ecosystem services transcend boundaries estuaries provide resource subsidies and influence functional diversity in coastal benthic communities河口生态系统服务超越界限提供资源补贴和沿海底栖生物群落功能多样性的影响.pdfVIP

Ecosystem Services Transcend Boundaries: Estuaries Provide Resource Subsidies and Influence Functional Diversity in Coastal Benthic Communities 1 2 2 2 Candida Savage *, Simon F. Thrush , Andrew M. Lohrer , Judi E. Hewitt 1 Department of Marine Science, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, 2 National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Hamilton, New Zealand Abstract Background: Estuaries are highly productive ecosystems that can export organic matter to coastal seas (the ‘outwelling hypothesis’). However the role of this food resource subsidy on coastal ecosystem functioning has not been examined. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the influence of estuarine primary production as a resource subsidy and the influence of estuaries on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in coastal mollusk-dominated sediment communities. Stable isotope values (d13C, d15N) demonstrated that estuarine primary production was exported to the adjacent coast and contributed to secondary production up to 4 km from the estuary mouth. Further, isotope signatures of suspension feeding bivalves on the adjacent coast (Dosinia subrosea) closely mirrored the isotope values of the dominant bivalves inside the estuaries (Austrovenus stutchburyi), indicating utilization of similar organic matter sources. However, the food subsidies varied between estuaries; with estuarine suspended particulate organic matter (SPOM) dominant at Tairua estuary, while seagrass and fringing vegetation detritus was proportionately more important at Whangapoua estuary, with lesser contributions of estuarine SPOM. Distance from the estuary mouth and the size and density of large bivalves (Dosinia spp.) had a significant influence on the composition of b