Applied ecosystem chemistry: linking biogeochemical and physiological processes to ecological interactions

• Main Author: Feddern, Megan Lee
• Other Authors: Holtgrieve, Gordon W
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: amino acid; harbor seal; nitrogen; northeast Pacific; stable isotopes; trophic position; Ecology; Biogeochemistry; Fisheries; Pacific; Phoca vitulina
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1773/48253

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2021 Physical environments are changing globally due to anthropogenic impacts which have the potential to alter ecological interactions. To understand how ecological interactions are changing, long-term datasets are necessary to document ecological baselines from the past that are comparable to current ecological conditions. Stable isotope values can be useful chemical tracers for retrospective analyses which can elucidate changes in biogeochemistry and trophic interactions that influence food webs. My dissertation applies compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) of amino acids and inorganic nitrogen to understand long-term, regional, ecological responses to physical conditions in the northeast Pacific. I tested the long-term importance of salmon subsidies to Alaskan riparian ecosystems by measuring inorganic nitrogen concentrations, transformation rates, and nitrogen stable isotope values in soil following a 20-year carcass manipulation experiment. Carcass subsidies did not increase soil nitrogen concentrations or transformation rates but the nitrogen stable isotope value of ammonium was significantly enriched in 15N compared to salmon carcasses, indicating the importance of salmon derived nutrients is likely overestimated for some systems. Using museum skull specimens from two species of pinnipeds in the northeast Pacific, harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus), I derived a century of predator stable isotope data. I compared the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values of source amino acids to regional climate datasets and determined coastal food webs responded to climate regimes, coastal upwelling, and freshwater discharge, yet the strength of responses to individual drivers varied across the northeast Pacific. These findings demonstrate stable isotope data can serve as a tracer of nitrogen resources and phytoplankton dynamics that is specific to resources that are assimilated by food webs. To calculate pinniped trophic ...