Production sources and food web of a macrophyte-dominated region in Lake Taihu,based on gut contents and stable isotope analyses |
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| Affiliation: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China;2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China;1. Great Lakes Center & Biology Department, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY 14222, USA;2. School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, 2021 Coffey Rd., Columbus, OH 43210, USA;3. Natural Science, Applied Science, and Mathematics Division, Defiance College, 701 N. Clinton St., Defiance, OH 43512, USA;4. Dept. of Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, MS 604, Wolfe Hall Suite 1235 2801 West Bancroft St., Toledo, OH, 43606, USA;1. Department of Biology, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9, Canada;2. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON P3E 2C6, Canada;3. Department of Biology, Queen''s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada;1. Key Laboratory of Watershed Geographic Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China;2. Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Exploitation and Protection, Jiangsu Institute of Land Surveying and Planning, 43-8 West Beijing Road, Nanjing 210024, China;3. Taihu Basin Water Resources Protection Bureau, 480 Jinian Road, Shanghai 200434, China;1. Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China;2. Huai''an Research Centre of Hydrobiology, Huai''an 223002, China;3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;4. Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Technology Promotion Center of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Huhhot 010010, China;5. Fisheries Research Institute, Wuhan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430207, China |
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| Abstract: | We estimated the food web linkages among primary producers, invertebrates and fish in a macrophyte-dominated region of a eutrophic lake (Lake Taihu) by analyzing gut contents and C and N stable isotope ratios. Observation of the gut contents reflected a variety of feeding modes among fish species that consume a diverse assortment of prey, with limited dietary overlap. Basal food sources were distinguishable based on their δ13C isotopic signatures, and wide seasonal variations of isotope values were observed in the lake biota with a general trend towards enriched δ13C and δ15N values in summer and depleted values in winter. This pattern could be explained by a combination of environmental (e.g., irradiance and nutrient inputs) and biotic (e.g., availability of food sources and plasticity in prey item choice) features. We adopted a paired (gut contents and stable isotopes) approach to reconstruct diets that used known food items as end members in the isotopic mixing model analysis and diagrammed the food web structure of Lake Taihu describing the organic matter pathways from primary producers to predators of the upper trophic levels. Our surveys also corroborate the finding that phytoplankton were the most important primary source of organic matter for fauna within this macrophyte-dominated lake region, whereas macrophytes also made a sizeable contribution for several invertebrate and fish species, especially in winter. |
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