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- Title
Functional biodiversity loss along natural CO<sub>2</sub> gradients.
- Authors
Teixidó, Nuria; Gambi, Maria Cristina; Parravacini, Valeriano; Kroeker, Kristy; Micheli, Fiorenza; Villéger, Sebastien; Ballesteros, Enric
- Abstract
The effects of environmental change on biodiversity are still poorly understood. In particular, the consequences of shifts in species composition for marine ecosystem function are largely unknown. Here we assess the loss of functional diversity, i.e. the range of species biological traits, in benthic marine communities exposed to ocean acidification (OA) by using natural CO2 vent systems. We found that functional richness is greatly reduced with acidification, and that functional loss is more pronounced than the corresponding decrease in taxonomic diversity. In acidified conditions, most organisms accounted for a few functional entities (i.e. unique combination of functional traits), resulting in low functional redundancy. These results suggest that functional richness is not buffered by functional redundancy under OA, even in highly diverse assemblages, such as rocky benthic communities. Locations in the ocean where CO2 naturally seeps from the seafloor can be used to infer potential responses to ocean acidification. Here the authors explore the functional composition of benthic communities along a natural CO2 gradient, showing a loss of functional diversity at high-CO2 sites.
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2018, Vol 9, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-018-07592-1