Trophic ecology of juvenile flatfish in a coastal nursery ground: contributions of intertidal primary production and freshwater particulate organic matter

Kostecki, C.; Roussel, Jean-Marc; Desroy, Nicolas; Roussel, G.; Lanshere, J.; Bris, Hervé Le; Pape, Olivier Le

doi:10.3354/meps09563

Cited by 32 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Site selection Such a meta-analysis required comparable and detailed stable isotopic data on young-of-theyear (YoY) soles and their potential organic matter sources from various major nursery grounds of the species, not only spread over a vast part of its geographic range, but also with contrasted environmental characteristics. Juvenile diet in S. solea can differ highly from site to site, following the inevitable geographic variations in the composition of the assemblages of benthic invertebrates, which are the major preys for YoY sole (Darnaude et al, 2001;Vinagre et al, 2008b;Kostecki et al, 2012). This spatial variability prevented the inclusion of intermediate trophic levels (i.e.…”

Section: Collection Of Standardized Data In Different Nursery Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Isotopic data from the five selected nursery sites were derived from previous published studies (Darnaude et al, 2004b;Kostecki et al, 2010;Modéran, 2010;Vinagre et al, 2011;Kostecki et al, 2012). In each case, the same standardized subset of δ 15 N and δ 13 C signatures was selected to allow reliable comparisons between systems:…”

Section: Standardization/selection Of Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thereby, all the YoY juveniles compared had approximately the same age and had all entered the phase of fast growth sole juveniles experience after their settlement in their nursery habitats. This allowed us to avoid biasing our conclusions by falsely including isotopic signatures from freshly settled post-larvae, with isotopic signatures still reflecting their pelagic life offshore (Darnaude, 2005), or from larger and older fish, with a different diet (Marchand, 1993;Kostecki et al, 2012). For the MSMB, the Tagus estuary and the Rhone river prodelta, S. solea juveniles' isotopic signatures were derived from YoY individuals all collected in the same year at their site of maximum abundance within the nursery habitat.…”

Section: Standardization/selection Of Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In estuaries, many studies (Darnaude et al, 2004ab;Leakey et al, 2008;Pasquaud et al, 2008;Vinagre et al, 2008b;Banaru and Harmelin-Vivien, 2009;Kostecki et al, 2010) pointed out a predominant incorporation of allochtonous organic matter of continental origin into juvenile flatfish food webs. However, in systems under low freshwater influence, in situ primary production can override other food sources and significantly contribute to growth in young flatfish (Kostecki et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although spatio-temporal variations in the origin of the organic matter used were analysed locally in various flatfish nursery sites across the world (Darnaude, 2005;Pasquaud et al, 2008;Vinagre et al, 2011;Kostecki et al, 2010), only very few studies so far tried to quantify the relative contribution of different possible sources of organic matter to the food webs sustaining flatfish juveniles (França et al, 2012;Kostecki et al, 2012). This work aimed at filling this gap by quantitatively estimating the variability in the origin of the organic matter exploited for juvenile growth in the common sole, Solea solea (L., 1758), among five major nursery sites in Western Europe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sources of organic matter for flatfish juveniles in coastal and estuarine nursery grounds: A meta-analysis for the common sole (Solea solea) in contrasted systems of Western Europe

Pape¹,

Moderan²,

Beaunée³

et al. 2013

Journal of Sea Research

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Shallow and productive areas provide the high food supply that allows maximizing juvenile growth and survival in most flatfish species. However, the main organic matter sources at the basis of benthic food webs might differ drastically between estuarine nursery grounds under strong freshwater influences, where food webs are mainly supported by continental organic matter, and coastal ecosystems under limited freshwater influence, where the local marine primary production is the main source of carbon for the benthos. To better understand the links between continental inputs to the coastal zone and stock maintenance in the highly prized common sole, Solea solea (L.), we investigated the variability in the organic matter sources supporting the growth of its young-of-the-year (YoY) in five contrasted estuarine and coastal nursery grounds under varying freshwater influence. Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen allowed tracing the origin of the organic matter exploited by YoY soles in the very first months following their benthic settlement, i.e. when most of the juvenile mortality occurs in the species. A mixing model was run to unravel and quantify the contribution of all major potential sources of organic matter to sole food webs, with a sensitivity analysis allowing assessment of the impact of various trophic enrichment factors on model outputs. Thismeta-analysis demonstrated a relative robustness of the estimation of the respective contributions of the various organic matter sources. At the nursery scale, the upstream increase in freshwater organic matter exploitation by YoY soles and its positive correlation with inter-annual variations in the river flow confirmed previous conclusions about the importance of organic matter from continental origin for juvenile production. However, inter-site differences in the organic matter sources exploited for growth showed that, although freshwater organic matter use is significant in all nursery sites, it is never dominant, with especially high contributions of local primary production by microphytobenthos or saltmarsh macrophytes to juvenile sole growth in tidal nursery ecosystems. These patterns stress the need for maintaining both the intensity of freshwater inputs to the coastal zone and of local autochthonous primary production (especially that of the intertidal microphytobenthos) to preserve the nursery function of coastal and estuarine ecosystems

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Section: Collection Of Standardized Data In Different Nursery Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%