Journal article
Short-term differences in animal assemblages in patches formed by loss and growth of habitat
PI Macreadie, RM Connolly, MJ Keough, GP Jenkins, JS Hindell
Austral Ecology | Published : 2010
Abstract
Ecological theory predicts that habitat growth and loss will have different effects on community structure, even if they produce patches of the same size. Despite this, studies on the effects of patchiness are often performed without prior knowledge of the processes responsible for the patchiness. We manipulated artificial seagrass habitat in temperate Australia to test whether fish and crustacean assemblages differed between habitats that formed via habitat loss and habitat growth. Habitat loss treatments (originally 16 m2) and habitat growth treatments (originally 0 m2) were manipulated over 1 week until each reached a final patch size of 4 m2. At this size, each was compared through time ..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank T. Smith, R. Watson, B. Bray, J. Smith, M. Bairstow and A. Macreadie for field assistance, and Ability Works Australia for constructing ASUs. Comments from Andy Davis and two anonymous reviewers improved an earlier version of this paper. Funding was provided by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (RC, JH, GJ), a CSIRO Postgraduate Scholarship (PM with D. Smith), a Nancy Millis Postgraduate Research Award (PM), a Holsworth Wildlife Foundation Grant (PM) and the David Hay Postgraduate Writing-Up Award (PM). All research was conducted under University of Melbourne Animal Ethics and DPI Fisheries permits.