Departament de Biologia Marina, Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain.
Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBIO), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Ecol Lett. 2021 May;24(5):1038-1051. doi: 10.1111/ele.13718. Epub 2021 Mar 16.
Quantifying changes in functional community structure driven by disturbance is critical to anticipate potential shifts in ecosystem functioning. However, how marine heatwaves (MHWs) affect the functional structure of temperate coral-dominated communities is poorly understood. Here, we used five long-term (> 10 years) records of Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages in a multi-taxa, trait-based analysis to investigate MHW-driven changes in functional structure. We show that, despite stability in functional richness (i.e. the range of species functional traits), MHW-impacted assemblages experienced long-term directional changes in functional identity (i.e. their dominant trait values). Declining traits included large sizes, long lifespans, arborescent morphologies, filter-feeding strategies or calcified skeletons. These traits, which were mostly supported by few sensitive and irreplaceable species from a single functional group (habitat-forming octocorals), disproportionally influence certain ecosystem functions (e.g. 3D-habitat provision). Hence, MHWs are leading to assemblages that are deficient in key functional traits, with likely consequences for the ecosystem functioning.
量化由干扰驱动的功能群落结构变化对于预测生态系统功能的潜在转变至关重要。然而，海洋热浪（MHWs）如何影响温带珊瑚主导群落的功能结构还知之甚少。在这里，我们使用了五年以上的地中海珊瑚礁生物群系的长期（> 10 年）记录，进行了基于多分类群和特征的分析，以调查 MHW 驱动的功能结构变化。我们表明，尽管功能丰富度（即物种功能特征的范围）保持稳定，但受 MHW 影响的生物群系在功能身份（即其主要特征值）方面经历了长期的定向变化。减少的特征包括大尺寸、长寿命、树状形态、滤食策略或钙化骨骼。这些特征主要由来自单个功能组（造礁八放珊瑚）的少数敏感和不可替代的物种支持，不成比例地影响某些生态系统功能（例如 3D 生境提供）。因此，MHWs 导致生物群系缺乏关键功能特征，这可能对生态系统功能产生影响。
