Due to their high mobility, large vertebrates are efficient carriers of allochthonous matter and energy. Waterbirds congregate in breeding colonies, while feed in surrounding aquatic and terrestrial areas, promoting nutritional pulses to nutrient-poor environments. In southern Brazil, a swamp forest on an estuarine island is used by waterbirds for breeding. Aiming to investigate the potential effects of transport of matter between symmetrically rich environments, soil, plants, invertebrates, and terrestrial bird blood were collected and stable isotopes compared to similar organisms in a control area. Generalized linear models indicated that δ 15 N and δ 13 C values show positive effects when compared to the control area (spatial effect). The enrichment provided during the active colony period persists, well after the breeding period, especially for δ 15 N which was higher in all compartments (temporal effect). Moreover, the enrichment of δ 15 N occurred along the entire trophic chain (vertical effect) in the colony environment, including different guilds of invertebrates and land birds. For δ 13 C, the enrichment seems to lose strength, and factors such as trophic guild are shown to have greater explicability on values than site, especially in birds. Bayesian mixture models with terrestrial vs. estuarine endpoints demonstrated that all organisms from both colony and control environments had assimilated estuarine matter. Detritivorous invertebrates showed greater assimilation when compared to other guilds. This study demonstrates that symetrically nutrient-rich environments, such as palustrine forests and estuaries, benefit from nearby allochtonous subsidies, and are nutritionally enriched in several dimensions.
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