Ray Brandon R, Johnson Matthew W, Cammarata Kirk, Smee Delbert L
Texas A&M - University Corpus Christi Department of Life Sciences, Corpus Christi, Texas, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2014 Sep 17;9(9):e107751. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107751. eCollection 2014.
The objective of this study was to measure the communities associated with different seagrass species to predict how shifts in seagrass species composition may affect associated fauna. In the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, coverage of the historically dominant shoal grass (Halodule wrightii) is decreasing, while coverage of manatee grass (Syringodium filiforme) and turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum) is increasing. We conducted a survey of fishes, crabs, and shrimp in monospecific beds of shoal, manatee, and turtle grass habitats of South Texas, USA to assess how changes in sea grass species composition would affect associated fauna. We measured seagrass parameters including shoot density, above ground biomass, epiphyte type, and epiphyte abundance to investigate relationships between faunal abundance and these seagrass parameters. We observed significant differences in communities among three seagrass species, even though these organisms are highly motile and could easily travel among the different seagrasses. Results showed species specific relationships among several different characteristics of the seagrass community and individual species abundance. More work is needed to discern the drivers of the complex relationships between individual seagrass species and their associated fauna.
本研究的目的是测量与不同海草物种相关的群落，以预测海草物种组成的变化可能如何影响相关动物群。在墨西哥湾西北部，历史上占主导地位的浅滩草（Halodule wrightii）的覆盖面积正在减少，而海牛草（Syringodium filiforme）和龟草（Thalassia testudinum）的覆盖面积正在增加。我们对美国得克萨斯州南部浅滩草、海牛草和龟草栖息地的单种海草床中的鱼类、螃蟹和虾进行了调查，以评估海草物种组成的变化将如何影响相关动物群。我们测量了海草参数，包括茎密度、地上生物量、附生植物类型和附生植物丰度，以研究动物丰度与这些海草参数之间的关系。我们观察到三种海草物种的群落之间存在显著差异，尽管这些生物具有很强的移动性，并且可以很容易地在不同的海草之间移动。结果表明，海草群落的几个不同特征与单个物种丰度之间存在物种特异性关系。需要更多的工作来识别单个海草物种与其相关动物群之间复杂关系的驱动因素。
