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Variable nutrient stoichiometry (carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus) across trophic levels determines community and ecosystem properties in an oligotrophic mangrove system

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Abstract

Our study investigated the carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus (C:N:P) stoichiometry of mangrove island of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef (Twin Cays, Belize). The C:N:P of abiotic and biotic components of this oligotrophic ecosystem was measured and served to build networks of nutrient flows for three distinct mangrove forest zones (tall seaward fringing forest, inland dwarf forests and a transitional zone). Between forest zones, the stoichiometry of primary producers, heterotrophs and abiotic components did not change significantly, but there was a significant difference in C:N:P, and C, N, and P biomass, between the functional groups mangrove trees, other primary producers, heterotrophs, and abiotic components. C:N:P decreased with increasing trophic level. Nutrient recycling in the food webs was highest for P, and high transfer efficiencies between trophic levels of P and N also indicated an overall shortage of these nutrients when compared to C. Heterotrophs were sometimes, but not always, limited by the same nutrient as the primary producers. Mangrove trees and the primary tree consumers were P limited, whereas the invertebrates consuming leaf litter and detritus were N limited. Most compartments were limited by P or N (not by C), and the relative depletion rate of food sources was fastest for P. P transfers thus constituted a bottleneck of nutrient transfer on Twin Cays. This is the first comprehensive ecosystem study of nutrient transfers in a mangrove ecosystem, illustrating some mechanisms (e.g. recycling rates, transfer efficiencies) which oligotrophic systems use in order to build up biomass and food webs spanning various trophic levels.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by a US-National Science Foundation Biocomplexity grant (DEB-998 1483). Fieldwork was conducted on the Carrie Bow Cay field station of the Smithsonian Institute. M. Carpenter and A. Chamberlain, Q. Roberts, V. Brenneis, B. Smallwood and D. Thornton are gratefully acknowledged for assistance in the field. Q. Roberts, V. Brenneis and P. Zelanko helped with C and N elemental analysis at the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie institution of Washington. M. F. and M. J. W. gratefully acknowledge support from the Smithsonian Institution’s Loeb Fellowship and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, M. E. J. M. gratefully acknowledges the laboratory of D. Capone for material and instrumental support. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville Campus, Durban, 4001, South Africa

    U. M. Scharler

  2. Arthur R. Marshall Laboratory, Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611-8525, USA

    R. E. Ulanowicz

  3. Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Solomons, MD, 20688-0038, USA

    R. E. Ulanowicz

  4. Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5251 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC, 20015, USA

    M. L. Fogel

  5. School of Natural Science, University of California at Merced, Merced, CA, 95343, USA

    M. L. Fogel

  6. School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775-5860, USA

    M. J. Wooller

  7. Alaska Stable Isotope Facility, Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 755860, Fairbanks, AK, 99775-5860, USA

    M. J. Wooller

  8. University of Southern California Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, 3616 Trousdale Parkway AHF 139, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0371, USA

    M. E. Jacobson-Meyers

  9. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    C. E. Lovelock

  10. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD, 21037, USA

    I. C. Feller

  11. Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, Savannah, GA, 31411, USA

    M. Frischer

  12. Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations, University of Southern California, AHF 209, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0371, USA

    R. Lee

  13. US Geological Survey, National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, LA, 70506, USA

    K. McKee

  14. College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    I. C. Romero

  15. National Capital Region Inventory and Monitoring Network, National Park Service, 4598 MacArthur Boulevard NW, Washington, DC, 20007, USA

    J. P. Schmit

  16. Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Room 265 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    C. Shearer

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  1. U. M. Scharler
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  2. R. E. Ulanowicz
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  3. M. L. Fogel
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  4. M. J. Wooller
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  6. C. E. Lovelock
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  7. I. C. Feller
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  8. M. Frischer
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  9. R. Lee
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  10. K. McKee
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  11. I. C. Romero
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  12. J. P. Schmit
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  13. C. Shearer
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Correspondence to U. M. Scharler.

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Communicated by Michael Madritch.

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Scharler, U.M., Ulanowicz, R.E., Fogel, M.L. et al. Variable nutrient stoichiometry (carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus) across trophic levels determines community and ecosystem properties in an oligotrophic mangrove system. Oecologia 179, 863–876 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3379-2

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