Because foundation species create structure in a community, understanding their ecological and evolutionary responses to global change is critical for predicting the ecological and economic management of species and communities that rely on them. Giant kelp (
We conducted a population genetic analysis of the stalked kelp,
- Award ID(s):
- 1831937
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10372530
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Phycology
- Volume:
- 56
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0022-3646
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 110-120
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Foundation species structure communities, promote biodiversity, and stabilize ecosystem processes by creating locally stable environmental conditions. Despite their critical importance, the role of foundation species in stabilizing natural communities has seldom been quantified. In theory, the stability of a foundation species should promote community stability by enhancing species richness, altering the population fluctuations of individual species, or both. Here we tested the hypothesis that the stability of a marine foundation species, the giant kelp
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