From poop to marine soup : deconstructing the diet and health of mussels in a high rainfall coastal region
department or school: Science, Faculty of
department or school: Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Sunthareswaran, Dilan
issued: 2025-10-20T14:45:37Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Marine food webs in coastal regions are among the most productive and culturally significant globally, yet their position at the land-sea interface makes them vulnerable to terrestrial disturbances. Terrestrial inputs of freshwater, organic matter, and nutrients heavily shape the structure and productivity of coastal marine food webs. Urbanization introduces novel organic materials to coastal ecosystems including stormwater runoff and wastewater discharge. Concurrently, altered nutrient dynamics can influence marine primary and microbial productivity. Through these changes, urbanization can shift the quantity and quality of the organic matter pool available for marine primary consumers. Such changes have implications for food web nutritional health and trophic interactions. To investigate the fate and implications of organic matter types in urban-based coastal food webs, I assessed the assimilation of organic matter and subsequent effects on nutritional health in suspension feeding mussels. Mussels were collected monthly for one year from eight sites around Burrard Inlet. Two approaches were applied to estimate uptake of marine (phytoplankton and macrophyte) and urban-derived (rivers, stormwater, and wastewater) organic matter types: 1) deriving fatty acid biomarkers for each organic matter type, and 2) applying a Bayesian mixing model combining fatty acid and stable isotope tracers. Both approaches yielded similar results (average difference = 4.14 %), giving confidence in the estimates. Phytoplankton were always dominant contributors to mussel diets (~ 50 - 70 %), underscoring the sustained high primary production despite urban pressures. Urban-derived contributions were mostly moderate (~ 15 - 20 %) and highest in an urban centre site (Shipyards) and during the wet season (October - February) when phytoplankton production was low and urban material flux was expected to be high. Nutritional variation in mussels was associated with shifts in organic matter contribu…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/92663
note: FROM POOP TO MARINE SOUP: DECONSTRUCTING THE DIET AND HEALTH OF MUSSELS IN A HIGH RAINFALL COASTAL REGION by Dilan Sunthareswaran B.Sc., University of British Columbia, 2022 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Oceanography) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2025 © Dilan Sunthareswaran, 2025ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: From poop to marine soup: deconstructing the diet and health of mussels in a high rainfall coastal region submitted by Dilan Sunthareswaran in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Oceanography Examining Committee: Brian Hunt, Associate Professor, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, UBC Supervisor Chris Harley, Professor, Department of Zoology and Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Kate Menzies, Natural Resources Planning Manager, Tsleil-Waututh Nation Supervisory Committee Member Hal Bradbury, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, UBC Additional Examiner iii Abstract Marine food webs in coastal regions are among the most productive and culturally significant globally, yet their position at the land-sea interface makes them vulnerable to terrestrial disturbances. Terrestrial inputs of freshwater, organic matter, and nutrients heavily shape the structure and productivity of coastal marine food webs. Urbanization introduces novel organic materials to coastal ecosystems including stormwater runoff and wastewater discharge. Concurrently, altered nutrient dynamics can influence marine primary and microbial productivity. Through these changes, urbanization can shift the quantity and quality of the organic matter pool available for marine primary consumers. Such chang…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0450494
language: eng
degree discipline: Oceanography
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Hunt, Brian P. V.
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/92663