Exploring yellow perch diets in Lake Michigan through stomach content, fatty acids, and stable isotope ratios

Happel, Austin; Creque, Sara M.; Rinchard, Jacques; Höök, Tomas O.; Bootsma, Harvey A.; Janssen, John; Jude, David J.; Czesny, Sergiusz J.

doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2015.03.025

Cited by 43 publications

(31 citation statements)

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“…As both species are highly locally abundant, they likely play a key role in food web interactions as both predator and prey. Therefore, intra‐ and interspecific variation in their trophic function can have significant impacts on the connectivity of benthic and pelagic production pathways (Foley et al, ; Happel et al, ). Our data suggest that spatial heterogeneity in habitat, resource availability and other environmental conditions have a significant role in determining the feeding behaviour of individuals, to the extent that trophic niches may be more a function of environment than of species identity (Allgeier et al, ; Paterson et al, ; Pool et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following gut removal, we homogenised whole fish for stable isotope and fatty acid analysis. We analysed gut contents by first removing all prey items from the digestive tract of each fish, identifying each item to the lowest possible taxon and enumerating their abundance (for further details, see Happel et al, ; Foley et al, ). We developed a standardised set of 17 prey items from the taxa present in the guts of both species for use in comparing between‐species patterns in gut content diversity and composition (Table S1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Measures of trophic niche, such as gut contents, fatty acid composition and stable isotope ratios, can be considered components of an expanded trophic phenotype (Houle, Govindaraju, & Omholt, 2010). These metrics have been primarily used to understand the average trophic position of consumers (e.g., Jackson, Inger, Parnell, & Bearhop, 2011;Happel et al, 2015;Foley et al, 2017), but there is increasing interest in using these metrics to understand how trophic diversity is partitioned among individuals, populations and species (Bolnick et al, 2011;Price & Guglielmo, 2009). Understanding variability in individual-level trophic diversity (Bolnick et al, 2014;Bolnick, Yang, Fordyce, Davis, & Svanbäck, 2002) could also provide insights into the impacts of resource use on individual fitness.…”

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Individual and spatial variation are as important as species‐level variation to the trophic complexity of a lentic food web

Feiner

Foley

Bootsma

et al. 2019

Ecology of Freshwater Fish

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Ecological complexity may improve ecosystem function, stability and adaptability to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Intraspecific trophic variation can represent a significant component of total community variation and can influence food web structure and function. Thus, understanding how trophic niches are partitioned between intraspecific and interspecific processes could improve our understanding of food web dynamics. We examined gut contents, fatty acids and stable isotope ratios in round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) across six sites in Lake Michigan, USA, to determine patterns in intra‐ and interspecific trophic composition (i.e., mean gut or fatty acid composition) and diversity (i.e., the diversity of gut items or fatty acids). We also examined relationships between fatty acid diversity and gut content characteristics to understand potential mechanisms shaping individual trophic phenotypes. There was significant variation in both trophic composition and diversity among sites, and individual and spatial variation was as important to total trophic variation as species identity. Round goby that consumed dreissenid mussels had more diverse fatty acid profiles than those that consumed other benthic invertebrates, whereas yellow perch fatty acid diversity was not related to gut content composition. Our results confirm that intraspecific variation in resource use can be as important to trophic dynamics as interspecific variation, and that spatial variation in lower level food web processes or habitat may strongly structure local food web dynamics. Individual‐level examination of trophic diversity, in concert with trophic composition, could provide additional information about the resilience, function and adaptability of local food webs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Individual and spatial variation are as important as species‐level variation to the trophic complexity of a lentic food web

Feiner

Foley

Bootsma

et al. 2019

Ecology of Freshwater Fish

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“…With such declines in offshore primary production, offshore consumer biomass has declined in various systems (Kimmerer, 2006;Madenjian et al, 2015;Strayer et al, 2004). This shift in the relative importance of nearshore production may be related to increases in abundance of certain nearshore species (Bunnell et al, 2006;Jude and Tesar, 1985;Lindegren et al, 2012;Stewart et al, 1998;Strayer et al, 2004) and an overall increased reliance on nearshore production pathways (Happel et al, 2015a(Happel et al, , 2015bRennie et al, 2013;Turschak and Bootsma, 2015;Turschak et al, 2014). While we hypothesised that trends in nearshore chlorophyll concentrations would decline at slower rates compared to offshore chlorophyll concentrations, differences in nearshore and offshore responses in chlorophyll concentrations were more extreme.…”

Section: Nutrient Abatement Programmes and Invasive Filter Feeders Hamentioning

confidence: 95%

“…(Dillon and Kirchner, 1975;Lougheed et al, 2001;Yurista et al 2015). For example, in Lake Michigan the relative importance of pelagic versus benthic production pathways seemingly differ among nearshore areas receiving differential levels of tributary inputs (Foley et al, 2017;Happel et al, 2015aHappel et al, , 2015b. Spatial differences in biota, sediment type, temperature, and dissolved oxygen concentrations, can influence the amount of nutrients internally loaded into nearshore locations (Kim et al, 2003l Søndergaard et al, 2001Stephen et al, 1997) and potentially affect the dominant production pathways supporting consumers.…”

Section: Geographic Information Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatially heterogeneous trends in nearshore and offshore chlorophyll a concentrations in lakes Michigan and Huron (1998–2013)

et al. 2019

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1. Nutrient abatement programmes have been successfully implemented around the globe to reduce nutrient loading into aquatic ecosystems. Concurrently, the worldwide spread of invasive filter feeders, such as dreissenid mussels, may alter nutrient dynamics in invaded systems by sequestering nutrients away from pelagic zones and reducing primary production in offshore areas. Such is the case in the Laurentian Great Lakes of North America, where decades of nutrient abatement and the establishment of dreissenid mussels have seemingly resulted in more oligotrophic conditions and altered spatial patterns of nutrient availability and primary production.2. Recent studies have focused on whole lake trends in primary production despite spatial differences in tributary inputs, bathymetry, and other environmental conditions that can affect primary production in nearshore areas. Thus, we hypothesised that trends in nearshore chlorophyll concentrations in different areas may diverge in a manner consistent with spatial differences in nutrient input. To evaluate these differences in surface chlorophyll responses, we assessed temporal trends in four different areas of Lake Michigan and three different areas of Lake Huron.3. We hypothesised that in lakes Huron and Michigan, nearshore zones have experienced slower declines of chlorophyll concentrations relative to offshore zones.To assess this hypothesis, we estimated temporal trends of surface water chlorophyll concentrations (a proxy for primary production) from satellite imagery from 1998 to 2013. We calculated average surface chlorophyll concentrations for 10-m depth intervals ranging from the shore (0-10 m) to offshore (>90 m) during representative months of May, July, and September. We then analysed these data to determine if long-term trends in surface chlorophyll varied by season, proximity to the shoreline, and water depth.4. The rates of annual change in chlorophyll concentrations in nearshore areas were markedly different to offshore trends in both lakes. Chlorophyll concentrations declined overtime in offshore areas, but nearshore chlorophyll concentrations were either stable (in May) or increased (in July and September) throughout the time series. | 367 STADIG eT Al.

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Combining resource use assessment techniques reveals trade‐offs in trophic specialization of polymorphic perch

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Trophic polymorphism has found to be common in many taxa and is a suggested mechanism of ecological speciation. To characterize the trophic linkages of specific morphotypes of organisms as well as a time-integrated niche use, several methods are available. In this study, we present data of multiple techniques to investigate the trophic divergence of Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) that displays well-studied trophic polymorphism associated with littoral and pelagic habitats in lakes. We combined bulk stable isotope and fatty acid analyses on the muscle tissue of perch from three different lakes in Sweden with analyses of stomach content. By comparing the three methods, we aimed at providing a broad and highly resolved picture on the trophic divergence in freshwater fish. The degree in morphological divergence varied between perch caught in the three different lakes. Generally, perch caught in the pelagic zone were more streamlined compared to the ones caught in the littoral zone that had a deeper body, as shown by geometric morphometrics. The three diet assessment methods revealed different levels of information. Data on stomach content showed some preferences for specific dietary items in littoral and pelagic perch, but general trophic specialization could not be concluded due to the small sample size. Analyses of δ 13 C and δ 15 N, however, confirmed these results as a long-term pattern connected to specific habitat use in two of the three lakes. Fatty acid signatures of perch reflected partly those of the prey items of the specific habitats. Although the proportions of the essential fatty acid 22:6n-3 were lower in littoral resources, the proportions in littoral fish were similar to the ones caught in the pelagic zone. We concluded that although a fundamental contribution from littoral resources exists in littoral phenotypes, a minor reliance on pelagic prey items is obviously needed to provide essential compounds. Thus, by combining the methods to characterize direct resource use (i.e., stomach analyses) with others that utilize trophic biomarkers (i.e., analyses of stable isotopes and fatty acids), we were able to illustrate the degree of variation in trophic divergence of perch but also shed some light on potential trade-offs that are related to resource specialization in freshwater fish.

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Exploring yellow perch diets in Lake Michigan through stomach content, fatty acids, and stable isotope ratios

Cited by 43 publications

References 42 publications

Individual and spatial variation are as important as species‐level variation to the trophic complexity of a lentic food web

Individual and spatial variation are as important as species‐level variation to the trophic complexity of a lentic food web

Spatially heterogeneous trends in nearshore and offshore chlorophyll a concentrations in lakes Michigan and Huron (1998–2013)

Combining resource use assessment techniques reveals trade‐offs in trophic specialization of polymorphic perch

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