how do coastal marine invertebrates and algae control their environment?
This project will suit a biologist who is interested in coastal and marine management issues. Coastal sediment habitats are of high ecological importance for their microbial and macroinvertebrate communities which support trophic webs including coastal fisheries and avifauna, especially migratory and wintering wildfowl and wading birds. Coastal sediments also act as natural buffers to hydrodynamic erosion, this being of increasing importance with current environmental change and associated sea level rise. However these processes are intrinsically linked through mediation of nutrient flow and biogenic sediment stabilisation. Benthic microalgal primary production is supported by nutrients available from the sediment, however the microalgae produce polymers which bind the sediment, hence stabilising the surface against erosive stress. Benthic microalgae are in turn grazed by macroinvertebrates, which bioturbate the sediment. These invertebrates then support higher trophic levels including
