Ecosystem services transcend boundaries: estuaries provide resource subsidies and influence functional diversity in coastal benthic communities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Estuaries are highly productive ecosystems that can export organic matter to coastal seas (the 'outwelling hypothesis'). However the role of this food resource subsidy on coastal ecosystem functioning has not been examined.

Methodology/principal findings

We investigated the influence of estuarine primary production as a resource subsidy and the influence of estuaries on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in coastal mollusk-dominated sediment communities. Stable isotope values (δ(13)C, δ(15)N) demonstrated that estuarine primary production was exported to the adjacent coast and contributed to secondary production up to 4 km from the estuary mouth. Further, isotope signatures of suspension feeding bivalves on the adjacent coast (Dosinia subrosea) closely mirrore

SUBMITTER: Savage C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3411827 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature