caa a22 4500 44589332X CHVBK 20180317145623.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20111001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10750-011-0794-1 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10750-011-0794-1 Spatial and temporal variabilities of δ13C and δ15N within lower trophic levels of a large lake: implications for estimating trophic relationships of consumers [Elektronische Daten] [Matthew Guzzo, G. Haffner, Stuart Sorge, Scott Rush, Aaron Fisk] Stable isotopes of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) often have unique values among lake habitats (e.g. benthic, littoral, pelagic), providing a widely used tool for measuring the structure and energy flow in aquatic food webs. However, there has been little recognition of the spatial and temporal variabilities of these isotopes within habitats of aquatic ecosystems. To address this, δ13C and δ15N were measured in seston, zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) and young-of-year (YOY) yellow (Perca flavescens), and white perch (Morone americana) collected from four sites across the offshore habitat of the western basin of Lake Erie during June-September 2009. Values of δ13C and δ15N showed significant spatial and temporal variations, with month accounting for >50% of the variation, for both stable isotopes and all the species except seston. Such variation in isotope values has the potential to significantly influence or confound interpretation of stable isotopes in measures, such as trophic position (TP) which use lower trophic level organisms as their baseline. For example, TP was found to vary up to 0.7 for yellow and white perch (TP=δ15Nfish−δ15Nzebra mussel/diet-tissue fractionation factor) depending on the zebra mussel data used (e.g., from a different location or a different collection month). As the use of stable isotopes continues to move from qualitative to more quantitative measures of trophic structure, food web research must recognize the importance of stable isotopes' variability in lower trophic level organisms, especially in large lake systems. Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2011 Stable isotopes nationallicence Lake Erie nationallicence Fish nationallicence Yellow Perch nationallicence White Perch nationallicence Food webs nationallicence Guzzo Matthew Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut Haffner G. Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut Sorge Stuart Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut Rush Scott Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut Fisk Aaron Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut Hydrobiologia Springer Netherlands 675/1(2011-10-01), 41-53 0018-8158 675:1<41 2011 675 10750 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0794-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0794-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Guzzo Matthew Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Haffner G. Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sorge Stuart Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rush Scott Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Fisk Aaron Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Hydrobiologia Springer Netherlands 675/1(2011-10-01), 41-53 0018-8158 675:1<41 2011 675 10750 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer