Hydrodynamic processes can lead to the accumulation and/or dispersal of water column constituents, including sediment, phytoplankton, and particulate detritus. Using a combination of field observations and stable isotope tracing tools, we identified how hydrodynamic processes influenced physical habitat, pelagic communities, and food web structure in a freshwater tidal system. The pelagic habitat of a terminal channel differed spatially, likely aligning with differences in hydrodynamics. Three zones that we classified by exchange with downstream habitat had distinct water quality characteristics, supported different densities of zooplankton and nekton, and exhibited disparate support from benthic and pelagic trophic pathways to pelagic consumers. Hydrodynamically driven zones and their emergent characteristics appeared sensitive to hydrology, as elevated runoff was correlated with a shift in hydrodynamic habitat and organismal distributions. The results of our study highlight the relationship between hydrodynamic processes, biological responses, and climate, and suggest that understanding the physical process can improve understanding of pelagic habitats and communities.

Stable isotopes recorded in fish eye lenses are an emerging tool to track dietary shifts coincident with use of diverse habitats over the lifetime of individuals. Eye lenses are metabolically inert, sequentially deposited, archival tissues that can open avenues to chronicle contaminant exposures, diet histories, trophic dynamics and migratory histories of individual fishes. In this study, we demonstrated that trophic histories reconstructed using eye lenses can resolve key uncertainties regarding diet and trophic habitat shifts. Clear Lake Hitch Lavinia exilicauda chi, a threatened cyprinid, inhabits a single lake (Clear Lake, Lake County, California) and utilizes tributary streams for reproduction. Bayesian mixing models applied to δ13C and δ15N recorded in eye lenses uncovered ontogenetic diet shifts that corresponded with shifts in occupation of habitats providing spawning (tributary streams), rearing (littoral lake), and growth (pelagic lake) functions. The reconstruction of size-structured trophic and habitat information can provide vital information needed to manage and conserve imperiled species such as the Clear Lake Hitch.

No abstract

White Sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), a species of concern in the San Francisco Estuary, is in relatively low abundance due to a variety of factors. Patton et al. sought identify the estuarine habitat used by White Sturgeon to aid in the conservation and management of the species locally and across its range. By seasonally sampled sub-adult and adult White Sturgeon in the central estuary using setlines across a habitat gradient representative of three primary structural elements, the authors found that the shallow open-water shoal and deep open-water channel habitats were consistently occupied by White Sturgeon in spring, summer, and fall across highly variable water quality conditions, whereas the shallow wetland channel habitat was essentially unoccupied. In summary, sub-adult and adult White Sturgeon inhabit estuaries in at least spring, summer, and fall and small, shallow wetland channels are relatively unoccupied.