naa a22 4500 528787063 20180924065502.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180924e20111129xx s 000 0 eng 10.3929/ethz-b-000044661 doi 10.1371/journal.pone.0026700 doi (ETHRESEARCH)oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/44661 Contrasting Ecosystem-Effects of Morphologically Similar Copepods [Elektronische Daten] [Blake Matthews, Stephen Hausch, Christian Winter, Curtis A. Suttle, Jonathan B. Shurin] PLoS ONE Open access ethresearch Organisms alter the biotic and abiotic conditions of ecosystems. They can modulate the availability of resources to other species (ecosystem engineering) and shape selection pressures on other organisms (niche construction). Very little is known about how the engineering effects of organisms vary among and within species, and, as a result, the ecosystem consequences of species diversification and phenotypic evolution are poorly understood. Here, using a common gardening experiment, we test whether morphologically similar species and populations of Diaptomidae copepods (Leptodiaptomus ashlandi, Hesperodiaptomus franciscanus, Skistodiaptomus oregonensis) have similar or different effects on the structure and function of freshwater ecosystems. We found that copepod species had contrasting effects on algal biomass, ammonium concentrations, and sedimentation rates, and that copepod populations had contrasting effects on prokaryote abundance, sedimentation rates, and gross primary productivity. The average size of ecosystem-effect contrasts between species was similar to those between populations, and was comparable to those between fish species and populations measured in previous common gardening experiments. Our results suggest that subtle morphological variation among and within species can cause multifarious and divergent ecosystem-effects. We conclude that using morphological trait variation to assess the functional similarity of organisms may underestimate the importance of species and population diversity for ecosystem functioning. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 ethresearch Matthews Blake joint author Hausch Stephen joint author Winter Christian joint author Suttle Curtis A. joint author Shurin Jonathan B. joint author PLoS ONE Lawrence, KS, USA : Public Library of Science 6 (11), p. e26700 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/44661 text/html WWW-Backlink auf das Repository (Open access) 1 Journal Article ethresearch ETHRESEARCH 856 40 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/44661 text/html WWW-Backlink auf das Repository (Open access) ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Matthews Blake joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Hausch Stephen joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Winter Christian joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Suttle Curtis A. joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Shurin Jonathan B. joint author ETHRESEARCH 773 0- PLoS ONE Lawrence, KS, USA : Public Library of Science 6 (11), p. e26700 1932-6203 BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 ETHRESEARCH ETHRESEARCH ETHRESEARCH Journal Article Open access