{"title":"Razor clam (Pinna bicolor) structural mimics as drivers of epibenthic biodiversity; a manipulative experiment","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106658","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Shellfish ecosystems facilitate important ecological functions and communities, but overexploitation and mismanagement have contributed to their decline worldwide. Within recent decades, coastal management efforts have increasingly sought to understand and reinstate valuable ecological functions provided by habitat-forming bivalves including oysters, mussels and pinnids. However, many bivalve species are critically understudied, limiting restoration and ecological engineering opportunities. Pinnids, specifically, are an underappreciated bivalve group, with razor clams (<em>Pinna bicolor</em>) forming dense aggregations, and potentially supporting important ecological functions. This study, conducted in an urban Australian estuary, was a manipulative experiment that investigated whether artificial razor clam shells could facilitate beneficial ecological functions through the provision of structural habitat. Specifically, we investigated the influence of intertidal benthic structures, including the micro-habitat influences of surface structure associated with mortality status (open or closed shell), and the short-term response of the benthic and epifaunal communities. Within 12 weeks, the structural razor clam mimics rapidly changed the aboveground ecological community, relative to the bare habitat controls. Both open and closed artificial shells provided a settlement surface for epiphytic organisms and supported enhanced epifaunal biodiversity. Contrastingly, the artificial structures did not significantly alter sediment characteristics or infaunal macroinvertebrate composition in the surrounding benthos. These results provide important insights into the rapid ecological response to the installation of intertidal pinnid structures in dynamic estuarine ecosystems. Furthermore, we provide a case study for understanding the ecological functions of an understudied habitat-forming species, which could be used to inform future restoration and management efforts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":18204,"journal":{"name":"Marine environmental research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141113624003192/pdfft?md5=4a2614970c4bd5b70b641b2df6677e32&pid=1-s2.0-S0141113624003192-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Marine environmental research","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141113624003192","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Shellfish ecosystems facilitate important ecological functions and communities, but overexploitation and mismanagement have contributed to their decline worldwide. Within recent decades, coastal management efforts have increasingly sought to understand and reinstate valuable ecological functions provided by habitat-forming bivalves including oysters, mussels and pinnids. However, many bivalve species are critically understudied, limiting restoration and ecological engineering opportunities. Pinnids, specifically, are an underappreciated bivalve group, with razor clams (Pinna bicolor) forming dense aggregations, and potentially supporting important ecological functions. This study, conducted in an urban Australian estuary, was a manipulative experiment that investigated whether artificial razor clam shells could facilitate beneficial ecological functions through the provision of structural habitat. Specifically, we investigated the influence of intertidal benthic structures, including the micro-habitat influences of surface structure associated with mortality status (open or closed shell), and the short-term response of the benthic and epifaunal communities. Within 12 weeks, the structural razor clam mimics rapidly changed the aboveground ecological community, relative to the bare habitat controls. Both open and closed artificial shells provided a settlement surface for epiphytic organisms and supported enhanced epifaunal biodiversity. Contrastingly, the artificial structures did not significantly alter sediment characteristics or infaunal macroinvertebrate composition in the surrounding benthos. These results provide important insights into the rapid ecological response to the installation of intertidal pinnid structures in dynamic estuarine ecosystems. Furthermore, we provide a case study for understanding the ecological functions of an understudied habitat-forming species, which could be used to inform future restoration and management efforts.
期刊介绍:
Marine Environmental Research publishes original research papers on chemical, physical, and biological interactions in the oceans and coastal waters. The journal serves as a forum for new information on biology, chemistry, and toxicology and syntheses that advance understanding of marine environmental processes.
Submission of multidisciplinary studies is encouraged. Studies that utilize experimental approaches to clarify the roles of anthropogenic and natural causes of changes in marine ecosystems are especially welcome, as are those studies that represent new developments of a theoretical or conceptual aspect of marine science. All papers published in this journal are reviewed by qualified peers prior to acceptance and publication. Examples of topics considered to be appropriate for the journal include, but are not limited to, the following:
– The extent, persistence, and consequences of change and the recovery from such change in natural marine systems
– The biochemical, physiological, and ecological consequences of contaminants to marine organisms and ecosystems
– The biogeochemistry of naturally occurring and anthropogenic substances
– Models that describe and predict the above processes
– Monitoring studies, to the extent that their results provide new information on functional processes
– Methodological papers describing improved quantitative techniques for the marine sciences.