By Donald S. McLusky, Michael Elliott

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Additional info for The Estuarine Ecosystem: Ecology, Threats, and Management (Oxford Biology)

Sample text

The supply of larvae within estuaries does present some problems, as planktonic larvae may get carried out of the estuary by flushing currents. Many estuarine animals have thus suppressed the plankton larval stage, and only have bottom-living larval forms. 2) excludes many species, and thus the estuary represents for those species, which can adapt to the environment, an escape from competition in the sea or freshwater. Thus those species that can adapt to estuaries are able to utilize the rich food supply available there, and it is this food supply, which becomes the main factor controlling the biomass and productivity of estuarine animals.

Whereas in brackish seas the waters are less turbid due to their lack of tides and there may often be a wider variety of habitats ranging from rocky shores through to soft-sediments. 3 The estuarine food web The estuarine food web is dependent on the input of energy from sunlight and the transportation of organic matter into the estuary by rivers and tides. Within the estuary the plants, or primary producers, convert these inputs into living biological material. As the plants grow they are consumed by the herbivores, or primary consumers, which are in turn consumed by the carnivores, or secondary consumers.

Such a food web is derived from an understanding of the biology and feeding habits of the various members of the estuarine ecosystem. The studies of ecosystem processes and the factors controlling energy flow, either at the species or the community level are the basic building blocks of our understanding of the estuarine ecosystem. Initially many studies have concentrated on single species, measuring their consumption, growth, and the production of energy. In time such studies can be combined in order to build up food webs or trophic diagrams, and eventually we can measure the trophic structure, cycling, and the ecosystem properties of estuaries.

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