Document of bibliographic reference 310209

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Colonial ascidians strongly preyed upon, yet dominate the substrate in a subtropical fouling community

Abstract

Higher diversity and dominance at lower latitudes has been suggested for colonial species. We verified the latitudinal pattern in species richness of ascidians, finding that higher colonial-to-solitary species ratios occur in the tropics and subtropics. At the latitudinal region with the highest ratio, in south-eastern Brazil, we confirmed that colonial species dominate the space on artificial plates in two independent studies of five fouling communities. We manipulated settlement plates to measure effects of predation and competition on growth and survivorship of colonial vs. solitary ascidians. Eight ascidian species were subjected to a predation treatment, i.e. caged vs. exposed to predators, and a competition treatment, i.e. leaving vs. removing competitors, to assess main and interactive effects. Predation had a greater effect on growth and survivorship of colonial compared to solitary species, whereas competition did not show consistent patterns between the two life histories. We hypothesize that colonial ascidians dominate at this subtropical site despite being highly preyed upon because they regrow when partially consumed and can adjust in shape and space to grow into refuges. We contend that these means of avoiding mortality from predation can have large influences on the diversification patterns of colonial species at low latitudes, where predation intensity is greater.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000465434800021

Bibliographic citation

Hiebert, L.S.; Vieira, E.A.; Dias, G.M.; Tiozzo, S.; Brown, F.D. (2019). Colonial ascidians strongly preyed upon, yet dominate the substrate in a subtropical fouling community. Proc. - Royal Soc., Biol. Sci. 286(1899): 20190396. https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0396

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true