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Living in the Canopy of the Animal Forest: Physical and Biogeochemical Aspects

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Book cover Marine Animal Forests

Abstract

Long-lived hard and soft coral species that are able to develop dense patches with a complex, three-dimensional structure form an animal forest canopy, similar to trees in terrestrial systems. Aside from the shelter provided by this canopy to other organisms, the animal forest can significantly modify the local physical and biogeochemical environment.

In the first part of this chapter, the modification of benthic boundary layer hydrodynamics in and above canopies is described, with a focus on the impacts of canopy density and flexibility. In the second part of this chapter, the structure of diffusive and advective mass transfer in canopies will be presented and discussed in relation to the biogeochemical transformations observed in animal forest canopies. Ongoing challenges in the conceptualization of physical and biogeochemical processes in animal forest canopies are also exposed. In the third part of this chapter, we review the factors that form the basis of a mechanistic explanation of the development of micro-niches, which explain the large diversity hosted in animal forest canopies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Ecogéochimie des Environnements Benthiques (LECOB), Observatoire Océanologique, Sorbonne Universités, CNRS, UPMC Univ Paris 06, 18 avenue du Fontaulé, 66650, Banyuls/Mer, France

    Katell Guizien

  2. Department of Infrastructure Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Marco Ghisalberti

  3. School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia

    Marco Ghisalberti

Authors
  1. Katell Guizien
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  2. Marco Ghisalberti
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Correspondence to Katell Guizien .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Sergio Rossi

  2. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, Laboratoire d’Ecogéochimie des Environnements Benthiques (LECOB) Observatoire Océanologique, Banyuls/Mer, France

    Lorenzo Bramanti

  3. Departament d’Ecologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Andrea Gori

  4. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Palma, Mallorca, Spain

    Covadonga Orejas

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Guizien, K., Ghisalberti, M. (2017). Living in the Canopy of the Animal Forest: Physical and Biogeochemical Aspects. In: Rossi, S., Bramanti, L., Gori, A., Orejas , C. (eds) Marine Animal Forests. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21012-4_14

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