The importance of marine macroalgae in coastal food webs of the Antarctic Peninsula is not well known. Dr. Kenneth Dunton, using marine flora and fauna collected from several sites on the Antarctic Peninsula, proposes to determine the contribution of macroalgal carbon to the rich benthic communities by using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures. The density of coastal macroalgae is extremely high, the productivity of which probably matches or exceeds that of the local phytoplankton. The hypothesis to be tested is that macroalgae serve as an important dietary carbon source of many benthic and epibenthic fauna, as recently demonstrated for kelps in low latitudes. The stable isotopic analysis of the collected fauna and flora will provide an unique opportunity to evaluate the contribution of macroalgal carbon in high latitude food webs, as well as trophic relations and feeding strategies of marine fauna on the Antarctic Peninsula.
