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Abstract
Food web dynamics outline the ecosystem processes that regulate community structure. Challenges in the approaches used to capture topological descriptions of food webs arise due to the difficulties in collecting extensive empirical data with temporal and spatial variations in community structure and predator–prey interactions. Here, we use a Kohonen self-organizing map algorithm (as a measure of community pattern) and stable isotope-mixing models (as a measure of trophic interaction) to identify food web patterns across a low-turbidity water channel of a temperate estuarine-coastal continuum. We find a spatial difference in the patterns of community compositions between the estuarine and deep-bay channels and a seasonal difference in the plankton pattern but less in the macrobenthos and nekton communities. Dietary mixing models of co-occurring dominant taxa reveal site-specific but unchanging food web topologies and the prominent role of phytoplankton in the trophic base of pelagic and prevalent-detrital benthic pathways. Our approach provides realistic frameworks for linking key nodes from producers to predators in trophic networks.
Highlights
Food web dynamics outline the ecosystem processes that regulate community structure
While a large variety of theoretical stimulations and empirical tests have been adopted to construct community trophic networks, identifying key species and feeding links is crucial to the architecture of a food web diagram that further characterizes ecological d ynamics[9,41,42]
Subsequent isotope mixing-model estimation of trophic linkages between co-occurring dominant taxa highlighted a spatial variation in food web architecture that was in accordance with community typologies
Summary
Food web dynamics outline the ecosystem processes that regulate community structure. Challenges in the approaches used to capture topological descriptions of food webs arise due to the difficulties in collecting extensive empirical data with temporal and spatial variations in community structure and predator–prey interactions. Fluctuations in the processes create distinct community patterns along the salinity gradient and the scale and magnitude of community patterns are subject to seasonal changes in freshwater discharge[4,5,6]. This wide spectrum of variability with space and time constructs the structural and dynamic properties of estuarine food webs[7,8]. Seasonal and longitudinal patterns in community structure in an estuarine-coastal continuum allow for the classification of benthic and pelagic community compositions along steep environmental gradients and the establishment of a solid basis of temporal and spatial scales for the further modelling of food webs. Analyses of community composition should consider almost all taxonomic and/or functional groups colonizing both water and sediment at the appropriate spatial and temporal scales because of their potential interactions
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