Award: OCE-1635950

Habitat fragmentation, or the breaking apart of continuous habitat into more numerous and isolated patches, is a prominent driver of global biodiversity loss. As such it is the focus of conservation efforts aimed at curbing this loss. Seagrass meadows, are one such critical coastal habitat increasingly experiencing fragmentation, potentially altering the delivery of fundamental ecosystem services, such as the provision of foraging grounds, protection from predators, and nursery areas for fish and invertebrate species. This award funded a research project which represents to-date the largest-scale artificial seagrass experiment conducted to investigate the independent and interactive influences of two habitat configuration changes inherent in fragmentation: decreasing habitat area and increasing habitat patchiness. Conducting a controlled field-based experiment at such a scale allows for the accurate depiction natural landscapes and improves our understanding of how specific aspects of seagrass meadow configuration influence fish and invertebrate communities. To determine how these major components of fragmentation (i.e., habitat area and habitat patchiness) independently influence seagrass communities, we deployed 25 unique artificial landscapes (>5,000 m2 total), of five levels of seagrass area and five levels of patchiness. By sampling fish and invertebrate communities across these landscapes, we found that animal abundance was positively related to seagrass area but was not impacted by patchiness. Higher biodiversity was evident in both small patchy and large continuous landscapes. Predation was elevated within larger and more continuous landscapes. Overall, these results showed that animal abundance may be area-dependent, yet small patchy landscapes likely maintain biodiversity through low predation rates and higher habitat variety, increasing ecological niche availability. By contrast, large continuous landscapes are likely hotspots for predator-prey interaction, evinced by a combination of high animal abundance, diversity, and predation. This work justifies conserving seagrass meadows of all configurations to maintain a complete array of ecosystem services. As part of this project, one PhD student was provided with extensive training to conduct field-based and literature synthesis research for four dissertation chapters. In addition, two laboratory technicians were trained in field-based experiments, data collection, entry, and management. Based on this work, we have submitted several datasets for permanent archiving, have published ~10 manuscripts with 3 more in prep or submitted, have presented results at scientific meetings, and have created a K-12 science lesson plan through the Scientific Research and Education Network (SciREN). Last Modified: 03/24/2021 Submitted by: Fredrick J Fodrie