Marine subsidy promotes spatial and dietary niche variation in an omnivore, the Keen's mouse ().

Marine-derived resource subsidies can generate intrapopulation variation in the behaviors and diets of terrestrial consumers. How omnivores respond, given their multiple trophic interactions, is not well understood. We sampled mice () and their food sources at five sites on three islands of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, to test predictions regarding variation in the spatial behavior and consumption of marine-subsidized foods among individuals.

Salmon abundance and patterns of forest greenness as measured by satellite imagery.

Linkages across ecosystems can shape productivity. Salmon carcasses are exemplary of cross-system linkages, because they can fertilize riparian vegetation and shape patterns of terrestrial biodiversity. Detection of salmon fertilization effects has been confined to field-based studies that are limited in scale.

Salmon nutrients are associated with the phylogenetic dispersion of riparian flowering-plant assemblages.

A signature of nonrandom phylogenetic community structure has been interpreted as indicating community assembly processes. Significant clustering within the phylogenetic structure of a community can be caused by habitat filtering due to low nutrient availability. Nutrient limitation in temperate Pacific coastal rainforests can be alleviated to some extent by marine nutrient subsidies introduced by migrating salmon, which leave a quantitative signature on the makeup of plant communities near spawning streams.

Salmon subsidize an escape from a size spectrum.

A general rule in ecology is that the abundance of species or individuals in communities sharing a common energy source decreases with increasing body size. However, external energy inputs in the form of resource subsidies can modify this size spectrum relationship. Here, we provide the first test of how a marine resource subsidy can affect size spectra of terrestrial communities, based on energy derived from Pacific salmon carcasses affecting a forest soil community beside streams in western Canada.

Impacts of salmon on riparian plant diversity.

The study of natural gradients in nutrient subsidies between ecosystems allows for predictions of how changes in one system can affect biodiversity in another. We performed a large-scale empirical test of the role of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in structuring riparian plant communities.

Salmon-derived nitrogen in terrestrial invertebrates from coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Background: Bi-directional flow of nutrients between marine and terrestrial ecosystems can provide essential resources that structure communities in transitional habitats. On the Pacific coast of North America, anadromous salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) constitute a dominant nutrient subsidy to aquatic habitats and riparian vegetation, although the contribution to terrestrial habitats is not well established.