Pubblicazione scientifica

Seasonal variation in the diet of estuarine bivalves

FILONE TECNOLOGICO	TEMA
economia circolare e sostenibilità
trasformazione e commercializzazione

RIASSUNTO

Estuarine food webs are generally considered to be supported by marine pelagic and benthic primary producers and by the import of dead organic matter from the open sea. Although estuaries receive considerable amounts of freshwater phytoplankton and organic compounds from adjacent rivers, the potential contribution of these living and dead matter to estuarine food webs is often assumed to be negligible and, therefore, not examined. Based on stable isotope analyses, we report the importance of freshwater suspended particulate organic matter (FW-SPOM) for fuelling estuarine food webs in comparison to estuarine SPOM and microphytobenthos. This previously neglected food source contributed 50–60% (annual average) of food intake of suspension-feeding bivalves such as cockles (Cerastoderma edule), mussels (Mytilus edulis) and Pacific oysters (Magallana gigas) at the Balgzand tidal flats, an estuarine site in the western Wadden Sea (12–32 psu). For these species, this proportion was particularly high in autumn during strong run-off of SPOM-rich freshwater, whilst estuarine SPOM (20%-25%) and microphytobenthos (15%-30%) were relatively important in summer when the freshwater run-off was very low. These findings have implications for our understanding of the trophic interactions within coastal food webs and for freshwater management of estuarine ecosystems.

DATA

Data di pubblicazione: 17/06/2019

AUTORI

JUNG ALEXA SARINA
VAN DER VEER HENK W
VAN DER MEER MARCEL T J
PHILIPPART CATHARINA J M

ENTE DI AFFERENZA

NIOZ ROYAL NETHERLANDS INST SEA RSCH DEPT COASTAL SYS UTRECHT UNIV AB DEN BURG TEXEL NETHERLANDS
NIOZ ROYAL NETHERLANDS INST SEA RSCH DEPT MICROBIOLOGY & BIOGEOCHEMISTRY UTRECHT UNIV AB DEN BURG TEXEL NETHERLANDS
UNIV UTRECHT DEPT PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY TC UTRECHT NETHERLANDS
UNIV AVEIRO PORTUGAL

RIVISTA

PLoS ONE, 14(6), e0217003

IMPACT FACTOR

2,870

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