Frankie Gerraty

I study ecological linkages between land and sea along human-disturbed coastlines. My current research focuses on how marine megafauna influence marine-to-terrestrial nutrient flows and how commercial megafauna exploitation has influenced these cross-ecosystem connections.

Marine megafauna exert tremendous influence on the structure and function of ocean ecosystems, yet there is mounting evidence that the ecological impacts of marine megafauna also cross the land-sea interface and modify terrestrial ecosystem dynamics. Marine megafauna connect land and sea by serving as large, calorically-rich food sources for terrestrial consumers and by transferring marine-derived nutrients onto land as eggs, placenta, and excreta. We synthesize empirical studies from around the world to describe the diversity of terrestrial vertebrate consumers that exploit marine megafauna as a food source and outline the ecosystem consequences that are elicited by these cross-ecosystem nutrient subsidies. Given that widespread commercial exploitation has decimated marine megafauna populations globally, we hypothesize that linkages between land and sea once mediated by these animals have been reduced from historical periods to the present day. However, megafauna recoveries are possible and in some cases already underway, potentially leading to the restoration of these marine-terrestrial connections and subsequent shifts in coastal ecosystem dynamics.