Cronau Rens J T, Lamers Leon P M, de Fouw Jimmy, van Katwijk Marieke M, Bouma Tjeerd J, Heusinkveld Jannes H T, Poortvliet Thijs, van der Heide Tjisse
Department of Aquatic Ecology and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Coastal systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, The Netherlands.
Ecol Appl. 2025 Jun;35(4):e70055. doi: 10.1002/eap.70055.
Coastal ecosystem engineers, such as mussels, oysters, salt marsh grasses, and seagrasses, typically shape their environment by ameliorating stressors when they grow beyond a critical population size. In doing so, they not only facilitate themselves but also provide habitat for diverse communities, which in turn, can engage in reciprocal interspecific facilitation. Over the last decades, anthropogenic disturbances have caused rapid degradation of coastal ecosystems, emphasizing the need for their restoration. Although the importance of both inter- and intraspecific positive interactions has been confirmed in small-scale experiments, their combined potential remains to be tested in restoration-scale experiments. Here, we examine whether restoration aimed at simultaneous recovery of both facilitation types can increase restoration yields of the seagrass Zostera marina. We conducted a full factorial experiment by manipulating patch size to test for intraspecific facilitation effects and co-introduced the epiphyte-grazing snails Littorina littorea to investigate interspecific facilitation. We found that the effect of including intraspecific facilitation on restoration yields was highly dependent on the hydrodynamic exposure conditions at the restoration site. Large patches in the most exposed sites showed a 40% increase in seagrass restoration yield compared to small patches, while at sheltered sites, large patches counted up to 60% less surviving plants compared to small ones. Interspecific facilitation, on the other hand, increased success yields by 73% on average. Moreover, in some plots where L. littorea survived through the winter, we counted 20 times more shoots than plots without co-introduction. Our study is the first to demonstrate that co-introduction can serve as a successful large-scale restoration strategy. Additionally, we highlight that integration of both inter- and intraspecific facilitation into restoration designs can be a powerful approach to increase coastal restoration success. However, we emphasize that these strategies should be applied specifically to counter environmental stressors as they may have adverse effects themselves in environments without such stressors.
沿海生态系统工程师，如贻贝、牡蛎、盐沼草和海草，通常在其种群规模超过临界值时，通过缓解压力源来塑造它们的环境。这样做时，它们不仅有利于自身，还为多样的群落提供栖息地，而这些群落反过来又能进行相互的种间促进作用。在过去几十年里，人为干扰已导致沿海生态系统迅速退化，凸显了对其进行恢复的必要性。尽管种间和种内正向相互作用的重要性已在小规模实验中得到证实，但其综合潜力仍有待在恢复规模的实验中进行检验。在这里，我们研究旨在同时恢复这两种促进作用类型的恢复措施是否能提高海草大叶藻的恢复产量。我们通过操纵斑块大小进行了一项全因子实验，以测试种内促进作用的影响，并共同引入了以附生植物为食的蜗牛滨螺来研究种间促进作用。我们发现，纳入种内促进作用对恢复产量的影响高度依赖于恢复地点的水动力暴露条件。在最暴露的地点，大斑块的海草恢复产量比小斑块增加了40%，而在隐蔽地点，大斑块存活植物数量比小斑块少多达60%。另一方面，种间促进作用平均使成功产量提高了73%。此外，在一些滨螺越冬存活的地块中，我们统计的新枝数量是未共同引入滨螺的地块的20倍。我们的研究首次证明共同引入可作为一种成功的大规模恢复策略。此外，我们强调将种间和种内促进作用都纳入恢复设计中可能是提高沿海恢复成功率的有力方法。然而，我们强调这些策略应专门用于应对环境压力源，因为它们在没有此类压力源的环境中本身可能会产生不利影响。
