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Food web restructuring across an urban estuarine gradient
Ryan J Woodland1, Lora Harris2, Erin Reilly2,3
1Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, 146 Williams St, PO Box 38, Solomons, MD, 20688, USA. woodland@umces.edu.
Ambio
|August 10, 2021
Summary
Urbanization disrupts estuarine food webs, decoupling pathways and contracting consumer diets. This ecological degradation increases human health risks, highlighting the urban estuarine paradox.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Environmental Science
- Urban Ecology
Background:
- Urban estuaries provide critical ecosystem services but face numerous stressors.
- Trophic pathways stabilize food webs, yet urbanization impacts are poorly understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the consequences of urbanization on estuarine food web structure and human health risks.
- To explore the relationship between ecological degradation and human well-being in urban estuaries.
Main Methods:
- Studied estuarine creeks along an urban-to-suburban gradient.
- Analyzed trophic decoupling, trophic niche contraction, and human health risks.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated trophic decoupling between benthic and pelagic pathways.
- Observed trophic niche contraction in consumer diets.
- Found increasing human health risks linked to ecological degradation.
Conclusions:
- Urbanization creates an "urban estuarine paradox" where habitat is created but becomes unproductive.
- Environmental degradation in urban estuaries impacts both ecological integrity and human community health.
- Findings underscore the interconnectedness of urban ecosystem health and human sustenance.
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