Meeting Abstract
Understanding ecological responses to environmental change is a core focus of ecology. While community responses are often quantified using taxonomy alone, biodiversity is inherently multidimensional. Functional, and phylogenetic information may therefore enhance insights gained from traditional taxonomic metrics. Here, we assessed the responses of two shallow benthic communities to oil disturbance using three dimensions: taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity. We hypothesized that disturbance would reduce all three metrics, but that impacts on functional diversity would be greater if oil affected one group more than others, e.g., subsurface deposit feeders. In contrast, if phylogenetic clades vary in their response to oil, the impact on phylogenetic diversity might be greater. We sampled benthic communities at two sites that varied in oil exposure following the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Northern Gulf of Mexico over two years. Infaunal communities were quantified from Ruppia seagrass beds and unvegetated habitats in both Fall and Spring of each year. Our results indicate a clear reduction in abundance and biomass of infauna following a reoiling event, with particularly significant reductions in the subsurface deposit feeding functional group. Phylogenetic diversity differed between site and habitat type, however no signal of oil disturbance was found when assessing phylogenetic diversity between the two sites. Overall, our results suggest that functional role in benthic communities is an important factor in response to disturbance.
