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dc.contributor.authorJardine, Timothy D
dc.contributor.authorRayner, Thomas S
dc.contributor.authorPettit, Neil E
dc.contributor.authorValdez, Dominic
dc.contributor.authorWard, Douglas P
dc.contributor.authorLindner, Garry
dc.contributor.authorDouglas, Michael M
dc.contributor.authorBunn, Stuart E
dc.date.accessioned2017-08-02T01:18:53Z
dc.date.available2017-08-02T01:18:53Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.identifier.issn0029-8549
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s00442-016-3786-z
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/342683
dc.description.abstractFood web subsidies from external sources (“allochthony”) can support rich biological diversity and high secondary and tertiary production in aquatic systems, even those with low rates of primary production. However, animals vary in their degree of dependence on these subsidies. We examined dietary sources for aquatic animals restricted to refugial habitats (waterholes) during the dry season in Australia’s wet–dry tropics, and show that allochthony is strongly size dependent. While small-bodied fishes and invertebrates derived a large proportion of their diet from autochthonous sources within the waterhole (phytoplankton, periphyton, or macrophytes), larger animals, including predatory fishes and crocodiles, demonstrated allochthony from seasonally inundated floodplains, coastal zones or the surrounding savanna. Autochthony declined roughly 10% for each order of magnitude increase in body size. The largest animals in the food web, estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), derived ~80% of their diet from allochthonous sources. Allochthony enables crocodiles and large predatory fish to achieve high biomass, countering empirically derived expectations for negative density vs. body size relationships. These results highlight the strong degree of connectivity that exists between rivers and their floodplains in systems largely unaffected by river regulation or dams and levees, and how large iconic predators could be disproportionately affected by these human activities.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherSpringer
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom505
dc.relation.ispartofpageto517
dc.relation.ispartofissue2
dc.relation.ispartofjournalOecologia
dc.relation.ispartofvolume183
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEcology
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEcology not elsewhere classified
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEvolutionary biology
dc.subject.fieldofresearchZoology
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode3103
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode310399
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode3104
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode3109
dc.titleBody size drives allochthony in food webs of tropical rivers
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dc.type.codeC - Journal Articles
dc.description.versionAccepted Manuscript (AM)
gro.facultyGriffith Sciences, Griffith School of Environment
gro.rights.copyright© 2017 Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com
gro.hasfulltextFull Text
gro.griffith.authorBunn, Stuart E.


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