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Stable Isotopes Clearly Track Mangrove Inputs and Food Web Changes Along a Reforestation Gradient

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Abstract

Despite worldwide efforts to restore degraded mangrove forests in the past decades, defining and tracking restoration success remains a major challenge. In this study, we used a multi-isotope approach to trace ecosystem responses to forest clearing and replanting in a tropical mangrove forest reserve at Matang, Malaysia. We measured δ2H or δD deuterium, δ13C and δ15N (HCN isotopes) in common macroinvertebrate consumers (barnacles, prawns, gastropods, and crabs) across a 70-year chronosequence of mangroves. Functional food web recovery was indicated by a decrease in δ13C and δ15N and increase in δD for gastropod and crab consumers in older forests. Timing of this shift in food web isotopic signals took place between 5 and 15 years post-clearing of mangroves. These changes in food web function paralleled changes in crab community composition, but also reflected changes in physicochemical conditions within the forest, such as increased tree cover and shading, which resulted in a shift of the food web base from microalgal-derived to mangrove-derived organic matter. Prawns and barnacles from tidal waters adjacent to the mangrove forests were estimated to derive 17 to 25% of their nutrition from mangroves, primarily from a microbial loop that was processing localised dissolved and particulate organic matter exported from mangrove marshes. The top-down mixing model approach using combined HCN isotope measurements clearly separated inputs from mangroves versus microalgae for the first time in estuarine food web studies, and tracked ecological mangrove ecosystem recovery. This combination of tracers is recommended for future studies of mangrove conservation and restoration.

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Acknowledgements

This collaborative project between the University of Malaya and Griffith University was supported by RU026-2015, an IRU-MRUN Global Collaborative Research Programme grant awarded to both VCC and SYL. MFA was supported by the Queensland Government through the Advance Queensland Program. We wish to thank the following for their invaluable assistance: Perak Department of Forestry for permission to conduct fieldwork in MMFR, A. Sasekumar for help with faunal identification, Jamizan A. Rahman and Jennice Yap for assistance during fieldwork; Lee Soon Loong, Yong Yu Lin and Ahmad Bakrin Sofawi for labwork help, and Johnathan D. Maxey for his insight and useful discussion. We are grateful for the comments by two anonymous reviewers that have improved the manuscript. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Amy Yee-Hui Then, Ving Ching Chong & Rozainah Mohammad Zakaria

  2. Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Amy Yee-Hui Then & Rozainah Mohammad Zakaria

  3. Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, 4111, Australia

    Maria Fernanda Adame, Brian Fry & Shing Yip Lee

  4. NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry Department, Utrecht University, PO Box 59, 1790AB, Den Burg, The Netherlands

    Philip M. Riekenberg

  5. Simon F S Li Marine Science Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, and Earth System Science Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Shing Yip Lee

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  1. Amy Yee-Hui Then
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  2. Maria Fernanda Adame
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  3. Brian Fry
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Correspondence to Amy Yee-Hui Then.

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Authors Contributions

SYL, VCC, BF, MFA, RMZ designed the study. SYL, VCC, BF, AT, MFA and RMZ performed the research; BF, PR, AT analysed the data. AT, BF, MFA, PR wrote the paper.

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Then, A.YH., Adame, M.F., Fry, B. et al. Stable Isotopes Clearly Track Mangrove Inputs and Food Web Changes Along a Reforestation Gradient. Ecosystems 24, 939–954 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00561-0

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