ABSTRACT
Feeding habits of coastal organisms have been extensively studied in habitats such as mangroves (Odum and Heald, 1972), sea grass beds (Kikuchi, 1974; Stoner, 1976; Brook, 1976, 1977; Livingston, 1982a), coral reefs (Hobson, 1973, 1974, 1975), river-dominated estuaries (Livingston, 1997c), and the open ocean (Ross, 1977, 1978). Shallow, coastal areas are highly productive yet physically unstable (Livingston et al., 1997) with extreme spatial/temporal variability of features such as temperature, land runoff, and associated water quality conditions (e.g., salinity, color, turbidity, light penetration). However, many coastal biological components remain temporally stable from year to year (Livingston and Loucks, 1978, Livingston et al., 1978, 1997; Dugan and Livingston, 1982). Questions remain concerning the temporal stability of coastal food webs.
