Continental-scale study reveals how dead foundation species shape ecosystem memory and living conspecifics

Summary

This article presents the first continental-scale study of how dead foundation species (trees, grasses, corals, oysters) continue to influence living members of the same species and ecosystem processes after death. Based on long-term experiments and observations spanning 2 to 32 years across 10 ecosystems (five terrestrial and five marine) within the US Long Term Ecological Research Network, the research demonstrates that the material remains of foundation species create ecological legacies that shape ecosystem structure and function long after the organisms have died.

Source

bskyContinental-scale study reveals how dead foundation species shape ecosystem memory and living conspecificsscience.org