Replication Data for: Salinity controls rocky intertidal community structure via suppression of herbivory
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Salinity controls rocky intertidal community structure via suppression of herbivory This dataset relates to a project conducted in the Salish Sea, British Columbia to examine the indirect effects of salinity on intertidal community composition. The dataset is comprised of (a) environmental data for 6 sites, 3 in a low salinity region and 3 in a high salinity region, (b) site by species matrix for transect surveys in the same 6 sites, (c) laboratory salinity tolerance experiments for a primary producer and two herbivore species, and (d) a site by species matrix for a herbivore manipulation study conducted in the same 6 sites. Metadata for each dataset and variables therein can be found in the README text file. Information about methodology used to obtain data can be found in the manuscript preprint (https://doi.org/10.32942/X2RK56). Abstract: Climate change impacts ecosystems directly through differences in species specific responses as well as indirectly through changes to the strength of species interactions. To predict how species will be impacted by ongoing environmental change, we need to better understand the relative roles of these direct and indirect effects. Salinity is a strong driver of ecological patterns and processes, and salinity regimes in coastal regions are expected to be altered by climate change through intensification of the hydrological cycle and via climate-driven shifts in the timing and strength of the spring freshet. We hypothesized that hyposalinity can indirectly affect the intertidal community by excluding a dominant herbivore. To test this hypothesis, we 1) conducted intertidal diversity surveys in regions of high vs. seasonally low salinity in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, 2) conducted laboratory salinity tolerance trials for two important grazers (Lottia pelta and Lottia digitalis) and one primary producer (Ulva sp.), and 3) experimentally manipulated the abundance of grazers in these two regions. We show that rocky intertidal shores from two regions of disparate salinity regimes are distinct in their intertidal communities: low salinity sites were composed primarily of Mytilus trossulus, Fucus distichus and Ulva sp., whereas high salinity sites were dominated by Chthamalus dalli, Lottia spp., and Mastocarpus sp. Our laboratory trials confirmed that freshwater inputs experienced in the low salinity region resulted in hyposaline levels which exceeded the tolerance of Lottia spp., but not that of Ulva sp. Further, we show that by excluding grazers in high salinity sites, these communities more closely resemble that of the low salinity sites than they do of other high salinity sites with grazers present. Together, these results demonstrate that the pattern of distinct estuarine intertidal communities in low vs. high salinity regions in the Strait of Georgia may be largely driven by the indirect effects of freshwater inputs, mediated by salinity-driven differences in herbivore population size and thus grazing pressure.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.051 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.007 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.005 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.399 | 0.189 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".