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Shrimp Palaemonetes-Pugio; Cordgrass Spartina-Alterniflora; Reed Phragmites-Australis; Fundulus-Heteroclitus; Food-Web; Grass Shrimp; Top-Down; Uhlorchestia-Spartinophila; Infaunal Communities; Benthic Microalgae
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Full-Text Articles in Animal Sciences
Susceptibility Of Salt Marshes To Nutrient Enrichment And Predator Removal, La Deegan, Jl Bowen, D Drake, Jw Fleeger, Carl T. Friedrichs, Et Al.
Susceptibility Of Salt Marshes To Nutrient Enrichment And Predator Removal, La Deegan, Jl Bowen, D Drake, Jw Fleeger, Carl T. Friedrichs, Et Al.
VIMS Articles
Salt marsh ecosystems have been considered not susceptible to nitrogen overloading because early studies suggested that salt marshes adsorbed excess nutrients in plant growth. However, the possible effect of nutrient loading on species composition, and the combined effects of nutrients and altered species composition on structure and function, was largely ignored. Failure to understand interactions between nutrient loading and species composition may lead to severe underestimates of the impacts of stresses. We altered whole salt marsh ecosystems (similar to 60 000 m(2)/treatment) by addition of nutrients in flooding waters and by reduction of a key predatory fish, the mummichog. We …