You are here:
TESTING THE USE OF STABLE ISOTOPES TO IDENTIFY FOOD WEB LINKS IN FRESHWATER RIVERINE COASTAL WETLANDS
Citation:
Pearson, M S., M F. Moffett, AND L E. Anderson. TESTING THE USE OF STABLE ISOTOPES TO IDENTIFY FOOD WEB LINKS IN FRESHWATER RIVERINE COASTAL WETLANDS. Presented at North American Benthological Society Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, May 2002.
Description:
Twenty riverine wetlands were sampled along the shores of Lake Michigan in 2001 as part of a Regional Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program for coastal wetlands. Fish, invertebrates, periphyton, seston, and macrophytes were collected for N15 and C13 stable isotope analyses. Three to eight benthic macroinvertebrate taxa and four to eight fish species from each wetland wre analyzed for N15 and C13 ratios. Analysis of seston, periphyton (artificial and natural substrates) were used to determine whether algae and detritus at the base of the food web occurred in a planktonic versus attached habitat for macroinvertebrates and fish. Four wetlands were selected for testing the ability to use a one-time collection of specimens to discern differences among food webs of riverine wetlands with high, medium, and low nutrient and suspended sediment loading. This allowed a test of the hypotheses that riverine systems with higher nutrients and suspended sediments support biota primarily using planktonic rather than attached food sources. Benefits of this research include methods to assess beneficial uses of Great Lakes wetlands, and provide regional water quality managers with tools to implement TMDLs for waters impaired by nutrients and suspended sediments. This abstract does not necessarily reflect USEPA policy.