Chemosynthetic trophic support for the benthic community at an intertidal cold seep site at Mocha Island off central Chile     

Javier Sellanes  Germán Zapata-Hernández  Silvio Pantoja  Gerdhard L. Jessen 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2011

We analyzed C and N stable isotope ratios of benthic fauna and their potential food sources at an intertidal methane seep site and a control site without emanation at Mocha Island (central Chile). The objective was to trace the origin of the main food sources used by the local heterotrophic fauna, based on the hypothesis that chemosynthetic production could be partially fueling the local food web at the seep site. Food sources sampled at both sites included macroalgae, particulate organic matter and bacteria-like filaments found growing over the red algae Gelidium lingulatum within the areas of active methane release.  相似文献   

Trophic functioning of the St. Lucia estuarine lake during a drought phase assessed using stable isotopes     

Natasha Govender  Albertus J. SmitRenzo Perissinotto 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2011

The St. Lucia Estuary is Africa’s largest estuarine system and is currently experiencing the stress of prolonged freshwater deprivation, manifested by extremely low water levels and hypersalinity. These unprecedented conditions have raised questions regarding the trophic functioning of the ecosystem. Despite the substantial amount of research previously undertaken within this system, no studies of food web structure and function have yet been documented. This study therefore aimed to examine the food web structure of the St. Lucia estuary system through the use of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis. Analysis of carbon isotope ratios indicates that benthic carbon sources are most utilised at sites with low water levels and generally higher salinity (Catalina Bay, Charter’s Creek). Conversely, the estuarine region of the mouth and Narrows, with its elevated water levels and lower salinity, still sustains a viable pelagic food web. Analysis of δ¹⁵N ratios indicates that the number of trophic transfers (food chain length) might be related to water levels. Overall, the study provides a greater understanding of the ecological processes of this complex estuarine lake, which may allow for future comparisons of trophic functioning under drought and normal/wet conditions to be made.  相似文献   

Origin of resources and trophic pathways in a large SW Atlantic estuary: An evaluation using stable isotopes     

Florencia Botto  Esteban Gaitán  Hermes Mianzan  Marcelo Acha  Diego Giberto  Agustín Schiariti  Oscar Iribarne 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2011

The Río de la Plata (34° 36′ S, 55° 58′ W; Argentina and Uruguay) estuary, one of the most important South American estuarine environments, is characterized by weak seasonal freshwater discharge, low tidal amplitude (<1 m), a wide and permanent connection to the sea, and a salt-wedge regime. Using stable isotope analysis, we explored the relative importance of the different sources of primary production in the food web. Our results show that phytoplankton and macrodetritus from terrestrial salt and freshwater marshes both contribute to the food web of the Río de la Plata estuary. On the basis of the sampled species, we identified four trophic levels. The clam Mactra isabelleana, the calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa, and the opossum shrimp Neomysis americana are the primary consumers. The rays Atlantoraja castelnaui and Squatina guggenheim and the shark Galeorhinus galeus are the top predators. The Río de la Plata food web shows an important input of nutrients derived from phytoplankton. Rays, sharks, and predatory gastropods reveal an important contribution of C4 plants (likely Spartina spp.). However, production derived from C3 plants is also important for some species. The fishes Brazilian menhaden, Brevoortia aurea; the stripped weakfish Cynoscion guatucupa; and the whitemouth croaker, Micropogonias furnieri, showed differences in their isotopic signatures as juveniles and adults, indicating different food sources, and they were therefore treated as different components of the food web. Our data suggest that detritus from salt and freshwater marshes is reaching the Río de la Plata estuary and can be an important allocthonous source of energy to this environment.  相似文献   

Sea,freshwater or saltpans? Foraging ecology of terns to assess mercury inputs in a wetland landscape: The Ebro Delta     

Javier Cotin  Manuel García-Tarrasón  Carolina Sanpera  Lluis Jover  Xavier Ruiz 《Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science》2011

The Ebro catchment, the largest river basin in Spain, includes various heavily industrialized areas. Among these is the Flix site, where a chemical plant has been operating since the beginning of the 20th century. This extended operational period, together with the construction of a dam next to the factory around 1960, resulted in the accumulation of large amounts of heavily polluted sediments in the adjacent riverbed, many of which are contaminated by mercury. Pollutants from Flix are carried downstream by the Ebro River to its delta. In order to assess the transfer of mercury to the complex river estuary ecosystem, we studied the ecology of the tern community living there as these birds segregate into a range of habitats. For this purpose, first we used stable isotope analysis (SIA) (δ³⁴S, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) of eggs to determine the trophic ecology and habitat partitioning of several tern species (Common, Sandwich, Little, Gull-Billed and Whiskered Tern) breeding sympatrically, in order to link their foraging ecology with habitat types. Next we measured mercury concentrations in eggs to monitor the input of this metal into the diverse habitats. With the exception of the Little Tern, the other terns used a restricted habitat range in the Ebro Delta, as shown by C and S isotopes; the Gull-Billed and Whiskered Tern foraged in freshwater habitats, while the Common and Sandwich Tern used marine habitats. This restricted feeding behavior of the Gull-Billed and Common Tern contrasts with previous reports in other breeding sites. The Little Tern, which showed a wide range of isotopic values, was found to be an opportunistic forager but fed mainly in saltpans, a feeding habitat not reported previously for this species in this area. We found that mercury concentrations are related to foraging habitat and diet, and are unexpectedly higher in species feeding on demersal prey in marine habitats and also higher in birds feeding in saltpans than in those feeding in freshwater habitats. The mercury concentrations found in the Little and Common Tern eggs sampled in “Punta de la Banya” may be sufficiently high to endanger breeding success.  相似文献   

稳定同位素方法在海洋N_2O研究中应用展望     

张介霞  詹力扬  陈立奇  张远辉 《海洋技术学报》2011,30(1)

氧化亚氮(N2O)是大气中重要和微量的温室气体,且在平流层N2O形成NO自由基与O3发生反应破坏臭氧层.海洋是大气中N2O净源,但由于海洋中生物化学过程的复杂性,有关N2O形成机制至今是人们研究的重点和难点.应用稳定同位素分馏原理对海洋中N2O形成机制的研究,区分海洋中通过硝化和反硝化过程不同途径产生的N2O过程,为深入研究海洋中N2O循环、估算将来大气中N2O浓度变化提供有用工具.  相似文献   

Trophic ecology of small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis Bleeker): stable carbon and nitrogen isotope evidence     

����  ��ѩ��  ������  ��ʥ�� 《中国海洋湖沼学报》2011,29(5):1033-1040

The trophic ecology of the small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis) was studied using stable isotope analyses. Samples were collected from July to September 2009 and 34 individuals from eight sites were examined for stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. Stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) ranged from -20.67 to -15.43, while stable nitrogen isotope ratios (δ15N) ranged 9.18-12.23. The relationship between δ13C and δ15N suggested high resource partitioning in the sampling area. Significant differences in stable isotope values among the eight sampling sites may be linked to environmental diversities involving various physical processes (such as ocean current, wind and tide) and different carbon sources. Furthermore, the stable isotope ratios may also explain the ontogenetic variability in diet and feeding, because δ13C and δ15N varied significantly with increasing body size. The findings are consistent with other studies on diet analyses in small yellow croaker. It was also demonstrated that stable isotope analysis could be used to estimate the trophic characters of small yellow croaker in feeding patterns and migrating habits.  相似文献   

Application of stable isotope techniques in studies of carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles of ecosystem   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Zhigao Sun  Xiaojie Mou  Xinhua Li  Lingling Wang  Hongli Song  Huanhuan Jiang 《中国地理科学(英文版)》2011,21(2):129-148

Stable isotope techniques have been proved useful as tools for studying the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) biogeochemical cycles of ecosystem. This paper firstly introduced the basic principles and the distribution characteristics of stable isotope, then reviewed the recent advances and applications of stable isotope in the C and N biogeochemical cycles of ecosystem. By applying the 13 C natural abundance technique, ecologists are able to understand the photosynthetic path and CO 2 fixation of plants, the CO 2 exchange and C balance status of ecosystem, the composition, distribution and turnover of soil organic C and the sources of organic matter in food webs, while by using the 13 C labeled technique, the effects of elevated CO 2 on the C processes of ecosystem and the sources and fate of organic matter in ecosystem can be revealed in detail. Differently, by applying the 15 N natural abundance technique, ecologists are able to analyze the biological N 2 -fixation, the N sources of ecosystem, the N transformation processes of ecosystem and the N trophic status in food webs, while by using the 15 N labeled technique, the sources, transformation and fate of N in ecosystem and the effects of N input on the ecosystem can be investigated in depth. The applications of both C and N isotope natural abundance and labeled techniques, combined with the elemental, other isotope ( 34 S) and molecular biomarker information, will be more propitious to the investigation of C and N cycle mechanisms. Finally, this paper concluded the problems existed in current researches, and put forward the perspective of stable isotope techniques in the studies on C and N biogeochemical cycles of ecosystem in the future.  相似文献   

土壤碳循环研究进展及干旱区土壤碳循环研究展望   总被引：5，自引：1，他引：4  

许文强  陈曦  罗格平  蔺卿 《干旱区地理》2011,(4)

土壤碳库动态及其驱动机制是陆地生态系统碳循环与全球变化研究的热点问题之一。随着各国对《京都议定书》的重视,农业土壤碳库变化及其源汇效应研究不断加强,但以往研究土壤碳循环主要是针对有机碳,较少考虑无机碳的作用和地位,干旱区土壤无机碳储量巨大,其在区域碳循环过程中的贡献日益显著,这使得干旱区土壤碳循环研究必须同时考虑土壤有机碳和无机碳的行为。国内外关于农业土壤有机碳动态的研究主要围绕农业土壤有机碳储量、固碳潜力等问题展开,研究区多为湿润、半湿润地区;国际上对农业土壤无机碳动态的研究主要集中在干旱区土地管理措施对土壤发生性碳酸盐碳的形成与转化方面,研究方法以稳定同位素技术为主,但目前关于中国干旱区农业土壤无机碳动态的研究还较为薄弱。因此,应加强干旱区绿洲土壤碳循环研究,深入分析干旱区绿洲土壤碳的源/汇效应;探讨土壤无机碳动态变化的机理。  相似文献   

Differential utilization of a shallow-water pulse by six shrub species in the Patagonian steppe     

E. KowaljowR.J. Fernández 《Journal of Arid Environments》2011,75(2):211-214

A field experiment was performed to improve understanding of the functional diversity of western Patagonian shrubs. Anarthrophyllum rigidum, Adesmia volckmanni, Berberis heterophylla, Mulinum spinosum, Schinus poligamus and Senecio filaginoides were compared in their capacity to absorb water from a 10-mm pulse enriched in deuterium and applied at the beginning of the dry summer. Xylem-water enrichment 14 days after watering was rather subtle, but the upper-soil signal was clear enough to distinguish shallow from deeper absorption. According to a linear mixing model, the proportion of surface-pulse water relative to total water uptake was maximum for Senecio (29-38%) and Mulinum (22-32%), both relatively shallow-rooted species, intermediate for Berberis (16-17%) and Schinus (6-9%), and negligible for the two N-fixing Fabaceae: Adesmia (<1%) and Anarthrophyllum (<3%), despite this last one having a dimorphic (tap + shallow) root system. It is hypothesized that shallow-water pulses may be more profitable in terms of nitrogen than of water, and thus constitute a higher-quality resource for those species only able to use N from soil sources.  相似文献   

Late Cretaceous paleoenvironmental evolution of the Tarfaya Atlantic coastal Basin,SW Morocco     

《Cretaceous Research》2013

Lithological evidence, benthic foraminiferal census counts, and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanner-derived elemental data were integrated with planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy and bulk carbonate stable isotopes to retrace the Turonian to early Campanian paleoenvironmental evolution and sea-level history of the Tarfaya Atlantic coastal basin (SW Morocco). The lower Turonian is characterized by laminated organic-rich deposits, which contain impoverished benthic foraminiferal assemblages, reflecting impingement of the oxygen minimum zone on the shelf during a sea-level highstand. This highstand level is correlated to the global transgressive pulse above the sequence boundary Tu1. The appearance of low-oxygen tolerant benthic foraminiferal assemblages dominated by Gavelinella sp. in the middle to upper Turonian indicates an improvement in bottom water oxygenation, probably linked to offshore retraction of the oxygen minimum zone during a regressive phase. This interval is marked by major regressive events expressed by a series of erosional truncations associated with the prominent sequence boundaries Tu3 and/or Tu4. Dysoxic–anoxic conditions recorded in the upper Santonian of the Tarfaya Basin coincide with the eustatic sea-level rise prior to Sa3 sequence boundary. The lower Campanian transgression, only recorded in the southern part of the Tarfaya Basin, coincided with substantial deepening, enhanced accumulation of fine-grained clay-rich hemipelagic sediments and improved oxygenation at the seafloor (highest diversity and abundance of benthic foraminiferal assemblages). Stable isotope data from bulk carbonates are tentatively correlated to the English Chalk carbon isotope reference curve, in particular the Hitch Wood Event in the upper Turonian, the Navigation Event in the lower Coniacian, the Horseshoe Bay Event in the Santonian and the Santonian/Campanian Boundary Event.  相似文献