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Carbon Sources in Riverine Food Webs: New Evidence from Amino Acid Isotope Techniques

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Abstract

A nearly 40-year debate on the origins of carbon supporting animal production in lotic systems has spawned numerous conceptual theories emphasizing the importance of autochthonous carbon, terrestrial carbon, or both (depending on river stage height). Testing theories has been hampered by lack of adequate analytical methods to distinguish in consumer tissue between ultimate autochthonous and allochthonous carbon. Investigators initially relied on assimilation efficiencies of gut contents and later on bulk tissue stable isotope analysis or fatty acid methods. The newest technique in amino acid, compound specific, stable isotope analysis (AA-CSIA), however, enables investigators to link consumers to food sources by tracing essential amino acids from producers to consumers. We used AA-CSIA to evaluate nutrient sources for 5 invertivorous and 6 piscivorous species in 2 hydrogeomorphically contrasting large rivers: the anastomosing Upper Mississippi River (UMR) and the mostly constricted lower Ohio River (LOR). Museum specimens we analyzed isotopically had been collected by other investigators over many decades (UMR: 1900–1969; LOR: 1931–1970). Our results demonstrate that on average algae contributed 58.5% (LOR) to 75.6% (UMR) of fish diets. The next highest estimated contributions of food sources were from C3 terrestrial plants (21.1 and 11.5% for the LOR and UMR, respectively). Moreover, results from 11 individually examined species consistently demonstrated the importance of algae for most fish species in these trophic guilds. Differences among rivers in relative food source availability resulting from contrasting hydrogeomorphic complexity may account for relative proportions of amino acids derived from algae.

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Acknowledgements

This study would not have been possible without access provided to collections at the Bell Museum, Field Museum, Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, Ohio State University Museum of Biological Diversity, Southern Illinois University, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, and University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. We greatly appreciate support from our friend and colleague Professor Michael Delong at Winona State University for his efforts in leading the original sample collection activities as well as the support of numerous undergraduates at the University of Kansas and Winona State University in processing the tissue samples from several projects. Funding for compound-specific isotope analyses came from an NSF-DEB Grant (1249370) to Thorp and an NSF DDIG Grant (1502017) to Bowes and Thorp. Our samples were derived from those remaining from an EPA Star Grant (RD-83244201) to Delong, Thorp, and Anderson and an NSF-DEB Grant (0953744) to Thorp and Delong. Publication of this manuscript was aided by a Macrosystem Biology Grant (1442595) to Thorp and 10 Co-PIs. Conclusions of this manuscript, however, do not necessarily reflect either NSF or EPA policies. We appreciate the review of this manuscript by Dr. Mark Pyron and two graduate students in our lab, Emily Arsenault and Michael Thai.

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  1. Kansas Biological Survey and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Higuchi Hall, 2101 Constant Ave., Lawrence, Kansas, 66047-3759, USA

    James H. Thorp & Rachel E. Bowes

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  1. James H. Thorp
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  2. Rachel E. Bowes
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Correspondence to James H. Thorp.

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Data related to this submission can be found at http://www.aquaticecolab.res.ku.edu/.

Author contributions

JHT collected the original samples and REB processed samples and analyzed the data. Both authors contributed substantially to writing the manuscript.

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Thorp, J.H., Bowes, R.E. Carbon Sources in Riverine Food Webs: New Evidence from Amino Acid Isotope Techniques. Ecosystems 20, 1029–1041 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0091-y

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