Title: "Animal migrations connect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems" by Amanda Subalusky,

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biology, University of Florida

Abstract

Animal migrations can play an important role in moving resources across ecosystem boundaries, which can strongly influence food web structure and ecosystem function. In the Mara River, East Africa, large animal migrations provide substantial portions of the river’s
carbon and nutrient budget through resource subsidies from the surrounding savanna grasslands, and reciprocal subsidies of emergent aquatic insects may play an important role in riparian ecosystems. These dynamics illustrate the role of animals in connecting ecosystems at the landscape scale.