Variation in Food Web Connectivity across Intertidal Gradients in Embayment and Fluvially- Dominated Estuaries

以碎屑为基础的食物网由陆地、河口和沿海生态系统的死亡有机物提供燃料，支持许多消费生物（例如，浮游动物、螃蟹、蛤、鱼）。 但是这些食物网是否是均匀可用的（即，与河口消费者高度相关）或离散发生（在空间和时间上划分）尚不完全清楚。 虽然最近的研究表明，空间尺度，强度和持久性的食物网链接到特定的碎屑源可以迅速改变狭窄的过渡区，这些研究位于小潮河口很少或没有相邻的河流输入。 本研究将评估食物网划分在北方普吉湾的五个河口之间的量化的规模，强度和机制（水流）的食物网连接沿着潮间带梯度的河口沼泽，泥滩，海草生态系统在不同的淡水影响。我们的实验规模将从米到公里，从季节到年际。量化食物网连接到不同的生活和碎屑来源的规模，强度和持久性将有助于完善基于生态系统的方法来管理河口和沿海恢复，保护和资源利用。结果将揭示如何河口恢复行动，如拆除堤坝，重新引入潮汐过程，或建立河口保护区，可能会扩大规模的食物网连接超出位置的管理行动。通过研究各种受河流影响的太平洋西北河口，本研究还将解决河流流量和流域变化对不同沿海环境生态系统连通性的影响。

Detritus-based food webs fueled by dead organic matter from terrestrial, estuarine and coastal ecosystems support many consumer organisms (e.g., zooplankton, crabs, clams, fish) in the coastal zone. But whether these food webs are uniformly available (i.e., highly connected) to estuarine consumers or occur discretely (compartmentalized in space and time) is not entirely clear. Although recent studies have shown that the spatial scale, strength and persistence of food web links to specific detritus sources can rapidly change over narrow transition zones, these studies were located in microtidal estuaries with little or no adjacent riverine input. This study will evaluate food web compartmentalization among five estuaries in northern Puget Sound to quantify the scale, strength and mechanisms (water flow) of food web connections along intertidal gradients of estuarine marsh, mudflat, and seagrass ecosystems under differing freshwater influences. The scale of our experiments will range from meters to kilometers and from seasonal to interannual.Quantifying scales, strengths and persistence of food web connectivity to different living and detrital sources will help refine ecosystem-based approaches to managing estuarine and coastal restoration, protection, and resource use. Results will shed light on how estuarine restoration actions such as removing levees to reintroduce tidal processes, or establishing estuarine reserves, may expand the scale of food web connectivity beyond location of the management action. By examining a variety of Pacific Northwest estuaries influenced by rivers, this study will also address the effect of river flow and watershed alteration on ecosystem connectivity across different coastal settings.