Abstract
Seascape connectivity critically affects the spatiotemporal dynamics of marine metacommunities. Understanding how connectivity patterns emerge from physically and biologically-mediated interactions is therefore crucial to conserve marine ecosystem functions and biodiversity. Here, we develop a set of biophysical models to explore connectivity in assemblages of species belonging to a typical Mediterranean community (Posidonia oceanica meadows) and characterized by different dispersing traits. We propose a novel methodological framework to synthesize species-specific results into a set of community connectivity metrics and show that spatiotemporal variation in magnitude and direction of the connections, as well as interspecific differences in dispersing traits, are key factors structuring community connectivity. We eventually demonstrate how these metrics can be used to characterize the functional role of each marine area in determining patterns of community connectivity at the basin level and to support marine conservation planning.
Highlights
Unravelling the linkages between these drivers is an important challenge, and building a conceptual framework for the interpretation of connectivity at the community level is essential to support the design of conservation strategies informed by a broader ecological perspective
We focused on a set of key species belonging to the same community: one primary producer (Posidonia oceanica), whose critical role as a habitat former in the Mediterranean is well documented[29], and three fish species (Sarpa salpa, Symphodus ocellatus and Scorpaena porcus) occupying different trophic levels and characterized by different dispersing traits (Fig. 2)
The proposed approach combines multi-species biophysical models to obtain metrics that characterize the functional role of different sites in determining patterns of community connectivity
Summary
Unravelling the linkages between these drivers is an important challenge, and building a conceptual framework for the interpretation of connectivity at the community level is essential to support the design of conservation strategies informed by a broader ecological perspective. We focused on a set of key species belonging to the same community: one primary producer (Posidonia oceanica), whose critical role as a habitat former in the Mediterranean is well documented[29], and three fish species (Sarpa salpa, Symphodus ocellatus and Scorpaena porcus) occupying different trophic levels and characterized by different dispersing traits (Fig. 2). To exemplify how the proposed indices can inform marine conservation strategies, we used them to characterize the strength of community connectivity of each sector. To this end, we defined a connectivity score summarizing the capacity of each sector to simultaneously act as a retainer, source and sink of propagules for the considered community. Sectors with the highest connectivity score can be considered as hotspots of community connectivity, because they are able to play all the three functions at the same time and for all the considered species, deserving high priority for protection
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