The Mobile Link Organisms Project

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

    The Mobile Link Organisms Project (LINKS) is a three year research program that is being conducted by scientists associated with Coastal Carolina University (CCU) and the University of South Carolina (USC).  Dr. Richard Dame of CCU is the lead principle investigator, along with co-principle investigators Dr. Dennis Allen of USC and Dr. Robert Young of CCU.  The project is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Ecosystem Studies Program.  The LINKS project also provides research experience for students.
    The goal of this project is to quantify the roles of mobile animals, mainly fish and decapod crustaceans (collectively called nekton), in processing and transporting materials within and between marsh-estuarine systems and subsystems.  At short time scales, previous work indicates that mobile organisms are probably a major source of dissolved nutrients. On longer time scales, they accumulate organic biomass.  Simultaneous observations of the fluxes of materials and organisms in multiple intertidal creek-marsh basins and between their major subsystems (salt marshes, mud flats, tidal channels and oyster reefs) will provide estimates of the relative importance of each of these components in processing and transporting materials within and across boundaries.  A replicated Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) approach will determine the statistical significance of these fluxes.  Hypothesized decreases in inorganic fluxes following the exclusion of mobile link animals from flooded intertidal creek basins, particularly under dark conditions, will provide an empirical measure of the role of these animals in material processing.
    The project will take place in North Inlet Estuary, SC, which is a relatively  pristine salt marsh-estuarine ecosystem, and also the site of the North-Inlet Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve System.  Information from this study will be useful to coastal resource agencies that make decisions that affect the future condition of habitats, water quality, economically important fisheries, and humans living in coastal environments.  Furthermore, these studies will provide an attractive mechanism and opportunity for educating students, teachers and laypersons in marine and wetland science.

A PowerPoint slideshow about the LINKS Project can be found here.