Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Coastal Upwelling Drives Intertidal Assemblage Structure and Trophic Ecology

Reddin, C.J.; Docmac, F.; O’Connor, N.E.; Bothwell, J.H.; Harrod, C.

Coastal Upwelling Drives Intertidal Assemblage Structure and Trophic Ecology Thumbnail


Authors

C.J. Reddin

F. Docmac

N.E. O’Connor

C. Harrod



Abstract

Similar environmental driving forces can produce similarity among geographically distant ecosystems. Coastal oceanic upwelling, for example, has been associated with elevated biomass and abundance patterns of certain functional groups, e.g., corticated macroalgae. In the upwelling system of Northern Chile, we examined measures of intertidal macrobenthic composition, structure and trophic ecology across eighteen shores varying in their proximity to two coastal upwelling centres, in a hierarchical sampling design (spatial scales of >1 and >10 km). The influence of coastal upwelling on intertidal communities was confirmed by the stable isotope values (δ13C and δ15N) of consumers, including a dominant suspension feeder, grazers, and their putative resources of POM, epilithic biofilm, and macroalgae. We highlight the utility of muscle δ15N from the suspension feeding mussel, Perumytilus purpuratus, as a proxy for upwelling, supported by satellite data and previous studies. Where possible, we used corrections for broader-scale trends, spatial autocorrelation, ontogenetic dietary shifts and spatial baseline isotopic variation prior to analysis. Our results showed macroalgal assemblage composition, and benthic consumer assemblage structure, varied significantly with the intertidal influence of coastal upwelling, especially contrasting bays and coastal headlands. Coastal topography also separated differences in consumer resource use. This suggested that coastal upwelling, itself driven by coastline topography, influences intertidal communities by advecting nearshore phytoplankton populations offshore and cooling coastal water temperatures. We recommend the isotopic values of benthic organisms, specifically long-lived suspension feeders, as in situ alternatives to offshore measurements of upwelling influence.

Citation

Reddin, C., Docmac, F., O’Connor, N., Bothwell, J., & Harrod, C. (2015). Coastal Upwelling Drives Intertidal Assemblage Structure and Trophic Ecology. PLoS ONE, 10(7), Article e0130789. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130789

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 26, 2015
Online Publication Date Jul 27, 2015
Publication Date Jul 27, 2015
Deposit Date Mar 7, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal PLoS ONE
Publisher Public Library of Science
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Issue 7
Article Number e0130789
DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130789

Files

Published Journal Article (1.8 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright: © 2015 Reddin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited





You might also like



Downloadable Citations