Limited impact of an invasive oyster on intertidal assemblage structure and biodiversity: the importance of environmental context and functional equivalency with native species.

Impacts of invasive species are context dependent and linked to the ecosystem they occur within. To broaden the understanding of the impact of a globally widespread invasive oyster, () intertidal surveys were carried out at 15 different sites in Europe. The impact of on macro- (taxa surrounding oyster > 1 cm) and epifaunal (taxa on oyster < 1 cm) benthic communities and α and β-diversity was assessed and compared to those associated with native ecosystem engineers, including the flat oyster . Whilst the effect of on benthic community structures was dependent on habitat type, epifaunal communities associated with low densities of and did not differ and changes in benthic assemblage structure owing to the abundance of were therefore attributed to the presence of oyster shells. Macrofaunal α-diversity increased with cover in muddy habitats, while epifaunal α-diversity decreased at greater oyster densities. Macrofaunal β-diversity was greatest at low densities of ; however, it did not differ between samples without and increased densities of oysters. In contrast, epifaunal β-diversity decreased with increasing oyster cover. Different environmental contexts enabled more independent predictions of the effect of on native communities. These were found to be low and more importantly not differing from . This indicates that, at low densities, may be functionally equivalent to the declining native oyster in terms of biodiversity facilitation and aid in re-establishing benthic communities on shores where has become extinct.