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

以碎屑为基础的食物网以陆地、河口和沿海生态系统的死亡有机物为燃料，支持沿海地区的许多消费生物（如浮游动物、螃蟹、蛤蜊、鱼类）。但是，这些食物网对于河口消费者来说是统一可用的（即高度连接的），还是分散发生的（在空间和时间上是分开的），目前还不完全清楚。虽然最近的研究表明，食物网与特定碎屑来源的联系的空间规模、强度和持久性可以在狭窄的过渡带迅速改变，但这些研究都位于微潮河口，几乎没有邻近河流的输入。本研究将评估普吉特海湾北部五个河口的食物网分区，以量化不同淡水影响下河口沼泽、泥滩和海草生态系统沿潮间带梯度的食物网连接的规模、强度和机制（水流）。我们的实验范围从米到公里，从季节到年际。量化食物网与不同生物和碎屑来源的连通性的规模、强度和持久性将有助于完善基于生态系统的方法，以管理河口和海岸的恢复、保护和资源利用。结果将阐明河口恢复行动，如拆除堤坝以重新引入潮汐过程，或建立河口保护区，如何扩大食物网连接的规模，超出管理行动的范围。通过研究受河流影响的太平洋西北河口，本研究还将探讨河流流量和流域变化对不同沿海环境下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.