AimBiogenic structural complexity increases mobile animal richness and abundance at local, regional and global scales, yet animal taxa vary in their response to complexity. When these taxa also vary functionally, habitat structures favouring certain taxa may have consequences for ecosystem function. We characterised global patterns of epifaunal invertebrates in eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds that varied in structural and genetic composition.LocationNorth America, Europe and Asia.Time Period2014.Major Taxa StudiedPeracarid crustaceans and gastropod molluscs.MethodsWe sampled epifaunal invertebrate communities in 49 eelgrass beds across 37° latitude in two ocean basins concurrently with measurements of eelgrass genetic diversity, structural complexity and other abiotic and biotic environmental variables. We examined how species richness, abundance and community composition varied with latitude and environmental predictors using a random forest approach. We also examined how functional trait composition varied along with community structure.ResultsTotal species richness decreased with latitude, but this was accompanied by a taxonomic shift in dominance from peracarid crustaceans to gastropods, which exhibited different sets of functional traits. Greater eelgrass genetic diversity was strongly correlated with both richness and abundance of peracarids, but less so for gastropods.Main ConclusionsOur results add to a growing body of literature that suggests genetic variation in plant traits influences their associated faunal assemblages via habitat structure. Because peracarids and gastropods exhibited distinct functional traits, our results suggest a tentative indirect link between broad‐scale variation in plant genetic diversity and ecosystem function.

中文翻译：

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大鳗草表层动物群落分类结构的纬度谱系与植物遗传多样性相关


目的生物结构的复杂性增加了当地、区域和全球范围内可移动动物的丰富度和丰度，但动物类群对复杂性的反应各不相同。当这些类群的功能也发生变化时，有利于某些类群的栖息地结构可能会对生态系统功能产生影响。我们对结构和遗传组成各异的鳗草（Zostera marina）床中的表底动物无脊椎动物的全球模式进行了描述。位置北美、欧洲和亚洲。时间段2014。研究的主要类群是甲壳动物和腹足类软体动物。方法我们对 49 个鳗草床中的表底动物无脊椎动物群落进行了采样。在两个海洋盆地的纬度 37° 同时测量鳗草遗传多样性、结构复杂性以及其他非生物和生物环境变量。我们使用随机森林方法研究了物种丰富度、丰度和群落组成如何随纬度和环境预测因素变化。我们还研究了功能性状组成如何随群落结构变化。结果总物种丰富度随着纬度的增加而降低，但这伴随着分类学上的优势从甲壳类到腹足类的转变，腹足类表现出不同的功能性状。更大的鳗草遗传多样性与囊虫的丰富度和丰度密切相关，但与腹足动物的相关性较小。主要结论我们的研究结果增加了越来越多的文献，表明植物性状的遗传变异通过栖息地结构影响其相关的动物群落。由于囊虫和腹足动物表现出不同的功能特征，我们的结果表明植物遗传多样性的大规模变异与生态系统功能之间存在初步的间接联系。