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Quantitative food web modeling unravels the importance of the microphytobenthos-meiofauna pathway for a high trophic transfer by meiofauna in soft-bottom intertidal food webs.
Citation:
van der Heijden, L., N. Niquil, M. Haraldsson, R. Asmus, S. Pacella, M. Graeve, J. Rzeznik-Orignac, H. Asmus, B. Saint-Beat, AND B. Lebreton. Quantitative food web modeling unravels the importance of the microphytobenthos-meiofauna pathway for a high trophic transfer by meiofauna in soft-bottom intertidal food webs. ECOLOGICAL MODELLING. Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 430:109129, (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2020.109129
Impact/Purpose:
Understanding the structure and function of coastal ecosystems is critical for a variety of research and management goals, including conservation biology, biogeochemical cycling pathways, provisioning of ecosystem goods and services, and ecosystem health and stability assessments. This study improves our understanding of the structure and function of temperature estuarine ecosystems by incorporating new information on the trophic role of benthic meiofauna, and assessing their role in the food web dynamics of these ecosystems. The role of meiofauna has traditionally been ignored or poorly constrained in previous ecosystem food web studies. New data on biomass and feeding ecology of meiofauana was incorporated into existing temperature estuarine food web models, and the roles of meiofauna in each ecosystem were assessed using ecological network analysis. Results showed that the trophic pathway from microphytobenthos to meiofauna was the largest flow in all the ecosystems investigated, highlighting the importance of incorporating meiofauna in analyses of coastal ecosystem structure and function. This study also highlights best practices for the comparison of food web models across ecosystems, as well as the utility of incorporating biomarker information (e.g. stable isotopes, fatty acids) into food web models.
Description:
Meiofauna are known to have an important influence on several ecological processes, still, their role in food web dynamics is often poorly understood. Here, we are using qualitative food web modeling integrating detailed information about this compartment to unravel their role in food web dynamics. The highly productive microphytobenthos and meiofauna compartments play an important role in the carbon fluxes of five soft-bottom intertidal habitats, as highlighted by food web models. Flows of carbon were determined using the linear inverse model-Markov chain Monte Carlo technique. New data on biomass and feeding ecology of meiofauna was integrated into existing food web models from the Marennes-Oléron Bay and the Sylt-Rømø Bight. Ecological network analyses provided insights on food web characteristics, e.g. cycling, throughput and redundancy, which were compared between the modeled systems. The pathway from microphytobenthos to meiofauna was the largest flow in all habitats, with little influence of variations in availability and productivity of food sources. This resulted in high production and short turnover time of meiofauna. Macrofauna relied on a wider range of food sources and had a much longer turnover time. All trophic groups of meiofauna, except for selective deposit feeders, had a very high dependency on microphytobenthos. Selective deposit feeders relied instead on a wider range of food sources, with varying contributions of bacteria, microphytobenthos and sediment organic matter. Splitting meiofauna compartments and aggregating macrofauna compartments, resulting in a similar number of compartments for all food webs, reduced the food web model cycling and increased the redundancy.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Quantitative food web modeling unravels the importance of the microphytobenthos-meiofauna pathway for a high trophic transfer by meiofauna in soft-bottom intertidal food webs.