Symposium # 3: Linking Communities Across Ecosystem Boundaries: A Symposium in Memory of Gary A. Polis.

Organized by: D.M. Sanzone.
Sponsored by: Aquatic Ecology Section.
Sunday, August 6, 2000
8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Ballroom III - Cliff Lodge

Land-water margins, in addition to harboring unique communities of organisms, are areas of active exchange of organisms, organic matter, and nutrients between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Much of the research conducted at this land-water interface has focused on the unidirectional flow of energy and organisms from terrestrial watersheds to adjacent aquatic habitats. Recent studies, however, suggest that the translocation of energy, nutrients, and organisms from aquatic systems to the surrounding terrestrial landscape may be more important than traditionally thought. This has direct implications for how we model nutrient fluxes and food web interactions both within and across traditional ecosystem boundaries within the watershed. New experimental techniques, such as those that utilize stable isotopic tracers or persistent novel chemicals, coupled with newly developed theoretical concepts such as analysis of "resource sheds" and utilization of "perimeter to area ratios", can provide ecologists with new tools to model these trophic transfers and identify food web linkages at multiple scales. The purpose of this symposium is to synthesize findings from freshwater and marine studies in order to: 1) Document the flow of energy and nutrients from aquatic to terrestrial habitats; 2) Determine if terrestrial consumers respond to this additional nutrient and energy subsidy; and 3) Determine how human alteration of the watershed might impact connectivity between these aquatic and terrestrial foodwebs.