Authors
Serena Donadi, Tjisse van der Heide, Theunis Piersma, Els M van der Zee, Ellen J Weerman, Johan van de Koppel, Han Olff, Clare Devine, Udhi E Hernawan, Myra Boers, Linda Planthof, Britas Klemens Eriksson
Publication date
2015/11
Journal
Oikos
Volume
124
Issue
11
Pages
1502-1510
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Description
By changing habitat conditions, ecosystem engineers increase niche diversity and have profound effects on the distribution and abundances of other organisms. Although many ecosystems contain several engineering species, it is still unclear how the coexistence of multiple engineers affects the physical habitat and the structure of the community on a landscape scale. Here, we investigated through a large‐scale field manipulation how three coexisting engineers on intertidal flats (cockles Cerastoderma edule; lugworms Arenicola marina; blue mussels Mytilus edulis) influence the functional composition of the local macrobenthic community and what the consequences are at the landscape level. By using biological trait analysis (BTA), we show that on the local scale biogenic changes in sediment accumulation and organic matter content translated into specific shifts in the distribution of functional traits within the …
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