Assessment of aquatic food web and trophic niche as a measurement of recovery function in restored mangroves in the Southern Gulf of Mexico

PeerJ

article

Miriam Soria-Barreto¹  Rosela Pérez-Ceballos³  Arturo Zaldívar-Jiménez⁴  Rolando Gelabert Fernández¹ 

[1] Centro de Investigación de Ciencias Ambientales, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Autónoma del Carmen;Laboratorio de Ecología Acuática y Monitoreo Ambiental, CEDESU, Universidad Autónoma de Campeche;CONACYT Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología Estación El Carmen UNAM, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México;ATEC Asesoría Técnica y Estudios Costeros SCP

关键词: Gulf of Mexico;    Fish;    Macroinvertebrates;    Stable isotopes;    Mixing models;    Restoration;    Seasonal;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.15422

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Mangroves are coastal wetlands with high biodiversity and productivity, with great interaction with coastal environments. In the face of worldwide mangrove loss, restoration projects attempt to recover ecosystem composition and functioning over time. Our objective was to examine and compare the food webs in mangrove areas with different restoration times and in a reference mangrove in Términos Lagoon, Mexico. We estimated the trophic structure, identified the carbon resources that maintain aquatic consumers through the analysis of stable isotopes, and compared the trophic niche of the restored mangroves with the reference mangrove. We analyzed environmental variables, trophic structure, and contributions of resources during three seasons: rainy, dry, and “nortes”. Environmental changes and food structure changed in response to regional seasons. Bayesian mixing models indicated that food webs varied seasonally as a response to the primary productivity developed at Términos Lagoon. As expected, the assimilation of C3 plants in the reference mangrove was highest, as a primary (“nortes” season) and secondary resource (dry and rainy seasons). The restored mangroves depended mainly on allochthonous resources (seagrass, epiphytes, and phytoplankton). The assimilation of these resources highlighted the importance of connectivity and the input of sources of carbon from nearby coastal environments. Trophic niche analysis showed that the area with longer restoration time was more similar to the reference mangrove, which is evidence of the importance and efficacy of the restoration process, as well as the restoration of the ecosystem function over time.

【 授权许可】

CC BY