Abstract
Climate-driven shifts in herbivores, temperature and nutrient runoff
threaten coastal ecosystem resilience. However, our understanding of
ecological resilience, particularly for foundation species, remains
limited due to a rarity of field experiments that are conducted across
appropriate spatial and temporal scales and that investigate multiple
stressors. This study aimed to evaluate the resilience of a tropical
marine plant (turtlegrass) to disturbances across its geographic range and
how this is impacted by environmental gradients in abiotic and biotic
factors. We assessed the resilience (i.e. recovery) of turtlegrass to a
simulated disturbance (complete above- and belowground biomass removal)
over a year. Contrary to temperate studies, higher temperature generally
enhanced seagrass recovery. While nutrients and light availability had
minimal impact, combined high levels of nutrients and herbivore grazing
(meso and megaherbivore) reduced aboveground recovery. Our results suggest
that the resilience of some tropical species, especially in cooler
subtropical waters, may initially increase with warming.
