title: Same pattern, different mechanism: Locking onto the role of key species in seafloor ecosystem process.
abstract: Seafloor biodiversity is a key mediator of ecosystem functioning, but its role is often excluded from global budgets or simplified to black boxes in models. New techniques allow quantification of the behavior of animals living below the sediment surface and assessment of the ecosystem consequences of complex interactions, yielding a better understanding of the role of seafloor animals in affecting key processes like primary productivity. Combining predictions based on natural history, behavior of key benthic species and environmental context allow assessment of differences in functioning and process, even when the measured ecosystem property in different systems is similar. Data from three sedimentary systems in New Zealand illustrate this. Analysis of the behaviors of the infaunal ecosystem engineers in each system revealed three very different mechanisms driving ecosystem function: density and excretion, sediment turnover and surface rugosity, and hydraulic activities and porewater bioadvection. Integrative metrics of ecosystem function in some cases differentiate among the systems (gross primary production) and in others do not (photosynthetic efficiency). Analyses based on behaviors and activities revealed important ecosystem functional differences and can dramatically improve our ability to model the impact of stressors on ecosystem and global processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, 701 Sumter Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah Ann
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Woodin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, 701 Sumter Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA.|School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5000, USA.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Volkenborn
authors.affiliation: School of Science, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Waikato, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Conrad A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Pilditch
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, PO Box 11-115, Hamilton 3251, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Lohrer
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, 701 Sumter Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA.
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Wethey
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, PO Box 11-115, Hamilton 3251, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Judi E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hewitt
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, PO Box 11-115, Hamilton 3251, New Zealand.|Institute of Marine Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92091, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Simon F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Thrush
mesh_terms: D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D008954:Models, Biological; D009520:New Zealand