Abstract
Seagrass beds are important habitats in coastal areas but increasingly decline in area and quality, thus conservation measures are urgently needed. Quantitative food webs, describing the biomass distribution and energy fluxes among trophic groups, reveal structural and functional aspects of ecosystems. Their knowledge can improve ecological conservation. For the recently discovered large warm-temperate seagrass (Zostera japonica) habitat in China’s Yellow River Delta wetland, we used δ13C and δ15N measurements and a Bayesian isotope mixing model to construct its food web diagram with quantitative estimations of consumer diet compositions, comprising detritus and 14 living trophic groups from primary producers to fish. We then estimated the quantitative food web fluxes based on biomass measurements and calculated corresponding ecosystem functions. Pelagic producers were significantly 13C-depleted compared to benthic sources. Consumers (except zooplankton) were increasingly 13C-depleted with increasing trophic positions even though the consumed benthic production surpassed the pelagic one. Bivalves dominated consumer biomasses and fluxes and were the first to connect the pelagic and benthic pathways, whereas zooplankton and gastropods were specialized on the two pathways, respectively. We found flat biomass and production pyramids indicating low trophic transfer efficiencies. Generally, the energetic structure of the quantitative food web was consistent with the stable isotope analysis, and the estimated net primary production and most estimated production to biomass ratios of the trophic groups fell within literature ranges. This study provides a systematical understanding of the quantitative trophic ecology of a seagrass bed and facilitates synergistic knowledge on management, conservation, and restoration.
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Source: Google Earth. Photographs by the authors of representative vegetation communities b near the embankment and c close to the sea
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Data availability
The dataset generated and analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFC1406404 and No. 2017YFC0404505), the NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund (No. U1806217), and the Interdisciplinary Research Funds of Beijing Normal University. X.X. Li is grateful to the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for their financial support to study abroad (No. 201906040070). We are indebted to Jun Pei, Ziyue Zhang, and Xianting Fu for invaluable field assistance. We thank Peter C. de Ruiter and Laurie Wojcik for helpful comments on the manuscript. We also thank Geoffrey Hart for providing language help during the writing of this paper.
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All authors have reviewed the manuscript and approved its submission. XL, UG and WY conceived the study, and XL performed the field sampling and the model analyses under the joint supervision of UG, WY, and TS. The manuscript was written by XL in close cooperation with UG, and valuable comments from WY. All authors approved the final manuscript.
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Li, X., Yang, W., Sun, T. et al. Quantitative food web structure and ecosystem functions in a warm-temperate seagrass bed. Mar Biol 168, 74 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03878-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03878-z