Joel Tan1, Peter Todd1
1National University of Singapore, Singapore
Habitat structural complexity has long been shown to positively affect the local diversity of prey species by providing greater variation and abundance of refuges. While the literature has clearly demonstrated how microhabitat refuges promote diversity by providing competitive refuges (i.e., resource partitioning and niche differentiation), isolating the effects of prey refuges alone and in situ remains challenging. This is because, as habitat complexity increases, prey refuges are often quantitatively confounded with competitive refuges in natural systems. Thus, the independent effect of prey refuge abundance on species diversity has rarely been tested in the field. Here, we investigate the interactive effects of prey refuge abundance and grazing intensity on algal diversity, using concrete tiles attached to seawalls, while excluding the influence of competitive refuges. The disentanglement of refuge covariates (prey and competition) is achieved by artificially simulating algal herbivory on structurally homogeneous habitats (concrete tiles), with prey refuges designated as safe zones from simulated grazing. This study is critical for understanding the mechanisms shaping benthic algal diversity on hard shores and can inform the ecological engineering of coastal defence infrastructure by optimizing refuge abundance in artificial structures.
Biography
Joel’s passion for the aquatic realm deepened during his Biotechnology studies at Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore, where he specialized in aquaculture. As a National University of Singapore undergraduate, he explored microplastic retention by macrophytes and intertidal stressors on gastropod refuge use. Now pursuing his PhD, he investigates how refuges influence biodiversity and various ecological processes such as herbivory.