Highly Productive Tropical Seagrass Beds Support Diverse Consumers and a Large Organic Carbon Pool in the Sediments

Tropical seagrass beds are productive coastal ecosystems that are important blue carbon sinks and crucial habitats and feeding grounds for consumers at high trophic levels. To understand how energy sustains the ecosystem from seagrass production, we constructed an Ecopath trophic model to reveal the...

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Autores principales:	Chen-Lu Lee, Wei-Jen Lin, Pi-Jen Liu, Kwang-Tsao Shao, Hsing-Juh Lin
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	biodiversity blue carbon Ecopath network analysis seagrass beds South China Sea Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a8fad0575c974cf99d88c5c83189c47e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a8fad0575c974cf99d88c5c83189c47e2021-11-25T17:22:31ZHighly Productive Tropical Seagrass Beds Support Diverse Consumers and a Large Organic Carbon Pool in the Sediments10.3390/d131105441424-2818https://doaj.org/article/a8fad0575c974cf99d88c5c83189c47e2021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/13/11/544https://doaj.org/toc/1424-2818Tropical seagrass beds are productive coastal ecosystems that are important blue carbon sinks and crucial habitats and feeding grounds for consumers at high trophic levels. To understand how energy sustains the ecosystem from seagrass production, we constructed an Ecopath trophic model to reveal the possible pathways of energy flow in the tropical seagrass beds around Dongsha Island, South China Sea. The model indicates that Dongsha seagrass beds were developing but well-structured ecosystems. The productive seagrasses were rarely directly consumed by herbivores and, ultimately, flowed into detrital pools. Detritus was the main food source used to support diverse consumers in the food web. Nevertheless, the low cycling rate (2.74%) suggests that most detritus was not reused or exported and was stored as a large organic carbon pool in the sediments. The detritus-feeding invertebrates are keystone groups in the Dongsha seagrass beds, as they recycle energy from detritus and transfer to top predators such as sharks. The predation of top predators affected the biomasses of other compartments, leading to strong top-down control via a trophic cascade effect.Chen-Lu LeeWei-Jen LinPi-Jen LiuKwang-Tsao ShaoHsing-Juh LinMDPI AGarticlebiodiversityblue carbonEcopathnetwork analysisseagrass bedsSouth China SeaBiology (General)QH301-705.5ENDiversity, Vol 13, Iss 544, p 544 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	biodiversity blue carbon Ecopath network analysis seagrass beds South China Sea Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	biodiversity blue carbon Ecopath network analysis seagrass beds South China Sea Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Chen-Lu Lee Wei-Jen Lin Pi-Jen Liu Kwang-Tsao Shao Hsing-Juh Lin Highly Productive Tropical Seagrass Beds Support Diverse Consumers and a Large Organic Carbon Pool in the Sediments
description	Tropical seagrass beds are productive coastal ecosystems that are important blue carbon sinks and crucial habitats and feeding grounds for consumers at high trophic levels. To understand how energy sustains the ecosystem from seagrass production, we constructed an Ecopath trophic model to reveal the possible pathways of energy flow in the tropical seagrass beds around Dongsha Island, South China Sea. The model indicates that Dongsha seagrass beds were developing but well-structured ecosystems. The productive seagrasses were rarely directly consumed by herbivores and, ultimately, flowed into detrital pools. Detritus was the main food source used to support diverse consumers in the food web. Nevertheless, the low cycling rate (2.74%) suggests that most detritus was not reused or exported and was stored as a large organic carbon pool in the sediments. The detritus-feeding invertebrates are keystone groups in the Dongsha seagrass beds, as they recycle energy from detritus and transfer to top predators such as sharks. The predation of top predators affected the biomasses of other compartments, leading to strong top-down control via a trophic cascade effect.
format	article
author	Chen-Lu Lee Wei-Jen Lin Pi-Jen Liu Kwang-Tsao Shao Hsing-Juh Lin
author_facet	Chen-Lu Lee Wei-Jen Lin Pi-Jen Liu Kwang-Tsao Shao Hsing-Juh Lin
author_sort	Chen-Lu Lee
title	Highly Productive Tropical Seagrass Beds Support Diverse Consumers and a Large Organic Carbon Pool in the Sediments
title_short	Highly Productive Tropical Seagrass Beds Support Diverse Consumers and a Large Organic Carbon Pool in the Sediments
title_full	Highly Productive Tropical Seagrass Beds Support Diverse Consumers and a Large Organic Carbon Pool in the Sediments
title_fullStr	Highly Productive Tropical Seagrass Beds Support Diverse Consumers and a Large Organic Carbon Pool in the Sediments
title_full_unstemmed	Highly Productive Tropical Seagrass Beds Support Diverse Consumers and a Large Organic Carbon Pool in the Sediments
title_sort	highly productive tropical seagrass beds support diverse consumers and a large organic carbon pool in the sediments
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/a8fad0575c974cf99d88c5c83189c47e
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Highly Productive Tropical Seagrass Beds Support Diverse Consumers and a Large Organic Carbon Pool in the Sediments

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