Flow Mediation by Understory Kelp Beds: Consequences to Benthic Organisms

埃克曼博士和他的合作者一直在研究林下海藻对水流的影响，以及它对以浅潮下岩石底质为主的悬浮觅食者的补充和生长的意义。在早期的研究中，他证明：1)质量传输，2)颗粒沉积，3)悬浮喂食者的生长，以及4)悬浮喂食者的招募很大程度上受到林下海藻的影响。在所研究的所有物种中，海带树冠下的生长比附近裸露区域的生长更大，海带对补充的影响是显著的。继续进行的研究将阐明决定这些模式的水动力过程，并将审查可能对观察到的处理效果作出贡献的非水动力协变量。几种假设的机制可能对观察到的模式有贡献。这些机制将在一系列实地和实验室实验中加以研究，以评估水动力和非水动力过程对生活在近岸岩石生境的悬浮喂食者的生长和招募的相对贡献。这一更广泛的观点的发展代表了海洋生态中流体动力学研究的一个重要和合乎逻辑的进步。

Dr. Eckman and collaborators have been investigating the influence of understory kelps on flow, and its significance to recruitment and growth of suspension feeders that dominate shallow subtidal rocky substrata. In earlier research he demonstrated that: 1) mass transport, 2) particulate deposition, 3) growth of suspension feeders, and 4) recruitment of suspension feeders were greatly affected by the presence of understory kelps. For all species studied, growth was greater beneath kelp canopies than at nearby exposed areas and effects of kelps on recruitment were significant. The continuing research will elucidate the hydrodynamic processes that determined these patterns and will examine non-hydrodynamic covariates that may have contributed to the observed treatment effects. Several hypothesized mechanisms may have contributed to patterns observed. These mechanisms will be examined in a series of field and laboratory experiments that will allow assessment of the relative contributions of hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic processes to growth and recruitment of suspension feeders living in nearshore rocky habitats. Development of this broader view represents an important and logical progression in studies of hydrodynamics in marine ecology.