Reddened seascapes: experimentally induced shifts in 1/f spectra of spatial variability in rocky intertidal assemblages

Ecological tests of 1/ f -noise models have advanced our understanding of how environmental fluctuations affect population abundance and species distributions. Most empirical studies have been conducted under controlled laboratory conditions and have focused on individual drivers. We present the res...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology (Durham) 2013-05, Vol.94 (5), p.1102-1111
Main Authors: Tamburello, Laura, Bulleri, Fabio, Bertocci, Iacopo, Maggi, Elena, Benedetti-Cecchi, Lisandro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
1/f noise
Algae
algal canopy
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
canopy
Cystoseira amentacea
Demography
disturbance
Ecological modeling
Ecology
Ecosystem
Environmental conditions
environmental factors
field experimentation
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
intertidal algal turf
intertidal rocky shores
Landscape ecology
lawns and turf
littoral zone
Marine ecology
northwest Mediterranean
Oceans and Seas
Phaeophyceae - classification
Phaeophyceae - physiology
Population dynamics
Population ecology
spatial autocorrelation
spatial scale
spectral analysis
Spectral energy distribution
Synecology
White noise
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Summary:Ecological tests of 1/ f -noise models have advanced our understanding of how environmental fluctuations affect population abundance and species distributions. Most empirical studies have been conducted under controlled laboratory conditions and have focused on individual drivers. We present the results of a four-year field experiment in which canopy presence/absence and the availability of primary space were manipulated as red-noise and white-noise spatial processes, respectively, to evaluate their separate and compounded effects on algal turf distribution in a rocky intertidal community. Algal turfs closely tracked spatial variation in canopy distribution, displaying a reddened spectrum of spatial variation. Surprisingly, white-noise clearings also induced a red-shift in turf distribution, a pattern that was related to a nonlinear relation between gap size and turf colonization. The two disturbances interacted antagonistically, dampening the red-shift of turf distribution. Our results provide evidence of experimentally induced shifts in the spectrum of a spatial variable under natural environmental conditions.
ISSN:0012-9658
1939-9170
DOI:10.1890/12-1293.1