Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MARINE BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY
Volume 407, Issue 2, Pages 309-314Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.jembe.2011.06.028
Keywords
Benthic food webs; Ecosystem functioning; Macrofauna; Meiofauna; Stable isotopes
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Funding
- Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad - VLIR-UOS
- Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Flanders, Belgium)
- FWO [G.0041.08N]
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Benthic diatoms are assumed to be of minor importance as food sources in sandy-beach food webs, since they are typically scarce in sandy-beach sediments; whereas organic matter derived from land and sea is known to be more important in sandy-beach food webs. In order to test if benthic and planktonic diatoms play a minor or major role, respectively, in sandy-beach food webs, a laboratory experiment was conducted. Labelled planktonic and benthic diatoms, enriched in the stable carbon C-13 isotope, were offered as food sources to sandy-beach macrofauna and meiofauna communities. Uptake of both types of diatoms occurred with most of the species, but benthic diatoms were preferentially consumed by two macrofaunal species and all meiofaunal species. This result reveals the importance of benthic carbon sources in both macrofaunal and interstitial food webs, and suggests a link between both food webs through the common use of benthic diatoms. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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