Biodiversity experiments: Effects of diversity in feeding trials, conducted at Bodgea Marine Laboratory, using detritus from eelgrass (Zostera marina) genotypes (clones) as a food source and either one or a combination of invertebrate grazers

Abstract

Seagrass meadows are among the world's most productive ecosystems, and as in many other systems, genetic diversity is correlated with increased production. However, only a small fraction of seagrass production is directly consumed, and instead much of the secondary production is fueled by the detrital food web. Here, we study the roles of plant genetic diversity and grazer species diversity on detrital consumption in California eelgrass Zostera marina meadows. We used three common mesograzers—an amphipod, Ampithoe lacertosa, an isopod, Idotea resecata, and a polychaete, Platynereis bicanaliculata. In a series of five independent experiments, we manipulated grazer species diversity and number of eelgrass clones and measured the resulting detrital consumption. Under monospecific grazer assemblages, plant genetic identity but not diversity influenced detritus consumption. However, more realistic, diverse mesoconsumer communities combined with high plant-detrital genotypic diversity resulted in greater consumption and grazer survival. These data are illustrated in figures 4 and 5 Reynolds et al., 2017 (DOI:10.1111/oik.04471).

For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/715422