Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Marine Biogeochemistry, Biological Oceanography, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
J Anim Ecol. 2024 Sep;93(9):1380-1391. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.14163. Epub 2024 Aug 9.
Global change stressors can modify ecological niches of species, thereby altering ecological interactions within communities and food webs. Yet, some species might take advantage of a fast-changing environment, allowing species with high niche plasticity to thrive under climate change. We used natural CO vents to test the effects of ocean acidification on niche modifications of a temperate rocky reef fish assemblage. We quantified three ecological niche traits (overlap, shift and breadth) across three key niche dimensions (trophic, habitat and behavioural). Only one species increased its niche width along multiple niche dimensions (trophic and behavioural), shifted its niche in the remaining (habitat) was the only species to experience a highly increased density (i.e. doubling) at vents. The other three species that showed slightly increased or declining densities at vents only displayed a niche width increase in one (habitat niche) out of seven niche metrics considered. This niche modification was likely in response to habitat simplification (transition to a system dominated by turf algae) under ocean acidification. We further showed that, at the vents, the less abundant fishes had a negligible competitive impact on the most abundant and common species. This species appeared to expand its niche space, overlapping with other species, which likely led to lower abundances of the latter under elevated CO. We conclude that niche plasticity across multiple dimensions could be a potential adaptation in fishes to benefit from a changing environment in a high-CO world.
全球变化的压力因素会改变物种的生态位，从而改变群落和食物网内的生态相互作用。然而，有些物种可能会利用快速变化的环境，使具有高生态位可塑性的物种在气候变化下得以繁荣。我们利用天然 CO2 喷口来测试海洋酸化对温带多岩石珊瑚礁鱼类群落生态位变化的影响。我们在三个关键的生态位维度（营养、栖息地和行为）上量化了三个生态位特征（重叠、转移和广度）。只有一个物种在多个生态位维度（营养和行为）上增加了其生态位宽度，在其余维度（栖息地）上发生了生态位转移，只有一个物种在喷口处的密度（即翻倍）大幅增加。其他三种在喷口处表现出密度略有增加或下降的物种，仅在七个考虑的生态位指标中的一个（栖息地生态位）上表现出生态位宽度增加。这种生态位变化可能是对海洋酸化下栖息地简化（向以地衣为主的系统过渡）的反应。我们进一步表明，在喷口处，较少的鱼类对最丰富和最常见的物种几乎没有竞争影响。这种物种似乎扩大了其生态位空间，与其他物种重叠，这可能导致后者在高 CO2 下的丰度降低。我们得出结论，跨多个维度的生态位可塑性可能是鱼类适应高 CO2 世界变化环境的一种潜在适应。
