Invertebrate response to nutrient-driven epiphytic load increase in Posidonia oceanica meadows

Abstract

Nutrient increases in coastal systems are becoming a world-wide concern since they promote strong structural and functional changes in shallow ecosystems. Increased nutrient availability in the water column may strongly enhance the leaf epiphytic communities of key habitat-forming species such as seagrasses through a bottom-up mechanism, competing for light and nutrients with the leaves. Epiphytes support an abundant and diverse community of resident invertebrates which fuel higher trophic levels in Posidonia oceanica food webs. We evaluated the response of seagrass, epiphytes and the invertebrate community to an experimental increase of water column nutrient availability. Nutrient increase was followed by a rise of epiphyte biomass. The increase in epiphytic biomass promoted invertebrate abundance, but appeared to have negative effects on P. oceanica shoot size. On the other hand, the increase in invertebrate abundance did not seem to control epiphytic biomass, which was not reversed to pre-nutrient enrichment levels. This work suggests that the abundance of invertebrate populations is limited by epiphyte biomass, through food or habitat provision, in P. oceanica systems and points to nutrients as the main driver of epiphyte biomass during summer. The results illustrate the control mechanisms at community level in P. oceanica meadows and the possible responses of a threatened ecosystem to human impact such as eutrophication.