Conus bonus! Facilitation of Conus gastropods by invasive mangroves in Mo'orea, French Polynesia

Eric C Witte

doi:10.7287/peerj.preprints.2659v1

Conus bonus! Facilitation of Conus gastropods by invasive mangroves in Mo'orea, French Polynesia

Eric C Witte

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2659v1

Published: 2016-12-21
Accepted: 2016-12-21

Subject Areas: Biodiversity, Ecology, Ecosystem Science, Marine Biology
Keywords: Mangrove, Ecosystem Engineer, Facilitation, Rhizophora stylosa, Conus, Non-native species, French Polynesia, Cone snail

Copyright: © 2016 Witte
Licence: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.

Cite this article: Witte EC. 2016. Conus bonus! Facilitation of Conus gastropods by invasive mangroves in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2659v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2659v1

Abstract

Background. Ecosystem engineers are organisms that modify habitats and in many cases community assemblages. Mangroves (Rhizophora stylosa) on Mo’orea displace native marsh grass habitats and affect the distribution of native and non-native gastropod species. This study aimed to determine the effect of mangrove facilitation on the expansion of geographic distribution of certain cone snail species (Conus eburneus,C. frigidus C. leopardus, C. miliaris, and C. pulicaris).

Methods. Comparisons of temperature as well as cone snail abundance and diversity were conducted between marsh grasses, mangroves and sand flat habitats. The effects of short-term exposure to high temperatures on oxygen consumption were compared based on habitat parameters.

Results. While cone snails were absent from salt marshes, cone snails varied in abundance and diversity in mangrove and sand flat habitats. Cone snails were slightly more abundant in mangroves than paired sand flat habitats. Conus species assemblages were comparable in paired mangrove and sand flat habitats. One effect of mangrove ecosystem engineering is reduced thermal maxima and variance, which did not have a clear effect on oxygen consumption.

Discussion. Cone snails are excluded from salt marshes dominated by Paspalum vaginatum, however they are present in mangrove salt marshes. Habitat usage by cone snails is comparable between adjacent sites, suggesting that sand-specialized cone snails may receive the greatest benefit from mangrove facilitation due to proximity between possible habitats. Despite well documented effects of temperature variance on intertidal gastropods, this study did not find a direct effect of temperature variance on cone snails. This study contributes to efforts to understand effects of invasive ecosystem engineers on native community assemblages. Redistribution of species on a global scale has varied and complex implications; understanding these effects is crucial to predicting effects on biodiversity.