ABSTRACT
Sources of primary productivity, habitat quality and distribution, and predator-prey interactions influence the ontogenetic feeding patterns of a given species. Pollution and habitat alteration cause changes in associated trophodynamic feeding patterns, thus altering food web features and the distribution of populations through breaks in ontogenetic feeding progressions. Feeding patterns of coastal fish and invertebrate communities are influenced by complex cyclic interactions. Diurnal, seasonal, and interannual dietary shifts are related to natural and anthropogenous habitat changes and related prey abundance. Interannual habitat changes due to both natural (drought-flood sequences) and anthropogenous (nutrient loading) disturbances thus determine the disposition of coastal food webs. The drought sequences follow 6-year cycles, thus precluding the representative value of more popular 1-to 2-year studies. Even slight water quality changes due to pollution that are outside the evolutionary experience of coastal populations can cause serious disruptions of habitat structure, energy flow, and community composition through altered food web processes. Unless adequate food web data are available, such changes often go unnoticed.
