Variation in food web reliance on green and brown energy pathways across ecosystem gradients.

ABSTRACT: Aquatic food webs typically include highly coupled fast, 'green' energy pathways driven by algae or phytoplankton and slower, 'brown' energy channels driven by detritus and terrestrial plants. Quantifying how much energy biological communities obtain from each of these pathways is essential, particularly across multiple interconnected food webs over large areas, because energy dynamics are known to influence ecosystem structure and function. Despite their importance, few studies track variance in energy channel contributions to food webs across interconnected habitats during distinct hydrologic seasons. In this study, we used tri-isotope Bayesian mixing models to quantify seasonal contributions of energy pathways to consumers in nine aquatic food webs across two river drainages in the Flor

SUBMITTER: Sturges JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12871965 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature