Drought alters the spatial distribution, grazing patterns, and radula morphology of a fungal-farming salt marsh snail

Marine ecology progress series

C. Angelini^9¹  M. Derksen-Hooijberg^3²  T. van der Heide^3,7,8³  J. R. H. Hoogveld^3⁴  J. M. Urueña^4⁵  K. L. Harris^4⁶  B. Chalifour^1,2⁷  W. G. Sawyer^4,5,6⁹ 

[1] Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, 9700 CC University of Groningen, the Netherlands^8;Department of Aquatic Ecology and Environmental Biology, Radboud University, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands^3;Department of Coastal Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research and Utrecht University, 1790 AB Den Burg, the Netherlands^7;Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, 34 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, USA^2;Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida, 231 MAE-A, PO Box 116250, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA^5;Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida, 231 MAE-A, PO Box 116250, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA^4;Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Florida, PO Box 116455, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA^1;Environmental Engineering Sciences, Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment, University of Florida, PO Box 116580, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA^9;J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, 231 MAE-A, PO Box 116250, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA^6

关键词: Climate change;    Coastal wetland;    Herbivory;    Littoraria irrorata;    Spartina alterniflora;   

DOI  :  10.3354/meps12976

学科分类：海洋学与技术

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

Climate change is altering consumer-plant interactions in ecosystems worldwide. How consumers alter their spatial distribution, grazing activities, and functional morphology in response to climate stress can determine whether their effects on plants intensify or relax. Few studies have considered multiple consumer response metrics to elucidate the mechanisms underpinning the resulting changes in consumer-plant interactions. Here, we tested how drought stress influences the interaction between the dominant consumer, the fungal-farming periwinkle snail Littoraria irrorata, and a foundational plant, cordgrass Spartina alterniflora, in a southeastern US salt marsh. In a 4 mo field experiment, we maintained moderate snail densities in mesh control chambers and clear plastic climate chambers that simulated drought by elevating temperatures and drying soils. Monitoring revealed that snails more often congregated on cordgrass stems than leaves in climate chambers than in controls. Image analyses indicated that this behavioral shift corresponded to snails inflicting shorter, but more numerous, fungal-infested scars on cordgrass leaves, and causing less plant damage in climate chambers than controls. Coincident with their net reduction in grazing, snails maintained longer radulae, whose central teeth were blunter and lateral teeth were sharper, in climate chambers compared to controls. These results suggest that under drought, snail radulae may experience less frictional wear and that, at intermediate densities, snail-cordgrass interactions relax. Together with prior research showing that at high densities, snails can denude cordgrass during drought, we conclude that consumer density, behavior, and morphological responses must be integrated in predictions of how climate change will affect the direction, strength, and stability of consumer-plant interactions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown