Density-dependent biodiversity effects on physical habitat modification by freshwater bivalves

Density-dependent biodiversity effects on physical habitat modification by freshwater bivalves.

Several decades of research have shown that biodiversity affects ecosystem processes associated with resource capture and the production of biomass within trophic levels. Although there are good reasons to expect that biodiversity influences non-trophic ecosystem processes, such as the physical creation or modification of habitat, studies investigating the role of biodiversity on physical proce...

Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Biodiversity

■ Abstract The literature on effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity is huge. It is also very diverse, with different authors measuring fragmentation in different ways and, as a consequence, drawing different conclusions regarding both the magnitude and direction of its effects. Habitat fragmentation is usually defined as a landscape-scale process involving both habitat loss and the br...

Freshwater fishes of Bangladesh: Fisheries, biodiversity and habitat

Shell decay rates of native and alien freshwater bivalves and implications for habitat engineering

1. Spent shells of bivalves can provide habitat for other organisms, as well as playing important roles in biogeochemical cycles. The amount of spent shell material that will accumulate at a site depends on rates of both shell production and decay, although the latter is rarely considered. 2. We measured the instantaneous decay rates of four species of freshwater bivalves across a range of site...

Habitat creation and biodiversity maintenance in mangrove forests: teredinid bivalves as ecosystem engineers

Substantial amounts of dead wood in the intertidal zone of mature mangrove forests are tunnelled by teredinid bivalves. When the tunnels are exposed, animals are able to use tunnels as refuges. In this study, the effect of teredinid tunnelling upon mangrove forest faunal diversity was investigated. Mangrove forests exposed to long emersion times had fewer teredinid tunnels in wood and wood not ...