ケルプ森林と砂浜生態系の食物網の連結を解明(Kelp forests connected to sandy beach food webs)

2026-05-04 カリフォルニア大学サンタバーバラ校(UCSB)

University of California, Santa Barbaraの研究は、ケルプ(海藻)林と砂浜の食物網が密接に結びついていることを明らかにした。従来は別々の生態系と考えられていたが、ケルプ由来の有機物が波や海流によって砂浜へ運ばれ、昆虫や小動物の餌となり、それがさらに上位捕食者へとつながることで、生態系全体を支えていることが示された。この連結は沿岸生態系の生産性や生物多様性に重要な役割を果たす。海藻林の減少は砂浜生態系にも影響を及ぼす可能性があり、沿岸環境の保全において統合的な視点の必要性を示す研究である。

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補助金を受けた沿岸生態系における食物網構造と生態系の多機能性 Food web structure and ecosystem multifunctionality in a subsidized coastal ecosystem

Kyle A. Emery,Jenifer E. Dugan,David M. Hubbard,J. Carter Ohlmann,Jessica R. Madden & Robert J. Miller
Scientific Reports  Published:07 November 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-25395-5

ケルプ森林と砂浜生態系の食物網の連結を解明(Kelp forests connected to sandy beach food webs)

Abstract

The structure and functioning of all ecosystems face growing threats, ranging from local development to global climate change. Ecosystems with little to no in situ primary production may be disproportionately dependent on resources from other ecosystems. We examined the role of basal resource availability on community structure and ecosystem multifunctionality of sandy beaches. We hypothesized that substantial marine macrophyte wrack inputs from productive nearshore ecosystems, like kelp forests, would drive recipient beach ecosystem structure and function. Using piecewise structural equation modeling, we found wrack abundance had a strong positive effect on beach food web diversity and biomass of detritivorous and predatory macroinvertebrates as well as ecosystem multifunctionality, an integrative measure of ecosystem functioning. Resource inputs and biodiversity both explained ecosystem multifunctionality, but the role of biodiversity was strongly underpinned by wrack inputs. The diversity and abundance of top predators, shorebirds, responded similarly to resource availability. Our findings suggest the influence of marine foundation species, such as giant kelp, can extend to recipient ecosystems as detrital subsidies. The highly coupled nature of these coastal ecosystems increases the likelihood that negative impacts to donor ecosystems will cascade to affect the structure and function of subsidized recipient ecosystems.

1404水産水域環境
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