1. Effect of restoring water flow on resource transfer from the basal to the consumer portions of a food web in the Florida Everglades
Periphyton is an association of autotrophs and saprophytes that is the primary source of energy and elements for many aquatic food webs. Periphyton-mat structure affects consumer access to food elements, also limiting resource transfer from basal to consumer portions of the food web. Few studies evaluate the relationship between environmental gradients and periphyton nutritional quality in wetlands, limiting our capacity to link it to population, and ultimately ecosystem, function. The work aimed to determine the impact of increasing water velocity on resource quality and resource-consumer relationships in the Everglades. We hypothesized that increased velocity would increase the efficiency of P update by biofilms, affecting their stoichiometry. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation (#1720727).