TY - JOUR T1 - A regime shift in intertidal assemblages triggered by loss of algal canopies: A multidecadal survey. AU - Álvarez-Losada,Óscar, AU - Arrontes,Julio, AU - Martínez,Brezo, AU - Fernández,Consolación, AU - Viejo,Rosa M, Y1 - 2020/04/20/ PY - 2019/12/05/received PY - 2020/03/26/revised PY - 2020/04/01/accepted PY - 2020/9/10/entrez PY - 2020/9/11/pubmed PY - 2020/9/17/medline KW - Canopy-forming algae KW - Climate change KW - Coastal zone KW - Community composition KW - Fucus serratus KW - Marine ecology KW - Regime shifts KW - Species distributions KW - Turf-forming algae SP - 104981 EP - 104981 JF - Marine environmental research JO - Mar Environ Res VL - 160 N2 - Canopy-forming macroalgae recently experienced a worldwide decline. This is relevant, because canopies sustain complex food webs in temperate coasts. We assessed the die-back of the canopy-forming alga Fucus serratus in N Spain, at its warm distributional range boundary, and its effects on associated assemblages. We combined long-term descriptive surveys with canopy-removal experiments. Results showed that rapid shifts to turf-forming communities were mostly the direct consequence of the canopy loss, rather than a concurrent process directly triggered by climate change. The switch alters the whole food web, as the prominent role of F.serratus and other cold-temperate intertidal fucoids is not being replaced by functionally equivalent species. Canopy loss caused a rapid biotic homogenization at regional scale which is spreading towards the west, from the edge to the central part of the former distributional range of F.serratus in N Spain. The most obvious effect is the ecological and functional impoverishment of the coastal system. SN - 1879-0291 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/32907719/A_regime_shift_in_intertidal_assemblages_triggered_by_loss_of_algal_canopies:_A_multidecadal_survey_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -