Trophic ecology of invertebrates in an intertidal seagrass community: spatial and functional variability in the importance of primary producers

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: This project aimed to understand the relationship between marine invertebrates associated with the intertidal seagrass Phyllospadix scouleri, and the greater intertidal community. I hypothesized that individual invertebrate species would show distinctive feeding ecologies due to differences in proportional utilization of primary producer organic matter. I also predicted that species would show shifts in their resource utilization between the wave-protected and wave-exposed sites. Stable isotope analysis offered a method for determining their food sources, since they are difficult to observe. Combined with the mixing model analysis completed by the program MixSir, I was able to track both which food sources were utilized, and whether this varied with location, for each invertebrate. I found that all the consumers relied on a variety of food resources, appearing to be generalists rather than specialists, and that they utilized the resources differentially based on the location they were collected from. This likely derives from the differences in wave exposure of the two sites, and the change in the bioavailability of organic matter as a food resource between the two sites studied.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 2012

Subject	Hopkins Marine Station
Subject	Stanford Biology Department
Subject	surfgrass
Subject	surf grass
Subject	seagrass
Subject	Phyllospadix scouleri
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/jg207bw1860

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Preferred Citation: Lummis, Sarah Campbell (2012). Trophic ecology of invertebrates in an intertidal seagrass community: spatial and functional variability in the importance of primary producers. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/jg207bw1860

Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University Honors Theses

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