Succession of marine fouling community influences the associated mobile fauna via physical complexity increment

Autor(es)

Vicente, Vanessa S. ^[1] ; Ferreira, Ana P. ^[1] ; Peres, Pedro A. ^[2] ; Siqueira, Silvana G. L. ^[1] ; Leite, Fosca P. P. ^[1] ; Vieira, Edson A. ^{[1, 3]}

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas UNICAMP, Inst Biol, Dept Biol Anim, 255 Monteiro Lobato, BR-13083862 Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Fac Filosofia Ciencias & Letras Ribeirao Preto, Dept Biol, Lab Bioecol & Sistemat Crustaceos LBSC, Programa P, BR-14040901 Ribeirao Preto, SP - Brazil

^[3] Univ Fed Rio Grande do Norte UFRN, Dept Oceanog & Limnol, Lab Ecol Marinha, Av Via Costeira Senador Dinarte Medeiros Mariz, BR-59014002 Natal, RN - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: MARINE AND FRESHWATER RESEARCH; v. 72, n. 10, p. 1506-1516, 2021.
• Citações Web of Science: 1

Resumo

Sessile communities provide habitat for feeding, reproduction and protection to a diverse mobile fauna. Along succession, the growth and overgrowth of three-dimensional sessile organisms generate structural complexity and microhabitats for mobile organisms. Most studies focus on one species or group of the sessile fauna as a habitat provider, but here we investigated the whole community, using fouling communities as a model. We tested the hypothesis that they would gain structural complexity along succession, resulting in an increase in abundance and biomass, and compositional changes of the associated mobile groups. The organisms were obtained from communities growing on PVC plates left in the water for 6, 9 and 12 months. Early succession fouling communities (6 months) were mostly flatter, dominated by encrusting bryozoans and more empty space and cover of delicate hydrozoans and filamentous algae. Advanced-succession fouling communities (9 and 12 months) showed a biomass increment and compositional changes by the increased cover of structurally complex sessile organisms, such as arborescent bryozoans and sponges. Mobile groups showed higher abundance and biomass, and a different composition at later stages. Thus, our results emphasise how the structural complexity provided by fouling organisms and the changes over succession may mediate the changes in the associated mobile fauna. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 17/09444-0 - Sucessão ecológica na comunidade incrustante de sublitoral: efeito da mudança do substrato biológico na fauna associada
• Beneficiário: Vanessa Silva Vicente
• Linha de fomento: Bolsas no Brasil - Iniciação Científica
• Processo FAPESP: 12/18432-1 - Efeito da colonização inicial no desenvolvimento e estruturação de comunidades marinhas incrustantes de sublitoral
• Beneficiário: Edson Aparecido Vieira Filho
• Linha de fomento: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado