Browsing by Author "Betancourtt, Claudia"

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    Spatio-temporal variation in the composition of the macroalgae assemblage of the intertidal rocky zone from maitencillo, valparaíso, central coast of Chile
    (2018) Meynard, Andrés; Ramírez, María Eliana; González Campero, María Constanza; Zapata, Javier; Castañeda, Francisco; Salas, Nicolás; Espinoza, Camila; Guajardo, Eduardo; Bulboa Contador, Cristian; Contreras Porcía, Loretto Matilde; Betancourtt, Claudia; Anguita, Cristóbal; Latorre, Nicolás; Núñez, Alejandra; Fierro, Camila
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    Stability of rocky intertidal communities, in response to species removal, varies across spatial scales
    (2021) Valdivia, Nelson; Lopez, Daniela N.; Fica-Rojas, Eliseo; Catalan, Alexis M.; Aguilera, Moises A.; Araya, Marjorie; Betancourtt, Claudia; Burgos-Andrade, Katherine; Carvajal-Baldeon, Thais; Escares, Valentina; Gartenstein, Simon; Grossmann, Mariana; Gutierrez, Barbara; Kotta, Jonne; Morales-Torres, Diego F.; Riedemann-Saldivia, Barbara; Rodriguez, Sara M.; Velasco-Charpentier, Catalina; Villalobos, Vicente, I; Broitman, Bernardo R.
    Improving our understanding of stability across spatial scales is crucial in the current scenario of biodiversity loss. Still, most empirical studies of stability target small scales. We experimentally removed the local space-dominant species (macroalgae, barnacles, or mussels) at eight sites spanning more than 1000 km of coastline in north- and south-central Chile, and quantified the relationship between area (the number of aggregated sites) and stability in aggregate community variables (total cover) and taxonomic composition. Resistance, recovery, and invariability increased nonlinearly with area in both functional and compositional domains. Yet, the functioning of larger areas achieved a better, albeit still incomplete, recovery than composition. Compared with controls, smaller disturbed areas tended to overcompensate in terms of total cover. These effects were related to enhanced available space for recruitment (resulting from the removal of the dominant species), and to increasing beta diversity and decaying community-level spatial synchrony (resulting from increasing area). This study provides experimental evidence for the pivotal role of spatial scale in the ability of ecosystems to resist and recover from chronic disturbances. This knowledge can inform further ecosystem restoration and conservation policies.
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    Transient species driving ecosystem multifunctionality: Insights from competitive interactions between rocky intertidal mussels
    (2024) Betancourtt, Claudia; Catalan, Alexis M.; Morales-Torres, Diego F.; Lopez, Daniela N.; Escares-Aguilera, Valentina; Salas-Yanquin, Luis P.; Buchner-Miranda, Joseline A.; Chaparro, Oscar R.; Nimptsch, Jorge; Broitman, Bernardo R.; Valdivia, Nelson
    Anthropogenic biodiversity loss poses a significant threat to ecosystem functioning worldwide. Numerically dominant and locally rare (i.e., transient) species are key components of biodiversity, but their contribution to multiple ecosystem functions (i.e., multifunctionality) has been seldomly assessed in marine ecosystems. To fill this gap, here we analyze the effects of a dominant and a transient species on ecosystem multifunctionality. In an observational study conducted along ca. 200 km of the southeastern Pacific coast, the purple mussel Perumytilus purpuratus numerically dominated the mid -intertidal and the dwarf mussel Semimytilus patagonicus exhibited low abundances but higher recruitment rates. In laboratory experiments, the relative abundances of both species were manipulated to simulate the replacement of P. purpuratus by S. patagonicus and five proxies for ecosystem functions-rates of clearance, oxygen consumption, total biodeposit, organic biodeposit, and excretion-were analyzed. This replacement had a positive, linear, and significant effect on the combined ecosystem functions, particularly oxygen consumption and excretion rates. Accordingly, S. patagonicus could well drive ecosystem functioning given favorable environmental conditions for its recovery from rarity. Our study highlights therefore the key role of transient species for ecosystem performance. Improving our understanding of these dynamics is crucial for effective ecosystem conservation, especially in the current scenario of biological extinctions and invasions.