Fatty acid trophic transfer of Antarctic algae to a sympatric amphipod consumer

Abstract

The shallow benthos along the western Antarctic Peninsula supports brown macroalgal forests with dense amphipod assemblages, commonly including Gondogeneia antarctica (Amsler et al. 2014). Gondogeneia antarctica and most other amphipods are chemically deterred from consuming the macroalgae (Amsler et al. 2014). They primarily consume diatoms, other microalgae, filamentous macroalgae and a few undefended macroalgal species, including Palmaria decipiens (Aumack et al. 2017). Although unpalatable when alive, G. antarctica and other amphipods will consume the chemically defended brown algae Himantothallus grandifolius and Desmarestia anceps within a few weeks of death (Amsler et al. 2014).

Effects of spatially heterogeneous lakeside development on nearshore biotic communities in a large, deep, oligotrophic lake

“…To the best of our knowledge, there are no published TDFs for Baikal amphipods' fatty acids. Therefore, we calculated TDFs from fatty acid concentrations quantified for Antarctic marine amphipods (Schram et al 2019), which likely experience similar physiological and metabolic demands as those in Lake Baikal. To ensure TDF estimates were conservative across consumers and resources, we averaged each fatty acid's TDF, such that a given fatty acid's TDF was identical for each potential resource.…”