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Coastal food webs can be supported by local benthic or pelagic primary producers and by the import of organic matter. Distinguishing between these energy sources is essential for our understanding of ecosystem functioning. However, the relative contribution of these components to the food web at the landscape scale is often unclear, as many studies lack good taxonomic and spatial resolution across large areas. Here, using stable carbon isotopes, we report on the primary carbon sources for consumers and their spatial variability across one of the world's largest intertidal ecosystems (Dutch Wadden Sea; 1460 km2 intertidal surface area), at an exceptionally high taxonomic (178 species) and spatial resolution (9,165 samples from 839 locations). The absence of overlap in δ13C values between consumers and terrestrial organic matter suggests that benthic and pelagic producers dominate carbon input into this food web. In combination with the consistent enrichment of benthic primary producers (δ13C −16.3‰) relative to pelagic primary producers (δ13C −18.8) across the landscape, this allowed the use of a two-food-source isotope-mixing model. This spatially resolved modelling revealed that benthic primary producers (microphytobenthos) are the most important energy source for the majority of consumers at higher trophic levels (worms, molluscs, crustaceans, fish, and birds), and thus to the whole food web. In addition, we found large spatial heterogeneity in the δ13C values of benthic primary producers (δ13C −19.2 to −11.5‰) and primary consumers (δ13C −25.5 to −9.9‰), emphasizing the need for spatially explicit sampling of benthic and pelagic primary producers in coastal ecosystems. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of the functioning of ecological networks and for the management of coastal ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the last decades, the invasive Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) increased dramatically in the Wadden Sea. One of the driving mechanisms for the success of the Pacific oyster could be a relatively low predation pressure by epibenthic predators and shore birds on oyster spat. Nevertheless, observations and experiments on predation rates on early life-stages of the Pacific oyster are rare. Therefore, we examined predation rates of brown shrimps on Pacific oyster spat in a number of laboratory experiments. Our results demonstrate that spat of Pacific oysters are most susceptible to predation by brown shrimps (Crangon crangon) in the first days after settlement, when attachment to the substrate (unglazed tiles in our study) is still absent or weak. At this stage the shell length of oyster spat is around ~300μm, and around 50% of the individuals in the experiment were consumed in the two hour trials. Predation rates decreased rapidly as the spat grew larger and reached zero within 10days after settlement of the spat (shell length>700μm). Additional experiments revealed that the attachment of oysters is probably limiting predation by brown shrimps rather than the size of the spat. This indicates that Pacific oyster spat may limit predation loss faster compared to native bivalves, which commonly depend on size to reduce predation rates. Overall, our results suggest that the invasive success of Pacific oysters may in part be explained by relatively low predation rates throughout their life stages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]