Publications by authors named "Kimberly D Prince"
Predators regulate communities through top-down control in many ecosystems. Because most studies of top-down control last less than a year and focus on only a subset of the community, they may miss predator effects that manifest at longer timescales or across whole food webs. In southeastern US salt marshes, short-term and small-scale experiments indicate that nektonic predators (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- PCBs continue to be detected in harmful levels despite international regulations, posing risks to human and environmental health.
- The study identifies non-trophic interactions, such as those involving suspension-feeding mussels, as significant influencers on PCB bioavailability and biomagnification, rather than just trophic transfer.
- Results show that these mussels amplify PCB levels in sediment and crabs, suggesting that their ecosystem engineering role can reshape the coastal food web by affecting PCB accumulation and exposure through non-feeding relationships.
A Global, Cross-System Meta-Analysis of Polychlorinated Biphenyl Biomagnification.
Environ Sci Technol
September 2020
Studies evaluating the mechanisms underpinning the biomagnification of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a globally prevalent group of regulated persistent organic pollutants, commonly couple chemical and stable isotope analyses to identify bioaccumulation pathways. Due to analytical costs constraining the scope, sample size, and range of congeners analyzed, and variation in methodologies preventing cross-study syntheses, how PCBs biomagnify at food web, regional, and global scales remains uncertain. To overcome these constraints, we compiled diet (stable isotopes) data and lipid-normalized concentrations of sum total PCB (PCB), seven indicator PCB congeners, and their sum (PCB).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Foundation species, like mussels, play a key role in boosting biodiversity and ecosystem functions, but the impact of their patch configuration is not fully understood.
- In a 6-month field study in a southeastern US salt marsh, researchers manipulated the size and arrangement of mussel patches to see how these factors influenced ecological outcomes.
- Results showed that clustering mussels led to greater ecological benefits, highlighting the importance of patch size and shape in supporting biodiversity and overall ecosystem health.