Do fish communities function as biotic vectors of organic matter between salt marshes and marine coastal waters?

Jean-Claude Lefeuvre (1) , Pascal Laffaille (1) , Eric Feunteun (1)

1 ECOBIO - Ecosystèmes, biodiversité, évolution [Rennes]

The contribution of fish communities to organic matter (OM) fluxes, especially between salt marshes and adjacent marine coastal waters are reviewed. For this a data set fromthe bay ofMont Saint-Michel and literature is examined and discussed. In a range of macro-tidal coasts of Europe, salt marshes are only flooded at spring tides for a short time. Many animals, including fish, then invade the salt marshes through tidal creeks. They forage there for up to a few hours and swim back to sea at ebb. Meanwhile, organic matter is exported as gut content. In the 4000 ha of salt marshes of the bay of Mont Saint-Michel mullets were responsible for the export of about 8 kg of dry weight OM ha

Mots clés: Outwelling; Salt marshes; Organic matter; Transfer; Fish; Vector

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie; Ecosystèmes

Jean-Claude Lefeuvre, Pascal Laffaille, Eric Feunteun. Do fish communities function as biotic vectors of organic matter between salt marshes and marine coastal waters?. Aquatic Ecology, 1999, vol. 33, pp.293-299. ⟨10.1023/A:1009956605842⟩. ⟨hal-00741707⟩