Alteration of essential fatty acids in secondary consumers across a gradient of cyanobacteria

Gearhart, Trevor; Ritchie, Katie; Nathan, Evan; Stockwell, Jason D.; Kraft, Jana

doi:10.1007/s10750-016-2864-x

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Nutrient contributions of free-living parasite infectious stages could be especially important if other prey are highly vulnerable to changes in their food resource quality (Schindler and Scheuerell 2002); for example, if shifting algal communities negatively affect the availability and transfer of important PUFA to higher trophic levels. For instance, Gearhart et al (2017) found that the LC-PUFA and total EFA content of secondary consumers (i.e., planktivorous fish) were negatively impacted in aquatic systems experiencing severe cyanobacteria blooms, presumably through bottom-up effects on zooplankton. If trematodesourced subsidies of EFA are less affected by algal community shifts, they may prove to be especially important subsidies for aquatic communities.…”

Section: Parasite Roles In Ecosystem Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Implications of Parasite Roles for the Nutritional Dynamics of Food Webs

Babaran¹

2023

Preprint

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<p>It is increasingly evident that the aquatic free-living infectious stages (cercariae) of trematodes (flatworms) serve as dietary sources and vectors of nutritionally-important polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from their molluscan intermediate hosts to higher trophic-level consumers. Here, I investigated whether a change in the algal diets of trematode-infected snails altered the fatty acid (FA) profiles of these hosts or their parasites, thereby affecting their nutritional values. While diet influenced their overall FA profiles, levels of certain essential fatty acids (EFA) were largely unaffected. This suggests that cercariae-mediated trophic transfers of EFA may not be dramatically affected by algal community shifts. I also investigated whether platyhelminths have the necessary enzymes for de novo omega-3 (n-3) PUFA biosynthesis, and found that select taxa (including prominent trematodes) have the relevant genomic sequences. If these genes are functional, then these parasites may be involved in the natural production of essential n-3 PUFA.</p>

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Section: Parasite Roles In Ecosystem Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Implications of Parasite Roles for the Nutritional Dynamics of Food Webs

Babaran¹

2023

Preprint

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Transfer of cyanobacterial carbon to a higher trophic-level fish community in a eutrophic lake food web: fatty acid and stable isotope analyses

Fujibayashi

Okano

Takada³

et al. 2018

Oecologia

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The dietary utilization of cyanobacterial carbon by fish communities is poorly understood. We examined the transfer of cyanobacterial carbon to fish in a eutrophic lake using fatty acid biomarkers and measuring the stable carbon isotope ratios of fatty acid and bulk nitrogen. We collected five species of fish (Hypomesus nipponensis, Carassius sp., Cyprinus carpio, Tridentiger brevispinis, and Gymnogobius castaneus) as well as the seston from June to November 2016 from Lake Hachiro, Japan. Cyanobacterial blooms were observed from August to October. From June to August, cyanobacterial fatty acid biomarkers (18:2ω6 and 18:3ω3) accounted for only 1.4-4.3% of total fatty acids in these fish species, indicating a low contribution of cyanobacteria to fish diets during this period. However, the contribution of the cyanobacterial fatty acid biomarkers in these fish species increased sharply in September (10.5-17.1%), except in second-year H. nipponensis. In September, the stable carbon isotope ratios of 18:3ω3 in these fish species were almost equivalent to those in the seston, which was primarily composed of cyanobacteria. The trophic positions of the collected fish species ranged from 1.6 to 3.4, based on their stable nitrogen isotope values, indicating that some fish ingested cyanobacteria directly, while others acquired cyanobacteria indirectly, through the food chain. These findings indicate that cyanobacterial carbon is transferred up the food chain in eutrophic lake ecosystems with cyanobacterial blooms.

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