Scholarly Work - Ecology

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    The ghosts of ecosystem engineers: Legacy effects of biogenic modifications
    (Wiley, 2022) Albertson, Lindsey K.; Sklar, Leonard S.; Tumolo, Benjamin B.; Cross, Wyatt F.; Collins, Scott F.; Woods, H. Arthur
    Ecosystem engineers strongly influence the communities in which they live by modifying habitats and altering resource availability. These biogenic changes can persist beyond the presence of the engineer, and such modifications are known as ecosystem engineering legacy effects. Although many authors recognize ecosystem engineering legacies, and some case studies quantify the effects of legacies, few general frameworks describe their causes and consequences across species or ecosystem types. Here, we synthesize evidence for ecosystem engineering legacies and describe how consideration of key traits of engineers improves understanding of which engineers are likely to leave persistent biogenic modifications. Our review demonstrates that engineering legacies are ubiquitous, with substantial effects on individuals, communities and ecosystem processes. Attributes that may promote the persistence of influential legacies relate to an engineer's traits, including its body size, life span and living strategy (individual, conspecific group or collection of multiple co-occurring species). Additional lines of inquiry, such as how the recipients respond (e.g. density or richness) or the mechanism of engineering (e.g. burrowing or structure building), should be included in future ecosystem engineering legacy research. Understanding patterns of these persistent effects of ecosystem engineers and evaluating the consequences of losing them is an important area of research needed for understanding long-term ecological responses to global change and biodiversity loss.
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    Facilitation strength across environmental and beneficiary trait gradients in stream communities
    (Wiley, 2023-08) Tumolo, Benjamin B.; Albertson, Lindsey K.; Daniels, Melinda D.; Cross, Wyatt F.; Sklar, Leonard L.
    Ecosystem engineers modify habitats in ways that facilitate other community members by ameliorating harsh conditions. The strength of such facilitation is predicted to be influenced by both beneficiary traits and abiotic context. One key trait of animals that could control the strength of facilitation is beneficiary body size because it should determine how beneficiaries fit within and exploit stress ameliorating habitat modifications. However, few studies have measured how beneficiary body size relates to facilitation strength along environmental gradients. We examined how the strength of facilitation by net‐spinning caddisflies on invertebrate communities in streams varied along an elevation gradient and based on traits of the invertebrate beneficiaries. We measured whether use of silk retreats as habitat concentrated invertebrate density and biomass compared to surrounding rock surface habitat and whether the use of retreat habitat varied across body sizes of community members along the gradient. We found that retreats substantially concentrated the densities of a diversity of taxa including eight different Orders, and this effect was greatest at high elevations. Caddisfly retreats also concentrated invertebrate biomass more as elevation increased. Body size of invertebrates inhabiting retreats was lower than that of surrounding rock habitats at low elevation sites, however, body size between retreats and rocks converged at higher elevation sites. Additionally, the body size of invertebrates found in retreats varied within and across taxa. Specifically, caddisfly retreats functioned as a potential nursery for taxa with large maximal body sizes. However, the patterns of this taxon‐specific nursery effect were not influenced by elevation unlike the patterns observed based on community‐level body size. Collectively, our results indicate that invertebrates use retreats in earlier life stages or when they are smaller in body size independent of life stage. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that facilitation strength intensifies as elevation increases within stream invertebrate communities. Further consideration of how trait variation and environmental gradients interact to determine the strength and direction of biotic interactions will be important as species ranges and environmental conditions continue to shift.
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    Toward spatio-temporal delineation of positive interactions in ecology
    (2020-09) Tumolo, Benjamin B.; Calle, Leonardo; Anderson, Heidi E.; Briggs, Michelle A.; Carlson, Samuel P.; MacDonald, Michael J.; Reinert, James Holden; Albertson, Lindsey K.
    Given unprecedented rates of biodiversity loss, there is an urgency to better understand the ecological consequences of interactions among organisms that may lost or altered. Positive interactions among organisms of the same or different species that directly or indirectly improve performance of at least one participant can structure populations and communities and control ecosystem process. However, we are still in need of synthetic approaches to better understand how positive interactions scale spatio-temporally across a range of taxa and ecosystems. Here, we synthesize two complementary approaches to more rigorously describe positive interactions and their consequences among organisms, across taxa, and over spatio-temporal scales. In the first approach, which we call the mechanistic approach, we make a distinction between two principal mechanisms of facilitation—habitat modification and resource modification. Considering the differences in these two mechanisms is critical because it delineates the potential spatio-temporal bounds over which a positive interaction can occur. We offer guidance on improved sampling regimes for quantification of these mechanistic interactions and their consequences. Second, we present a trait-based approach in which traits of facilitators or traits of beneficiaries can modulate their magnitude of effect or how they respond to either of the positive interaction mechanisms, respectively. Therefore, both approaches can be integrated together by quantifying the degree to which a focal facilitator's or beneficiary's traits explain the magnitude of a positive effect in space and time. Furthermore, we demonstrate how field measurements and analytical techniques can be used to collect and analyze data to test the predictions presented herein. We conclude by discussing how these approaches can be applied to contemporary challenges in ecology, such as conservation and restoration and suggest avenues for future research.
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    Retreat but no surrender: net-spinning caddisfly (Hydropsychidae) silk has enduring effects on stream channel hydraulics
    (2020-02) Maquire, Zachary; Tumolo, Benjamin B.; Albertson, Lindsey K.
    Animals and plants engineer their physical environment by building structures that create or modify habitat. Biotic effects on physical habitats can influence community composition, trophic dynamics, and ecosystem processes; however, the scales and mechanisms regulating the importance of biotic engineering effects are not well documented. We used a laboratory experiment with common and abundant silk net-spinning caddisflies (Trichoptera:Hydropsychidae) to investigate how biotic structures built in riverbeds influence fluid dynamics at micro spatial scales (1 cm) over 2 months. We made velocity measurements with acoustic doppler velocimetry around caddisfly silk structures to test how they influence flow velocity and whether these effects are maintained after the structure is abandoned. We found that caddisfly retreats reduced flow downstream by 85% and upstream by 17% compared to gravels without caddisfly retreats. We also found that experimentally abandoned caddisfly retreats could persist for at least 60 days, suggesting legacy effects of the structures. Although aquatic insects are rarely accounted for in hydrological models, our study suggests that small, but numerous caddisfly larvae could have substantial hydraulic effects. Future work could address variation in the magnitude and duration of biotic engineering among different silk-producing species, densities through space or time, and hydrologic regimes.
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