Herbivory in Seagrass Meadows: an Evolving Paradigm
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SPECIAL ISSUE: SEAGRASSES TRIBUTE TO SUSAN WILLIAMS
Herbivory in Seagrass Meadows: an Evolving Paradigm John F. Valentine 1,2
&
Kenneth L. Heck Jr 1,2
Received: 25 March 2020 / Revised: 31 August 2020 / Accepted: 8 October 2020 # Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation 2020
Abstract In the past few decades, we have learned much about the factors that regulate the productivity of seagrass-dominated ecosystems, especially those at low latitudes. Here, we update our previous assessments of the importance of seagrass-herbivore interactions, focusing on recent studies that have examined (1) the diversity of herbivores feeding on live seagrass leaves; (2) the factors that determine the ability of seagrasses to respond to herbivore damage; (3) how potential chemical deterrents, and structural defenses, in seagrass leaves influence herbivore consumption; (4) how climate-driven changes in herbivore identity might change grazing intensity in temperate seagrasses; (5) the effects of herbivory on pollen, flowers, fruits, and seeds of seagrasses; and (6) the effects of human removal of seagrass megaherbivores and the top-down effects of overfishing top predators on seagrass consumption. We also identify important gaps in our understanding of the broadly defined topic of herbivory in seagrass-dominated ecosystems. Specifically, we suggest that future studies should consider focusing on increasing our understanding of herbivore foraging strategies, quantifying the impact of herbivory on seagrass reproductive biology, including effects on the fates of flowers, fruits, and seeds and documenting the commonness of compensatory responses and chemical defenses to grazing. Studies of the roles of the nutritional content (as measured by C/N/P ratios), in determining herbivore feeding preferences, remain fertile grounds for future studies, as do additional experiments to quantify the relative roles of top-down and bottom-up factors in determining seagrass abundance and energy fluxes in seagrass meadows. Keywords Chemical defense . Compensatory responses . Herbivore foraging . Food web alteration . Seagrass flowering . Tropicalization
Introduction We have known for some time that herbivores can and do control the composition and relative abundances of plants and, in some cases, their productivity, in virtually every ecosystem on this planet (Maron and Crone 2006; Shurin et al. 2006; Massad 2013). In contrast, we know far less about the impacts of the consumption on seagrasses, a group of Communicated by Dennis F. Whigham Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00849-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * John F. Valentine [email protected] 1
Dauphin Island Sea Lab, 101 Bienville Blvd, Dauphin Island, AL 36528, USA
2
Department of Marine Sciences, LSCB 25, University of South Alabama, 5871 USA Drive North, Mobile, AL 36688-0002, USA
flowering plants found in coastal waters of all continents except Antarctica (Valentine and D
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