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Changes in habitat complexity negatively affect diverse gastropod assemblages in coralline algal turf

  • Community Ecology
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Abstract

The physical structure of a habitat generally has a strong influence on the diversity and abundance of associated organisms. I investigated the role of coralline algal turf structure in determining spatial variation of gastropod assemblages at different tidal heights of a rocky shore near Sydney, Australia. The structural characteristics of algal turf tested were frond density (or structural complexity) and frond length (the vertical scale over which structural complexity was measured). This definition of structural complexity assumes that complexity of the habitat increases with increasing frond density. While frond length was unrelated to gastropod community structure, I found significant correlations between density of fronds and multivariate and univariate measures of gastropod assemblages, indicating the importance of structural complexity. In contrast to previous studies, here there were negative relationships between the density of fronds and the richness and abundance of gastropods. Artificial habitat mimics were used to manipulate the density of fronds to test the hypothesis that increasing algal structural complexity decreases the richness and abundance of gastropods. As predicted, there were significantly more species of gastropods in loosely packed than in tightly packed turf at both low- and mid-shore levels. Despite large differences between gastropod assemblages at different tidal heights, the direction and magnitude of these negative effects were similar at low- and mid-shore levels and, therefore, relatively independent of local environmental conditions. These novel results extend our previous understanding of the ecological effects of habitat structure because they demonstrate possible limitations of commonly used definitions of structural complexity, as well as distinct upper thresholds in the relationship between structural complexity and faunal species richness.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by an Australian Post-Graduate Award and by funds from the Australian Research Council through the Centre for Research on Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities. I would like to thank A.J. Underwood, M.G. Chapman, and M.J. Anderson for their help at various parts of this study. I am grateful to J.S. Levinton and D. K. Padilla for comments on drafts of this manuscript. I would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers whose comments improved the manuscript.

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  1. B. P. Kelaher

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York, Life Sciences Building, Stony Brook, NY 11974-5245, USA

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  1. Centre for Research on Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities, Marine Ecology Laboratories A11, University of Sydney, 2006, Sydney, New South Wales , Australia

    B. P. Kelaher

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Kelaher, B.P. Changes in habitat complexity negatively affect diverse gastropod assemblages in coralline algal turf. Oecologia 135, 431–441 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-003-1196-5

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