The Role of Small Inlets as Potential Reactor Vessels for Gelatinous Zooplankton in Chesapeake Bay
This study tests the hypothesis that small inlets along Chesapeake Bay tributaries act as 'reactor vessels' for gelatinous zooplankton species that can control much of plankton dynamics and survival of early life stages of summer breeding fishes in the mesohaline region of the Chesapeake Bay system. If the hypothesis is correct, exchange between these reactor vessels and the mainstem tributaries may strongly influence, and under some circumstances may even control, upper trophic level dynamics in Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Depending on the ingress:export ratio, the breeder-vessel characteristic of these small inlets may allow them to act as nutrient sinks, reducing nutrient export to mainstem of tributaries, or as sites of seed-populations for consumers that strongly influence trophic dynamics.
|
Denise Breitburg
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
|
|
|
