Ecosystem Services Transcend Boundaries: Estuaries Provide Resource Subsidies and Influence Functional Diversity in Coastal Benthic Communities

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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 (δ ¹³C, δ ¹⁵N) 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 biological traits in the coastal macrobenthic communities, signaling the potential influence of these spatial subsidies on ecosystem functioning.

Conclusions/Significance

Our study demonstrated that the locations where ecosystem services like productivity are generated are not necessarily where the services are utilized. Further, we identified indirect positive effects of the nutrient subsidies on biodiversity (the estuarine subsidies influenced the bivalves, which in turn affected the diversity and functional trait composition of the coastal sediment macrofaunal communities). These findings highlight the importance of integrative ecosystem-based management that maintains the connectivity of estuarine and coastal ecosystems.

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Most cited references 2

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Impacts of salmon on riparian plant diversity.

Ailsa Hocking, Dwight Reynolds (2011)

The study of natural gradients in nutrient subsidies between ecosystems allows for predictions of how changes in one system can affect biodiversity in another. We performed a large-scale empirical test of the role of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in structuring riparian plant communities. A comparison of 50 watersheds in the remote Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia's central coast in Canada shows that salmon influence nutrient loading to plants,shifting plant communities toward nutrient-rich species, which in turn decreases plant diversity.These effects are mediated by interactions between salmon density and the physical characteristics of watersheds. Predicting how salmon affect terrestrial ecosystems is central to conservation plans that aim to better integrate ecosystem values into resource management.

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The impact of protein quality on stable nitrogen isotope ratio discrimination and assimilated diet estimation.

T H Florin, Charles Robbins, L. Felicetti (2010)

Accurately predicting isotopic discrimination is central to estimating assimilated diets of wild animals when using stable isotopes. Current mixing models assume that the stable N isotope ratio (delta(15)N) discrimination (Delta(15)N) for each food in a mixed diet is constant and independent of other foods being consumed. Thus, the discrimination value for the mixed diet is the combined, weighted average for each food when consumed as the sole diet. However, if protein quality is a major determinant of Delta(15)N, discrimination values for mixed diets may be higher or lower than the weighted average and will reflect the protein quality of the entire diet and not that of the individual foods. This potential difference occurs because the protein quality of a mixed diet depends on whether, and to what extent, the profiles and amounts of essential amino acids in the individual foods are complementary or non-complementary to each other in meeting the animal's requirement. We tested these ideas by determining the Delta(15)N of several common foods (corn, wheat, alfalfa, soybean, and fish meal) with known amino acid profiles when fed singly and in combination to laboratory rats. Discrimination values for the mixed diets often differed from the weighted averages for the individual foods and depended on the degree of complementation. Delta(15)N for mixed diets ranged from 1.1 per thousand lower than the weighted average for foods with complementary amino acid profiles to 0.4 per thousand higher for foods with non-complementary amino acid profiles. These differences led to underestimates as high as 44% and overestimates as high as 36% of the relative proportions of fish meal and soybean meal N, respectively, in the assimilated mixed diets. We conclude that using isotopes to estimate assimilated diets is more complex than often appreciated and will require developing more biologically based, time-sensitive models.

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Author and article information

Contributors

: Role: Editor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE

Journal ID (publisher-id): plos

Journal ID (pmc): plosone

Title: PLoS ONE

Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )

ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203

Publication date Collection: 2012

Publication date (Electronic): 3 August 2012

Volume: 7

Issue: 8

Electronic Location Identifier: e42708

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Marine Science, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

[2 ]National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Hamilton, New Zealand

University of Connecticut, United States of America

Author notes

* E-mail: candida.savage@ 123456otago.ac.nz

Competing Interests: Co-author Simon Thrush is a PLoS ONE Editorial Board member. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Conceived and designed the experiments: CS SFT AML JEH. Analyzed the data: CS SFT AML JEH. Wrote the paper: CS SFT AML JEH. Performed the field research and sample processing: AML CS.

Article

Publisher ID: PONE-D-12-06427

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042708

PMC ID: 3411827

PubMed ID: 22880089

SO-VID: a04faf3a-e19d-4c70-a177-8aec382816e5

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

History

Date received : 5 March 2012

Date accepted : 11 July 2012

Page count

Pages: 8

Funding

This work was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries Biodiversity Program (project ZBD2008-07). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Ecosystem Services Transcend Boundaries: Estuaries Provide Resource Subsidies and Influence Functional Diversity in Coastal Benthic Communities

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