Population structure and habitat availability determine resource use by Rainbow Trout in high elevation lakes

Stiling, Rebekah R.; Holtgrieve, Gordon W.; Olden, Julian D.

doi:10.1086/716184

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Here, we focused on seasonal, time‐varying dynamics, but other types of stable isotope heterogeneity exist within aquatic systems and impact TP calculations. Spatial heterogeneity at both large and small scales is common in stable isotope baselines (Lorrain et al 2015) and changes with latitude (Vokhshoori and McCarthy 2014; Lorrain et al 2015), depth (Wu et al 1999; Sigman et al 2009; Francis et al 2011; Peters et al 2012) and habitat (Finlay et al 1999; Vander Zanden et al 2011; Stiling et al 2021) in both marine and freshwater ecosystems. As a result, mobile consumers are frequently integrating distinct stable isotope baselines, that may not reflect the baseline where they were caught for sampling.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of dynamic resources and stable isotope incorporation rates on aquatic consumer trophic position estimation

Feddern,

Nielsen,

Essington

et al. 2023

Limnology & Ocean Methods

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A key assumption in trophic position (TP) estimation using stable isotope analysis is that consumers are in isotopic equilibrium with their resources. Here, we assess the degree to which time‐varying resource dynamics and isotope incorporation rates of consumers influence consumer TP estimates across multiple trophic levels and aquatic ecosystems. We constructed a first‐order kinetics model to explore consumer stable isotope incorporation rates and modeled the effect on TP calculations using bulk and compound‐specific stable isotope data from previous experimental and observational studies. We found TP estimates of higher trophic level consumers are less accurate than lower trophic level consumers when applying bulk stable isotope analysis (BSIA) and using particulate organic matter as the stable isotope baseline. The accuracy of TP estimates depended on the time‐varying dynamics of the stable isotope baseline. Tertiary consumers had the highest TP estimation error, and this error was not eliminated by sampling tissues with fast incorporation rates (i.e., blood) in the tertiary consumer. Compound‐specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) of individual amino acids was more accurate in estimating TP for all consumers and ecosystems compared to BSIA. Our analysis confirms that consideration for the dynamic nature of stable isotope ratios is necessary for accurate TP estimates. Finally, we show how first‐order kinetics models can provide a useful framework for integrating prey and consumer incorporation rates in stable isotope studies to improve TP estimates.

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