2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/27/2021 | 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM | EXPLORING NEARSHORE FISH FOOD WEBS AND NICHE SPACE PATTERNS USING STABLE ISOTOPES | Virtual Platform

EXPLORING NEARSHORE FISH FOOD WEBS AND NICHE SPACE PATTERNS USING STABLE ISOTOPES

Small nearshore fishes are an important part of lacustrine and functional diversity and link pelagic and benthic habitats by serving as prey to larger nearshore and offshore fish. However, the trophic complexity of these small nearshore fish communities is often unrecognized and detailed studies of their food webs are often lacking or focus on larger predator or game fish. Here, we examined niche space patterns of small nearshore fish species using Bayesian analyses of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data in nine Minnesota lakes. We found considerable intraspecific variability in fish niche areas among lakes and high variability in niche overlap across species. At the assemblage level, niche overlap decreased as whole-lake species richness increased, possibly indicating a greater degree of resource specialization in more speciose lakes. Overall fish niche space was weakly related to niche space of their invertebrate prey. Although nearshore benthic resources contributed to fish diets in all lakes, all fish species also had non-negligible and variable contributions from pelagic zooplankton. This inter- and intraspecific variability in trophic niche space likely contributes to the multi-level trophic complexity, functional diversity, and potentially food web resilience to ecosystem changes.

Species interactions
Vertebrates
Biological interactions

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Presenters/Authors

Holly Wellard Kelly (), University of Minnesota-Duluth NRRI, hwellard@d.umn.edu;