Journal
BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS
Volume 11, Issue 4, Pages 917-926Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10530-008-9304-4
Keywords
Food webs; Invertebrates; Ecosystem engineers; Stable isotopes; California; Salt marsh
Categories
Funding
- Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program
- University of California Coastal Environmental Quality Initiative
- UC-Davis Public Service Research Group
- Bodega Marine Laboratory
- Sigma Xi
- Jastro Shields
- NSF Biocomplexity Program [DEB-0083583]
- Point Reyes National Seashore [PORE-2001-SCI-0026]
- Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary [GFNMS-2001-004]
- Cypress Grove Preserve
- China Camp State Park
- East Bay Regional Parks
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Studies examining the impacts of introduced species on food webs often focus on the top-down effects of introduced predators. However, marine and estuarine systems have been invaded by plants that have the potential to alter carbon and nitrogen sources available to consumers. In San Francisco Bay, California, USA, hybridized cordgrass Spartina alterniflora x foliosa is adding C-4 carbon biomass to this system. We used natural abundances of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen to examine whether infaunal and epifaunal food webs reflected the large detrital input from hybrid Spartina. We compared stable isotope signatures among macrofaunal invertebrate consumers collected in hybrid Spartina, native S. foliosa, or unvegetated mudflats. We found no additional shift towards hybrid Spartina in hybrid areas. Structural changes brought about by an invasive ecosystem engineer, specifically increased biomass and detrital inputs, do not necessarily result in its increased incorporation into the food web.
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