Conus bonus! Facilitation of Conus gastropods by invasive mangroves in Mo'orea, French Polynesia
Author and article information
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.
Cite this as
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.2659v1Author comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
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Supplemental Information
Code to run regression on abundance between mangrove and control sites
Data on abundance of cone snails in mangrove and control habitats
To be run with DensityRegression.R
ANOVA comparing presence between habitats
Used with Cone11.12.3
Dataset containing presence by habitat
To be analyzed with DistributionCode.R
Code to conduct nested ANOVA on abundance by sites and Habitats
Used with Cone11.11.1
Abundance by site and habitat
To be analyzed using AbundanceNestedAnova1.R
Code to Analyze temperature differences and temperature treatments
Used with Tempsite2a; ConeHeat2; Cone11.11.3; Cone11.11.6
Dataset containing temperatures for temperature comparison
Analyzed with Temp_Script.R
Dataset with respiration rates of cone snails in temperature trial
Analyzed using Temp_Script.R
Dataset containing temperatures by habitat used for temperature comparison
Analyzed using Temp_Script.R
Dataset containing Temperatures used in Temperature Comparison
Analyzed using Temp_Script.R
Code to run a Nested ANOVA on species presence by site and habitat
Used to analyze Cone11.12.1 and Cone11.12.2
Dataset containing number of species by site and habitat
Analyzed using SpeciesCode.R
Dataset containing mean number of species by site
Analyzed using SpeciesCode.R
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The author declares that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Eric C Witte conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
The raw data has been supplied as a supplementary file.
Funding
The author received no funding for this work.