MINIREVIEW - THE IMPORTANCE OF BENTHIC-PELAGIC COUPLING AND THE FORGOTTEN ROLE OF LIFE-CYCLES IN COASTAL AQUATIC SYSTEMS

The classical models of production and plankton community dynamics in coastal waters include an important role for benthic-pelagic coupling in the form of biogeochemical cycling (the turnover of nutrients in th e form of either living matter or its decomposed constituents). We thi nk, however, that biogeochemical explanations of ecosystem functioning underrepresent the actual complexity of the studied phenomena. We sug gest that models will be more complete if they incorporate life-cycle patterns of planktonic and benthic organisms. The inclusion of such bi ological information into an ecological context will enhance the under standing of ecological patterns of global importance. What we presentl y know provides compelling evidence that new research directions, rang ing from sedimentology to systematics and from physiology to molecular biology, are needed.