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Relative contributions of nearshore and wetland habitats to coastal food webs in the Great Lakes
Citation:
Sierszen, M., L. Schoen, J. Kosiara, J. Hoffman, M. Cooper, AND D. Uzarski. Relative contributions of nearshore and wetland habitats to coastal food webs in the Great Lakes. JOURNAL OF GREAT LAKES RESEARCH. International Association for Great Lakes Research, Ann Arbor, MI, 45(1):129-137, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2018.11.006
Impact/Purpose:
This paper will present one quantification of the ways coastal habitats support the supply of fisheries ecosystem services. Stable isotope analyses of biota from coastal wetland and nearshore zones indicate that coastal fishes obtain substantial nutritional support from habitats other than those in which they were captured. Further, otolith microchemical analyses showed that coastal fishes have developed a variety of life-history strategies in which multiple habitats are used. This work underscores the importance of protecting the range of coastal habitats that support fisheries.
Description:
Hydrologic linkages among coastal wetland and nearshore areas allow coastal fish to move among the habitats, which has led to a variety of habitat use patterns. We determined nutritional support of coastal fishes from 12 wetland-nearshore habitat pairs using stable isotope analyses, which revealed differences among species and systems in multi-habitat use. Substantial (proportions > 0.30) nutrition often came from the habitat other than that in which fish were captured. Nearshore subsidies to coastal wetlands indicate wetlands are not exclusively exporters of energy and materials; rather, there is reciprocity in the mutual energetic support of nearshore and wetland food webs. Coastal wetland hydrogeomorphology influenced the amount of multi-habitat use by coastal fishes. In an earlier study, yellow perch otoliths revealed life-history patterns that included wetland residence, nearshore residence, and varying degrees of annual migrations between nearshore and wetlands. Stable isotope analyses of the same fish whose otoliths had been analyzed indicated nutritional sources often corresponded with habitat occupancy; however, disparities among place of capture, otolith analyses, and nutritional analyses indicated differences in the types of support to fishes those analyses inform. Disparities between occupancy information and nutritional information can stem from movements for support functions other than foraging. Together, occupancy information from otolith microchemistry and nutritional information from stable isotope analyses provide complementary measures of the use of multiple habitats by mobile consumers. This work underscores the importance of protecting or restoring a diversity of coastal habitats and hydrologic linkages among them.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Relative contributions of nearshore and wetland habitats to coastal food webs in the Great Lakes