Disturbance legacies increase and synchronize nutrient concentrations and bacterial productivity in coastal ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Long-term ecological research can resolve effects of disturbance on ecosystem dynamics by capturing the scale of disturbance and interactions with environmental changes. To quantify how disturbances interact with long-term directional changes (sea-level rise, freshwater restoration), we studied 17 yr of monthly dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total nitrogen (TN), and phosphorus (TP) concentrations and bacterioplankton productivity across freshwater-to-marine estuary gradients exposed to multiple disturbance events (e.g., droughts, fire, hurricanes, and low-temperature anomalies) and long-term increases in water levels. By studying two neighboring drainages that differ in hydrologic connectivity, we additionally tested how disturbance legacies are shaped by hydrologic connectivity. We predi

SUBMITTER: Kominoski JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7317527 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature