Amphipods exclude filamentous algae from the Western Antarctic Peninsula benthos: experimental evidence |
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Authors: | Charles D Amsler James B McClintock Bill J Baker |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1170, USA;(2) Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA |
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Abstract: | Hard bottom, subtidal communities along the Western Antarctic Peninsula are dominated by forests of large, chemically defended
macroalgae that support a very dense assemblage of amphipods. Free-living filamentous algae are rare in the subtidal, but
filamentous algal endophytes are common in many of the larger macroalgae, both likely as the result of amphipod grazing pressure.
Filamentous algae are common in the intertidal, but primarily in the upper intertidal and on high-energy shores where amphipods
are likely to be excluded much of the time. We tested the hypothesis that free-living, filamentous algae would be rapidly
consumed if transplanted from the intertidal to the subtidal, and our results clearly supported this hypothesis. The filamentous,
intertidal green alga Cladophora repens was transplanted to the benthos in 6 different macroalgal habitats. Control algae were transplanted in 3 m deeper waters
nearby (usually 12 m or less laterally) but suspended 3 m off the bottom where amphipods are absent or rare. Overall consumption
during approximately 6 h on the bottom ranged from 22 to 98% of the initial biomass, while significantly less biomass loss
occurred in the water column. |
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