School of Plant Biology & UWA Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, 39 Fairway, Crawley, 6009, WA, Australia.
Seaweed Research Unit, Department of Agriculture, forestry and Fisheries, Pvt Bag X2, Roggebaai, 8012, South Africa.
Ecol Lett. 2015 Jul;18(7):677-86. doi: 10.1111/ele.12446. Epub 2015 May 14.
Species interactions are integral drivers of community structure and can change from competitive to facilitative with increasing environmental stress. In subtidal marine ecosystems, however, interactions along physical stress gradients have seldom been tested. We observed seaweed canopy interactions across depth and latitudinal gradients to test whether light and temperature stress structured interaction patterns. We also quantified interspecific and intraspecific interactions among nine subtidal canopy seaweed species across three continents to examine the general nature of interactions in subtidal systems under low consumer pressure. We reveal that positive and neutral interactions are widespread throughout global seaweed communities and the nature of interactions can change from competitive to facilitative with increasing light stress in shallow marine systems. These findings provide support for the stress gradient hypothesis within subtidal seaweed communities and highlight the importance of canopy interactions for the maintenance of subtidal marine habitats experiencing environmental stress.
物种相互作用是群落结构的重要驱动因素，随着环境压力的增加，它们可以从竞争关系转变为互利共生关系。然而，在亚潮带海洋生态系统中，沿物理压力梯度的相互作用很少被测试过。我们观察了海藻冠层在深度和纬度梯度上的相互作用，以检验光照和温度压力是否构建了相互作用模式。我们还量化了来自三大洲的 9 种亚潮带海藻冠层物种之间的种间和种内相互作用，以研究在低消费者压力下亚潮带系统中相互作用的一般性质。我们揭示了积极和中性的相互作用在全球海藻群落中普遍存在，并且在浅海系统中，随着光照压力的增加，相互作用的性质可以从竞争关系转变为互利共生关系。这些发现为亚潮带海藻群落中的压力梯度假说提供了支持，并强调了冠层相互作用对于维持处于环境压力下的亚潮带海洋栖息地的重要性。
