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© 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the "License"). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Tropical seagrass ecosystems are globally imperiled due to overfishing and anthropogenic disturbances. Sustaining the services they provide will require managing resilience, particularly with increased volatility from climate change. Portfolio theory is touted as a mechanism to increase resilience in ecosystems because it takes advantage of temporal volatility in local production dynamics to increase stability at larger spatial scales. Using an individual‐based model of a network of artificial reefs across multiple seagrass ecosystems that is parameterized with 15 years of field data, we demonstrate that (1) the large fish populations and the low enrichment synergistically increase portfolio effects; (2) the mechanism was via reduced local and increased meta‐ecosystem stability in primary production; and (3) stability was greatest under intermediate production because nutrient enrichment reduces and fish, which have less influence on the amount of production, promote stability. Integrating common‐sense management with portfolio theory can stabilize the services provided by seagrass ecosystems.

Details

Title
High Fish Biomass and Low Nutrient Enrichment Synergistically Enhance Stability in a Seagrass Meta‐Ecosystem
Author
Hesselbarth, Maximilian H. K. 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Allgeier, Jacob E. 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Biodiversity Ecology and Conservation Research Group, Laxenburg, Austria 
 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA 
Section
LETTER
Publication year
2024
Publication date
Nov/Dec 2024
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
e-ISSN
1755263X
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3144749450
Copyright
© 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the "License"). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.