Biology subjects

Vandegehuchte, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Vandegehuchte, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Drivers of plant-associated invertebrate community structure in West-European coastal dunes

The organisation of species assemblages is affected by environmental factors acting at different spatial scales. To understand the drivers behind the community structure of invertebrates associated with marram grass -the dominant dune-building ecosystem engineer in European coastal dunes-, we set up a stratified sampling scheme in six biogeographic sectors along the North Sea. We tested to which degree local invertebrate species composition is affected by the spatial organisation of marram grass tussocks. We used distance-based RDA and a joint species distribution modelling approach to understand how species traits and their phylogeny contribute to invertebrate community composition. We show biogeography to be the most important driver, followed by species-specific responses to marram grass cover and vitality. Traits and phylogeny had a minor influence on the species distribution patterns. The residual species covariation suggests negative interactions between groups of specialist and generalist species. From an applied perspective, our research indicates that the biological value of nature-based solutions for the restoration and design of coastal dunes can be optimized by the design of a heterogeneous marram grass planting scheme and/or development.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Biomorphogenic feedbacks and the spatial organisation of a dominant grass steer dune development

Nature-based solutions to mitigate the impact of future climate change depend on restoring biological diversity and natural processes. Coastal foredunes represent the most important natural flood barriers along coastlines worldwide, but their area has been squeezed dramatically because of a continuing urbanisation of coastlines, especially in Europe. Dune development is steered by the development of vegetation in interaction with sand fluxes from the beach. Marram grass (Calamagrostis arenaria, formerly Ammophila arenaria) is the main dune building species along most European coasts, but also in other continents where the species was introduced. Engineering of coastal dunes, for instance by building dunes in front of dikes, needs to be based on a solid understanding of the species interactions with the environment. Only quantitative approaches enable the further development of mechanistic models and coastal management strategies that encapsulate these biomorphogenic interactions. We here provide a quantitative review of the main biotic and physical interactions that affect marram grass performance, their interactions with sand fluxes and how they eventually shape dune development. Our review highlights that the species spatial organisation is central to dune development. We further demonstrate this importance by means of remote sensing and a mechanistic model and provide an outlook for further research on the use of coastal dunes as a nature-based solution for coastal protection.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

Kin competition as driver of range expansions

With ongoing global change, life is continuously forced to move to novel areas, which leads to dynamically changing species ranges. As dispersal is central to range dynamics, factors promoting fast and distant dispersal are key to understanding and predicting species ranges. During range expansions, genetic variation is depleted at the expanding front. Such conditions should reduce evolutionary potential, while increasing kin competition. Organisms able to recognise relatives may be able to assess increased levels of relatedness at expanding range margins and to increase their dispersal in a plastic manner. Using individual-based simulations and experimental range expansions of a spider mite, we demonstrate that plastic responses to kin structure can be at least as important as evolution in driving range expansion speed. Because recognition of kin or kind is increasingly documented across the tree of life, we anticipate it to be a highly important but neglected driver of range expansions.

ecology↗