Plant-mediated community structure of spring-fed, coastal rivers.

ABSTRACT: Quantifying ecosystem-level processes that drive community structure and function is key to the development of effective environmental restoration and management programs. To assess the effects of large-scale aquatic vegetation loss on fish and invertebrate communities in Florida estuaries, we quantified and compared the food webs of two adjacent spring-fed rivers that flow into the Gulf of Mexico. We constructed a food web model using field-based estimates of community absolute biomass and trophic interactions of a highly productive vegetated river, and modeled long-term simulations of vascular plant decline coupled with seasonal production of filamentous macroalgae. We then compared ecosystem model predictions to observed community structure of the second river that has undergone extensi

SUBMITTER: Lauretta MV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6936880 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature