Resource pulses are thought to structure communities and food webs through the assembly of consumers. Aggregated consumers represent a high quality resource subsidy that becomes available for trophic transfer during and after the pulse. In estuarine systems, riverine flood pulses deliver large quantities of basal resources and make high quality habitat available for exploitation by consumers. T...

Nanoparticles from the rapidly increasing number of consumer products that contain manufactured nanomaterials are being discharged into waste streams. Increasing evidence suggests that several classes of nanomaterials may accumulate in sludge derived from wastewater treatment and ultimately in soil following land application as biosolids. Little research has been conducted to evaluate the impac...

In food-web studies, parasites are often ignored owing to their insignificant biomass. We provide evidence that parasites may affect trophic transfer in aquatic food webs. Many phytoplankton species are susceptible to parasitic fungi (chytrids). Chytrid infections of diatoms in lakes may reach epidemic proportions during diatom spring blooms, so that numerous free-swimming fungal zoospores (2-3...

In a radiotracer study designed to evaluate the fate of metals from fish prey to predator fish, we measured the trophic transfer of 7 trace elements (Am, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Mn, Zn) from juvenile Mediterranean sea bream Sparus auratus to 3 predator species, the teleosts Psetta maxima and Sparus auratus, and the elasmobranch Scyliorhinus canicula. Prey S. auratus were labeled by exposure to metal ra...

Dietary uptake could be the primary route of arsenic (As) bioaccumulation in marine fish, but the bioavailability of inorganic and organic As remains elusive. In this study, we investigated the trophic transfer and bioavailability of As in herbivorous rabbitfish Siganus fuscescens and carnivorous seabass Lateolabrax japonicus. Rabbitfish were fed with one artificial diet or three macroalgae, wh...

Predators are a major source of stress in natural systems because their prey must balance the benefits of feeding with the risk of being eaten. Although this 'fear' of being eaten often drives the organization and dynamics of many natural systems, we know little about how such risk effects will be altered by climate change. Here, we examined the interactive consequences of predator avoidance an...

Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants have become distributed ubiquitously in the environment. High concentrations have been reported in U.S. sewage sludge (biosolids). The burgeoning practice of land-applying biosolids as fertilizer creates an avenue for reintroduction of PBDEs to surface waters and aquatic sediments. Bioavailability of biosolids- and sediment-associated PBDEs ...

Marine food webs are important links between Hg in the environment and human exposure via consumption of fish. Estuaries contain sediment repositories of Hg and are also critical habitat for marine fish and shellfish species consumed by humans. MeHg biotransfers from sites of production in estuarine sediments to higher trophic levels via both benthic and pelagic pathways. In this study, we inve...

The ecological impacts of predation risk are influenced by how prey allocate foraging effort across periods of safety and danger. Foraging decisions depend on current danger, but also on the larger temporal, spatial or energetic context in which prey manage their risks of predation and starvation. Using a rocky intertidal food chain, we examined the responses of starved and fed prey (Nucella la...