TY - JOUR T1 - Ecosystem engineering creates a new path to resilience in plants with contrasting growth strategies A1 - Soissons,Laura A1 - Van Katwijk,Marieke M. A1 - Li,Baoquan A1 - Han,Qiuying A1 - Ysebaert,Tom A1 - Herman,Peter M. J. A1 - Bouma,Tjeerd J. AD - Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems (EDS), NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea ResearchUtrecht , UniversityYerseke,The Netherlands AD - Department of Environmental Sciences, Institute for Wetland and Water Research, Faculty of Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands AD - Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research-Chinese Academy of Sciences (YIC-CAS), Shandong, China AD - MARBEC, Univ. Montpellier-CNRS-Ifremer-IRD, Sète, France AD - Deltares, Delft, The Netherlands UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00592/70447/ DO - 10.1007/s00442-019-04544-4 KW - Recovery from disturbance KW - Resistance to stress KW - Seagrass KW - Sulphide intrusion N2 - Plant species can be characterized by different growth strategies related to their inherent growth and recovery rates, which shape their responses to stress and disturbance. Ecosystem engineering, however, offers an alternative way to cope with stress: modifying the environment may reduce stress levels. Using an experimental study on two seagrass species with contrasting traits, the slow-growing Zostera marina vs. the fast-growing Zostera japonica, we explored how growth strategies versus ecosystem engineering may affect their resistance to stress (i.e. addition of organic material) and recovery from disturbance (i.e. removal of above-ground biomass). Ecosystem engineering was assessed by measuring sulphide levels in the sediment porewater, as seagrass plants can keep sulphide levels low by aerating the rhizosphere. Consistent with predictions, we observed that the fast-growing species had a high capacity to recover from disturbance. It was also more resistant to stress and still able to maintain high standing stock with increasing stress levels because of its ecosystem engineering capacity. The slow-growing species was not able to maintain its standing stock under stress, which we ascribe to a weak capacity for ecosystem engineering regarding this particular stress. Overall, our study suggests that the combination of low-cost investment in tissues with ecosystem engineering to alleviate stress creates a new path in the growth trade-off between investment in strong tissues or fast growth. It does so by being both fast in recovery and more resistant. As such low-cost ecosystem engineering may occur in more species, we argue that it should be considered in assessing plant resilience. Y1 - 2019/12 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC JF - Oecologia SN - 0029-8549 VL - 191 IS - 4 SP - 1015 EP - 1024 ID - 70447 ER -