Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality

Autores
Alberti, J.; Cebrian, J.; Álvarez, Federico; Escapa, M.; Esquius, K. S.; Fanjul, E.; Sparks, E. L.; Mortazavi, M.; Iribarne, O.
Año de publicación
2017
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
Altered nutrient cycles and consumer populations are among the top anthropogenic influences on ecosystems. However, studies on the simultaneous impacts of human-driven environmental alterations on ecosystem functions, and the overall change in system multifunctionality are scarce. We used estuarine tidal flats to study the effects of changes in herbivore density and nutrient availability on benthic microalgae (diversity, abundance and biomass) and ecosystem functions (N2-fixation, denitrification, extracellular polymeric substances -EPS- as a proxy for sediment cohesiveness, sediment water content as a proxy of water retention capacity and sediment organic matter). We found consistent strong impacts of modified herbivory and weak effects of increased nutrient availability on the abundance, biomass and diversity of benthic microalgae. However, the effects on specific ecosystem functions were disparate. Some functions were independently affected by nutrient addition (N2-fixation), modified herbivory (sediment organic matter and water content), or their interaction (denitrification), while others were not affected (EPS). Overall system multifunction remained invariant despite changes in specific functions. This study reveals that anthropogenic pressures can induce decoupled effects between community structure and specific ecosystem functions. Our results highlight the need to address several ecosystem functions simultaneously for better ecosystem characterization and management.
Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raul A. Ringuelet"
Materia
Ciencias Naturales
Sediment
Nutrient
Anthropogenic pressures
Ecosystem
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/87224
Acceder
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network_name_str SEDICI (UNLP)
spelling Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionalityAlberti, J.Cebrian, J.Álvarez, FedericoEscapa, M.Esquius, K. S.Fanjul, E.Sparks, E. L.Mortazavi, M.Iribarne, O.Ciencias NaturalesSedimentNutrientAnthropogenic pressuresEcosystemAltered nutrient cycles and consumer populations are among the top anthropogenic influences on ecosystems. However, studies on the simultaneous impacts of human-driven environmental alterations on ecosystem functions, and the overall change in system multifunctionality are scarce. We used estuarine tidal flats to study the effects of changes in herbivore density and nutrient availability on benthic microalgae (diversity, abundance and biomass) and ecosystem functions (N2-fixation, denitrification, extracellular polymeric substances -EPS- as a proxy for sediment cohesiveness, sediment water content as a proxy of water retention capacity and sediment organic matter). We found consistent strong impacts of modified herbivory and weak effects of increased nutrient availability on the abundance, biomass and diversity of benthic microalgae. However, the effects on specific ecosystem functions were disparate. Some functions were independently affected by nutrient addition (N2-fixation), modified herbivory (sediment organic matter and water content), or their interaction (denitrification), while others were not affected (EPS). Overall system multifunction remained invariant despite changes in specific functions. This study reveals that anthropogenic pressures can induce decoupled effects between community structure and specific ecosystem functions. Our results highlight the need to address several ecosystem functions simultaneously for better ecosystem characterization and management.Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raul A. Ringuelet"2017info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionArticulohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/87224enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2045-2322info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/s41598-017-02764-3info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-10-15T11:09:02Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/87224Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-10-15 11:09:03.095SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality
title Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality
spellingShingle Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality
Alberti, J.
Ciencias Naturales
Sediment
Nutrient
Anthropogenic pressures
Ecosystem
title_short Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality
title_full Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality
title_fullStr Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality
title_full_unstemmed Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality
title_sort Nutrient and herbivore alterations cause uncoupled changes in producer diversity, biomass and ecosystem function, but not in overall multifunctionality
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Alberti, J.
Cebrian, J.
Álvarez, Federico
Escapa, M.
Esquius, K. S.
Fanjul, E.
Sparks, E. L.
Mortazavi, M.
Iribarne, O.
author Alberti, J.
author_facet Alberti, J.
Cebrian, J.
Álvarez, Federico
Escapa, M.
Esquius, K. S.
Fanjul, E.
Sparks, E. L.
Mortazavi, M.
Iribarne, O.
author_role author
author2 Cebrian, J.
Álvarez, Federico
Escapa, M.
Esquius, K. S.
Fanjul, E.
Sparks, E. L.
Mortazavi, M.
Iribarne, O.
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Naturales
Sediment
Nutrient
Anthropogenic pressures
Ecosystem
topic Ciencias Naturales
Sediment
Nutrient
Anthropogenic pressures
Ecosystem
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Altered nutrient cycles and consumer populations are among the top anthropogenic influences on ecosystems. However, studies on the simultaneous impacts of human-driven environmental alterations on ecosystem functions, and the overall change in system multifunctionality are scarce. We used estuarine tidal flats to study the effects of changes in herbivore density and nutrient availability on benthic microalgae (diversity, abundance and biomass) and ecosystem functions (N2-fixation, denitrification, extracellular polymeric substances -EPS- as a proxy for sediment cohesiveness, sediment water content as a proxy of water retention capacity and sediment organic matter). We found consistent strong impacts of modified herbivory and weak effects of increased nutrient availability on the abundance, biomass and diversity of benthic microalgae. However, the effects on specific ecosystem functions were disparate. Some functions were independently affected by nutrient addition (N2-fixation), modified herbivory (sediment organic matter and water content), or their interaction (denitrification), while others were not affected (EPS). Overall system multifunction remained invariant despite changes in specific functions. This study reveals that anthropogenic pressures can induce decoupled effects between community structure and specific ecosystem functions. Our results highlight the need to address several ecosystem functions simultaneously for better ecosystem characterization and management.
Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raul A. Ringuelet"
description Altered nutrient cycles and consumer populations are among the top anthropogenic influences on ecosystems. However, studies on the simultaneous impacts of human-driven environmental alterations on ecosystem functions, and the overall change in system multifunctionality are scarce. We used estuarine tidal flats to study the effects of changes in herbivore density and nutrient availability on benthic microalgae (diversity, abundance and biomass) and ecosystem functions (N2-fixation, denitrification, extracellular polymeric substances -EPS- as a proxy for sediment cohesiveness, sediment water content as a proxy of water retention capacity and sediment organic matter). We found consistent strong impacts of modified herbivory and weak effects of increased nutrient availability on the abundance, biomass and diversity of benthic microalgae. However, the effects on specific ecosystem functions were disparate. Some functions were independently affected by nutrient addition (N2-fixation), modified herbivory (sediment organic matter and water content), or their interaction (denitrification), while others were not affected (EPS). Overall system multifunction remained invariant despite changes in specific functions. This study reveals that anthropogenic pressures can induce decoupled effects between community structure and specific ecosystem functions. Our results highlight the need to address several ecosystem functions simultaneously for better ecosystem characterization and management.
publishDate 2017
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2017
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Articulo
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info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/87224
url http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/87224
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2045-2322
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/s41598-017-02764-3
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)
instname:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
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reponame_str SEDICI (UNLP)
collection SEDICI (UNLP)
instname_str Universidad Nacional de La Plata
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institution UNLP
repository.name.fl_str_mv SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata
repository.mail.fl_str_mv alira@sedici.unlp.edu.ar
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