Kauaʻi record · KCA-EP-0135
Stream-to-ocean export of organic matter and organisms
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About Stream-to-ocean export of organic matter and organisms
Downstream export of detritus, nutrients, plankton and organisms that subsidizes estuaries and nearshore waters.
Names and classification
- Other names
- stream-to-ocean export of organic matter; organisms
- Family
- Stream & Amphidromous Processes
- Record type
- ecological_process
Habitat and ecology
- Ecological role
- Supports Atlas reasoning about ecosystem function, dependencies, threats, conservation leverage points and cross-module consequences.
Process and seasonal context
- Definition
- Downstream export of detritus, nutrients, plankton and organisms that subsidizes estuaries and nearshore waters.
- Drivers
- streamflow; floods; ocean currents; plume cues; barriers
- Inputs
- larvae; juveniles; organic matter; water
- Outputs
- recruitment; dispersal; subsidies; longitudinal zonation
- Spatial scales
- headwater → stream → estuary → ocean
- Temporal scales
- hours → months → generations
- Validity and limits
- Context-specific; do not extrapolate across habitat, season, elevation, salinity or disturbance state without evidence.