Resistance of polychaete species and trait patterns to simulated species loss in coastal lagoons

The loss of species is known to have negative impacts on the integrity of ecosystems, but the details of this relationship are still far from being fully understood. This study investigates how the distribution patterns of polychaete species and their associated biological trait patterns in six Mediterranean coastal lagoons change under computationally simulated scenarios of random species loss. Species were progressively removed from the full polychaete assemblage and the similarity between the full assemblage and the reduced matrices of both species and trait patterns was calculated. The results indicate the magnitude of changes that might follow species loss in the real world, and allow consideration of the resistance of the system's functional capacity to loss of species, expressed through the species' biological traits as an approximation to functioning. Comparisons were made between the changes in the distribution of species and of traits, as well as between the six different lagoons. While the change of species and trait patterns was strongly correlated within most lagoons, different lagoons showed distinctly different patterns. In disturbed lagoons, the dominance of one or few species was the major driver for the observed patterns and the loss of these species caused extreme changes. Less disturbed lagoons were less susceptible to extreme changes and had a greater resistance towards species loss. Species richness appears to be less important for the ability of the lagoons to buffer changes, instead the initial composition of the assemblage and the identity of the lost species determine the response of the system and our ability to predict changes of the assemblage's functional potential.