2025/05/10 by Wei Yang, Zhaoheng Zhang, Xiaoxiao Li +2 · 1 voice
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Marine and coastal plant biology #Marine and fisheries research
paper · doi:10.1007/s00227-025-04645-0
openalex publication_date 2025/05/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Research suggests that complex habitats support greater species variety and abundance, especially for artificial reefs deployed to restore marine habitats and protect coastlines. However, it’s unclear how community trophic diversity and food web trophic structures differ between natural and artificial ecosystems. In this study, we used the Juehua Island area of China’s Bohai Sea to empirically investigate the food web structure and trophic diversity in three marine habitats: seagrass, artificial reefs, and sediment substrates. We used stable isotope analysis to compare their food web structures. We found that δ 13 C and δ 15 N of the carbon sources and consumers differed among the habitats. The seagrass trophic group’s δ 13 C had the largest range (–21.20‰ to − 12.51‰), but the artificial reef habitat had the largest range of mean δ 15 N values. Lateolabrax japonicus had the highest trophic position in the seagrass bed habitat, versus Gobiidae in the artificial reef habitat and Sebastes schlegelii in the sediment substrate habitat. Diet compositions varied widely based on the mixSIAR model output. The food web’s topological values were highest in the seagrass bed habitat, followed by the artificial reef and sediment substrate habitats. Thus, the artificial reefs promoted food web trophic complexity. The seagrass bed had the greatest trophic diversity and redundancy for the food web and most consumer trophic species. There was high isotopic niche overlap among the three food webs and consumer trophic groups, suggesting potential similarities in resource utilization. Our results will support systematic assessment of the ecological effects of artificial reefs, and deepen understanding of differences among heterogeneous habitats in their ecosystem structure and function.