Abstract
Hard bottom, subtidal communities along the Western Antarctic Peninsula are dominated by forests of large, chemically defended macroalgae that support a very dense assemblage of amphipods. Free-living filamentous algae are rare in the subtidal, but filamentous algal endophytes are common in many of the larger macroalgae, both likely as the result of amphipod grazing pressure. Filamentous algae are common in the intertidal, but primarily in the upper intertidal and on high-energy shores where amphipods are likely to be excluded much of the time. We tested the hypothesis that free-living, filamentous algae would be rapidly consumed if transplanted from the intertidal to the subtidal, and our results clearly supported this hypothesis. The filamentous, intertidal green alga Cladophora repens was transplanted to the benthos in 6 different macroalgal habitats. Control algae were transplanted in 3 m deeper waters nearby (usually 12 m or less laterally) but suspended 3 m off the bottom where amphipods are absent or rare. Overall consumption during approximately 6 h on the bottom ranged from 22 to 98% of the initial biomass, while significantly less biomass loss occurred in the water column.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to our fellow 2010 and 2011 Palmer Station field team members for diving and other field assistance and to Drs. F. Küpper, P. Kraufvelin and an anonymous reviewer for constructive suggestions for improving an earlier draft of the manuscript. This project would not have been possible without hard work and outstanding logistical support in Antarctica from the employees and subcontractors of Raytheon Polar Services Company. The work was funded by National Science Foundation awards ANT-0838773 (CDA, JBM) and ANT-0828776 (BJB) from the Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems program.
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Amsler, C.D., McClintock, J.B. & Baker, B.J. Amphipods exclude filamentous algae from the Western Antarctic Peninsula benthos: experimental evidence. Polar Biol 35, 171–177 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-011-1049-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-011-1049-3