Life Sciences Commons^™

Spatial Variability In The Diversity And Structure Of Faunal Assemblages Associated With Kelp Holdfasts (Laminaria Hyperborea) In The Northeast Atlantic, Harry Teagle, Pippa J. Moore, Helen Jenkins, Dan A. Smale

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Kelp species are ecologically-important habitat-formers in coastal marine ecosystems, where they alter environmental conditions and promote local biodiversity by providing complex biogenic habitat for an array of associated organisms. While it is widely accepted that kelps harbour significant biodiversity, our current understanding of spatiotemporal variability in kelp-associated assemblages and the key environmental drivers of variability patterns remains limited. Here we examined the influence of ocean temperature and wave exposure on the structure of faunal assemblages associated with the holdfasts of Laminaria hyperborea, the dominant habitat-forming kelp in the northeast Atlantic. We sampled holdfasts from 12 kelp-dominated open-coast sites nested …