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Estuarine Total Ecosystem Metabolism
Citation:
Oczkowski, A. AND B. Jessen. Estuarine Total Ecosystem Metabolism. Encyclopedia of Estuaries. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, Netherlands, , 300-303, (2015).
Impact/Purpose:
This entry for the Encyclopedia of Estuaries on Estuarine Total Ecosystem Metabolism (TEM) defines TEM, describes how the concept evolved in ecology, and how estuarine ecologists are applying different measures of TEM in current studies.
Description:
Total ecosystem metabolism (TEM), both as discrete measurements and as a theoretical concept, has an important history in ecosystem ecology, particularly in estuaries. Some of the earliest ecological studies were developed to determine how energy flowed through an ecosystem and whether these systems were net importers or exporters of organic matter. In estuaries, measurements of TEM are challenging as their dynamic nature makes them difficult to characterize. Estuarine ecologists most often focus on components of TEM, like the net ecosystem metabolism (NEM), which can indicate how much organic matter is consumed within an estuary or exported to the coastal ocean, as well as how impacted an estuary is by anthropogenic inputs of nutrients and organic matter.
