Category Ranking
98%
Total Visits
921
Avg Visit Duration
2 minutes
Citations
20
Article Abstract
We explored whether parasites are important in kelp forests by examining their effects on a high-quality, high-resolution kelp-forest food web. After controlling for generic effects of network size, parasites affected kelp-forest food web structure in some ways consistent with other systems. Parasites increased the trophic span of the web, increasing top predator vulnerability and the longest chain length. Unique links associated with parasites, such as concomitant predation (consumption of parasites along with their hosts by predators) increased the frequency of network motifs involving mutual consumption and decreased niche contiguity of free-living species. However, parasites also affected kelp-forest food web structure in ways not seen in other systems. Kelp-forest parasites are richer and more specialized than other systems. As a result, parasites reduced diet generality and decreased connectance in the kelp forest. Although mutual consumption motifs increased in frequency, this motif type was still a small fraction of all possible motifs, so their increase in frequency was not enough to compensate for the decrease in connectance caused by adding many specialist parasite species.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9286845 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1506 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Sunflower sea star chemical cues locally reduce kelp consumption by eliciting a flee response in red sea urchins.
Proc Biol Sci
July 2025
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
Predator loss can cause shifts in ecosystem state, especially when accompanied by changes in the behaviour of its prey. The recent decline of predatory sunflower sea stars and a coincident a decline of kelp forests across the northeastern Pacific raises questions about their role in kelp forest ecosystem maintenance and recovery. While may support kelp forests by consuming herbivorous sea urchins, less is known about their non-consumptive effects, especially in degraded habitats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKelp forest loss and emergence of turf algae reshapes energy flow to predators in a rapidly warming ecosystem.
Sci Adv
June 2025
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME 04544, USA.
Climate change is decimating habitat-forming species in ecosystems around the world. Yet, the impacts of habitat loss on the energetics of the wider food web remain uncertain for many iconic ecosystems, including cold-water kelp forests. Here, we assessed how the loss of kelp forests and the subsequent proliferation of low-lying turf algae in the Gulf of Maine have altered the trophic niches of, and energy acquired by, predatory reef fishes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFKeystone interdependence: Sea otter responses to a prey surplus following the collapse of a rocky intertidal predator.
Sci Adv
May 2025
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
The sea star and sea otters () are two predators capable of shaping rocky intertidal and kelp forest community structure and functioning. In 2013, a sea star wasting event decimated populations of along the west coast of North America. The collapse of this species in the rocky intertidal revealed an unexpected relationship between two keystone predators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfluence of anthropogenic nutrient sources on kelp canopies during a marine heat wave.
Mar Pollut Bull
July 2025
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, 520 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles 90095, CA, United States; Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 3535 Harbor Blvd STE 110, Costa Mesa, 92626, CA, United States.
Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), a keystone species in many temperate coastal oceans, is increasingly threatened by global change and local stressors including increased temperature, reduced nutrients, and decreased water clarity. In the Southern California Bight (SCB), a coastal region with enriched nitrogen input from of 23 million, understanding the factors that contribute to the stability of kelp habitat demands comprehensive research to protect this species and its critical ecosystem roles. During the 2014-2016 marine heat wave (MHW), giant kelp exhibited variability in its response across the SCB despite region-wide temperature increases, leading to questions about what might be conferring resilience to thermal stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrequent disturbance to a foundation species disrupts consumer-mediated nutrient cycling in giant kelp forests.
Ecology
March 2025
Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
Article Synopsis
- Structure-forming foundation species like giant kelp create habitats and refuges for consumers while benefiting from them through nutrient dynamics.
- Their interactions can be disrupted by disturbances, leading to questions about the long-term effects on these dynamics, which are rarely studied.
- In a 10-year experiment, researchers found that removing giant kelp greatly reduced ammonium excretion and nitrogen demand from the kelp, while increasing the nitrogen demand of understory algae, highlighting the complex feedbacks in kelp forest ecosystems.