Functional biodiversity loss along natural CO2 gradients

Nuria Teixidó (), Maria Cristina Gambi, Valeriano Parravacini, Kristy Kroeker, Fiorenza Micheli, Sebastien Villéger and Enric Ballesteros
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Nuria Teixidó: Villa Dohrn-Benthic Ecology Center
Maria Cristina Gambi: Villa Dohrn-Benthic Ecology Center
Valeriano Parravacini: University of Perpignan
Kristy Kroeker: University of California, Santa Cruz
Fiorenza Micheli: Stanford University
Sebastien Villéger: University of Montpellier
Enric Ballesteros: Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes – CSIC

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07592-1

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