SBC LTER: Land Ocean Reef: Carbon, Nitogen and Hydrogen isotopes for evaluating food sources for subtidal consumers, 2009-2010

Potentially important food sources to consumers on shallow subtidal
reefs include phytoplankton-dominated seston, kelp-derived detritus,
and for locations adjacent to sources of freshwater runoff,
terrestrially-derived material. The SBC LTER is using stable carbon,
nitrogen and deuterium isotope ratio analysis to evaulate the relative
contribution of these sources to reef food webs. We collect seasonal samples from five core SBCLTER research reefs
(Arroyo Hondo, Naples, Arroyo Burro, Goleta bay and Carpinteria), and
areas adjacent. We routinely collect several types of samples: from
giant kelp ( Macrocystis pyrifera ), red, brown and
green algae, terrestrial material (Oak leaves), stream, sediment and
ocean water particulate organic material, and a benthic polychaete
worm (Diopatra). This information will be used to evaluate whether these isotopic
values differ enough from one another to permit the use of mixing
models to estimate the contribution of each source to the reef food
web.

在亚热带浅海亚潮礁区，消费者的潜在关键食物来源包括以浮游植物为主的悬浮颗粒有机质（seston）、海带来源的碎屑，以及邻近淡水径流源区域的陆源物质。美国圣芭芭拉海岸长期生态研究站（SBC LTER）采用稳定碳、氮及氘同位素比值分析，评估上述各类食物来源对礁区食物网的相对贡献份额。研究团队在5个核心SBC LTER研究礁区（阿雷约·翁多、那不勒斯、阿雷约·伯罗、戈利塔湾及卡平特里亚）及其邻近海域开展季节性采样。研究人员常规采集以下几类样本：巨藻（Macrocystis pyrifera）、红藻、褐藻与绿藻，陆源物质（橡树叶）、溪流及海洋水体中的颗粒有机质，以及底栖多毛类蠕虫（Diopatra）。该数据集将用于验证各类同位素特征值的差异是否足以支持利用混合模型，估算各食物来源对礁区食物网的贡献占比。