A sprinkling of gold dust: Pine pollen as a carbon source in Baltic Sea coastal food webs

Allochthonous subsidies to marine ecosystems have mainly focused on biogeochemical cycles, but there has also been recent interest in how terrestrial carbon (C) influences food webs. In the Baltic Sea, pine (Pinus sylvestris) pollen is found large amounts shallow bays early summer. Pollen a significant C-source freshwater and may be important coastal We examined consumption of autochthonous resources by benthic invertebrates Sea. used stable isotopes estimate diets reconstructed consumer-resource networks (food webs) for grazers particulate organic matter (POM)-feeders compare these different guilds pollen. that P. sylvestris was consumed small variety animals some cases made up sizeable proportion invertebrates' diets. However, generally depended less than other resources. The degree related feeding traits, with generalist invertebrate consuming more (> 10% diet) specialist POM-feeders (< 5% diet contributed pollen). consume additional microbially-degraded which not identifiable our model. suggest substantial allochthonous bay webs potential affect dynamics ecosystems.