1. Spatiotemporal variation in the nutritional quality of periphyton across the Everglades.
Periphyton, an association of algae, bacteria, plants, and microfauna, is the base of the food web in the Florida Everglades. The biological components of the Everglades periphyton depend on prevailing environmental conditions, notably hydrological and nutrient conditions. For example, elevated levels of phosphorus in the water column can trigger a shift in periphyton community assemblage from one dominated by calcareous algae and diatoms (in areas of low P) to one dominated by filamentous green algae (in regions of high P). The species composition of the periphyton can also be altered by changes in water flow velocities and light conditions. Because not all species are of equal nutritional value, it could be argued that the quality of periphyton, as energy/food source, will be modified by changes in its species composition, abundance, and biomass. Periphyton-mat structure affects consumer access to food elements, also limiting resource transfer from basal to consumer portions of the food web. Nevertheless, studies evaluating the relationship between environmental gradients, periphyton composition, and periphyton nutritional quality are scarce, limiting our capacity to link it to population, and ultimately ecosystem, function. This study evaluated the effect of changes in the nutritional quality of the Everglades periphyton across areas varying in hydrological and nutrients conditions. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation (#1720727).