A Three-Stage Symbiosis Forms the Foundation of Seagrass Ecosystems
Year: 2012
Type: review
Abstract: Seagrasses evolved from terrestrial plants into marine foundation species around 100 million years ago. Their ecological success, however, remains a mystery because natural organic matter accumulation within the beds should result in toxic sediment sulfide levels. Using a meta-analysis, a field study, and a laboratory experiment, we reveal how an ancient three-stage symbiosis between seagrass, lucinid bivalves, and their sulfide-oxidizing gill bacteria reduces sulfide stress for seagrasses. We found that the bivalve-sulfide-oxidizer symbiosis reduced sulfide levels and enhanced seagrass production as measured in biomass. In turn, the bivalves and their endosymbionts profit from organic matter accumulation and radial oxygen release from the seagrass roots. These findings elucidate the long-term success of seagrasses in warm waters and offer new prospects for seagrass ecosystem conservation.
Source: Science
Language: English
Subfield: Oceanography
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life below water
Open Access status: green
Awards: Pervasive impact of intertidal migrant top predators on species diversity and size structure of its prey may lead to spatial knock-on effects between ecosystems, A human-driven regime shift through the loss of ecosystem engineers: consequences for the trophic structure and recovery potential of the Wadden Sea ecosystem, G6671297155, Fragile biodiversity linkages: production and consumption in a nutrient-poor seagrass-dominated intertidal ecosystem, the Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania, A human-driven regime shift through the loss of ecosystem engineers: consequences for the trophic structure and recovery potential of the Wadden Sea ecosystem: deel 1.
OpenAlex ID: W2117091952