified these variables at 14 Narragansett Bay salt marshes where die-off intensity ranged from <5% to nearly 98%. Nitrogen availability, wave intensity and plant growth did not explain any variation in die-off. Herbivory explained 73% of inter-site variation in die-off and predator control of herbivores and substrate hardness also varied significantly with die-off. This suggests that salt marsh die-off is being largely driven by intense herbivory via the release of herbivorous crabs from predator control. Our results and those from other marsh systems suggest that consumer control may not simply be a factor to consider in marsh conservation, but with widespread predator depletion impacting near shore habitats globally, trophic dysfunction and runaway consumption may be the largest and most urgent management challenge for salt marsh conservation.Mark D BertnessCaitlin P BrissonMatthew C BevilSinead M CrottyPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 3, p e92916 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Mark D Bertness Caitlin P Brisson Matthew C Bevil Sinead M Crotty Herbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.
description	Salt marsh die-off is a Western Atlantic conservation problem that has recently spread into Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA. It has been hypothesized to be driven by: 1) eutrophication decreasing plant investment into belowground biomass causing plant collapse, 2) boat wakes eroding creek banks, 3) pollution or disease affecting plant health, 4) substrate hardness controlling herbivorous crab distributions and 5) trophic dysfunction releasing herbivorous crabs from predator control. To distinguish between these hypotheses we quantified these variables at 14 Narragansett Bay salt marshes where die-off intensity ranged from <5% to nearly 98%. Nitrogen availability, wave intensity and plant growth did not explain any variation in die-off. Herbivory explained 73% of inter-site variation in die-off and predator control of herbivores and substrate hardness also varied significantly with die-off. This suggests that salt marsh die-off is being largely driven by intense herbivory via the release of herbivorous crabs from predator control. Our results and those from other marsh systems suggest that consumer control may not simply be a factor to consider in marsh conservation, but with widespread predator depletion impacting near shore habitats globally, trophic dysfunction and runaway consumption may be the largest and most urgent management challenge for salt marsh conservation.
format	article
author	Mark D Bertness Caitlin P Brisson Matthew C Bevil Sinead M Crotty
author_facet	Mark D Bertness Caitlin P Brisson Matthew C Bevil Sinead M Crotty
author_sort	Mark D Bertness
title	Herbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.
title_short	Herbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.
title_full	Herbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.
title_fullStr	Herbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.
title_full_unstemmed	Herbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.
title_sort	herbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/54121b4221b34bffb871e3a54ad0545d
work_keys_str_mv	AT markdbertness herbivorydrivesthespreadofsaltmarshdieoff AT caitlinpbrisson herbivorydrivesthespreadofsaltmarshdieoff AT matthewcbevil herbivorydrivesthespreadofsaltmarshdieoff AT sineadmcrotty herbivorydrivesthespreadofsaltmarshdieoff
_version_	1718421801571188736

Herbivory drives the spread of salt marsh die-off.

Ejemplares similares