Cross-Habitat Subsidies

We're interested in the movement of animals and materials from one habitat to the next over the landscape (seascape) scale, especially in coastal and estuarine ecosystems.

For her dissertaion reseach, Kathryn estimated production of a sciaenid fish (Bairdiella chrysoura), that uses eelgrass beds for rearing, and estimated contribution to the near-coastal marine ecosystem from this migrating species (Sobocinski and Latour 2015).

Cross-habitat subsidies are difficult to identify and quantify in open marine systems, especially in temperate regions where visibility is limited, but are likely important for maintaining ecosystem function. We will continue work in this area and investigate integrators of ecosystem processes, like mobile fishes, birds, and invertebrates.