Data and R codes for the research article "Functional changes across marine habitats due to ocean acidification" in Global Change Biology

This repository contains the data files and R codes used to analyze the trait data and generate the results for the article:

Núria Teixidó, Jérémy Carlot, Samir Alliouane, Enric Ballesteros, Cinzia De Vittor, Maria Cristina Gambi, Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Kristy Kroeker, Fiorenza Micheli, Alice Mirasole, Valeriano Parravacini, Sébastien Villéger (in press) Functional changes across marine habitats due to ocean acidification. Global Change Biology

Abstract: Global environmental change drives diversity loss and shifts in community structure. A key challenge is to better understand the impacts on ecosystem function and to connect species and trait diversity of assemblages with the possible consequences for ecosystem function. Here we quantify shifts in species composition and trait diversity associated with ocean acidification (OA) by using field measurements at marine CO2 vent systems spanning four reef habitats across different depths in a temperate coastal ecosystem. We find that both species and trait diversity decreased, and that ecosystem properties (understood as the interplay between species, traits, and ecosystem function) shifted with acidification. Furthermore, shifts in trait categories such as autotrophs, filter feeders, herbivores, and habitat-forming species were habitat-specific, indicating that OA may produce divergent responses across habitats and depths. Combined, these findings reveal the importance of connecting species and trait diversity of marine benthic habitats with key ecosystem properties to anticipate the impacts of global environmental change. Our results also generate new insights on the predicted general and habitat-specific ecological consequences of OA. 

Funding: This research was supported by: the French National Research Agency Investments for the Future "4Oceans-Make Our Planet Great Again" grant, ANR-17-MOPGA-0001, the Internal funds from the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (FOE-Teixido), the Italian" National Biodiversity Future Center, CN_00000033", the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellowship H2020-MSCA- IF- 2015 (GA No. 702628), and the National Geographic Society (Window to the Future, Grant No. 9771-15).