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Title: You are not always what we think you eat. Selective assimilation across multiple whole-stream isotopic tracer studies

Journal Article · · Ecology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1890/13-2276.1· OSTI ID:1162074
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [11];  [14];  [2];  [14];  [15];  [16] more »;  [17];  [18] « less
  1. Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS (United States)
  2. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
  3. Michigan State Univ., Hickory Corners, MI (United States). W. K. Kellogg Biological Station
  4. Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  5. USDA Forest Service, Corvallis, OR (United States)
  6. Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
  7. Univ. of Auckland, Auckland (New Zealand)
  8. Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale, IL (United States)
  9. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
  10. Murray State Univ. Murray, KY (United States)
  11. Aarhus Univ. (Denmark)
  12. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  13. Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States)
  14. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
  15. Florida Intl Univ., Miami, FL (United States)
  16. Cary Inst. of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY (United States)
  17. Univ. of Victoria, BC (Canada)
  18. Centre d' Estudis Avancats de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), Blanes, Catalonia (Spain)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Analyses of 21 15N stable isotope tracer experiments, designed to examine food web dynamics in streams around the world, indicated that the isotopic composition of food resources assimilated by primary consumers (mostly invertebrates) poorly reflected the presumed food sources. Modeling indicated that consumers assimilated only 33–50% of the N available in sampled food sources such as decomposing leaves, epilithon, and fine particulate detritus over feeding periods of weeks or more. Thus, common methods of sampling food sources consumed by animals in streams do not sufficiently reflect the pool of N they assimilate. Lastly, Isotope tracer studies, combined with modeling and food separation techniques, can improve estimation of N pools in food sources that are assimilated by consumers.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1162074
Journal Information:
Ecology, Vol. 95, Issue 10; ISSN 0012-9658
Publisher:
Ecological Society of America (ESA)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 40 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (16)

Increased reliance of stream macroinvertebrates on terrestrial food sources linked to forest management intensity journal April 2019
Partitioning assimilatory nitrogen uptake in streams: an analysis of stable isotope tracer additions across continents journal December 2017
Predicting nutrient excretion of aquatic animals with metabolic ecology and ecological stoichiometry: a global synthesis journal December 2016
Dietary and taxonomic controls on incorporation of microbial carbon and phosphorus by detritivorous caddisflies journal October 2015
Interspecific homeostatic regulation and growth across aquatic invertebrate detritivores: a test of ecological stoichiometry theory journal May 2019
Increased Light Availability Reduces the Importance of Bacterial Carbon in Headwater Stream Food Webs journal December 2015
Variation in Detrital Resource Stoichiometry Signals Differential Carbon to Nutrient Limitation for Stream Consumers Across Biomes journal April 2018
Respiration in rivers fractionates stable isotopes of dissolved oxygen; a global investigation on the influences of temperature and flow journal January 2020
Gut content and stable isotope analysis of tadpoles in floodplain wetlands journal January 2018
Consumer-driven nutrient dynamics in freshwater ecosystems: from individuals to ecosystems: Consumer-driven nutrient dynamics in freshwater ecosystems journal December 2016
Catchment land cover influences macroinvertebrate food‐web structure and energy flow pathways in mountain streams journal June 2019
The importance of terrestrial subsidies in stream food webs varies along a stream size gradient journal September 2015
Detrital nutrient content and leaf species differentially affect growth and nutritional regulation of detritivores journal May 2018
Convergence of detrital stoichiometry predicts thresholds of nutrient-stimulated breakdown in streams journal September 2016
From Elements to Function: Toward Unifying Ecological Stoichiometry and Trait-Based Ecology journal May 2017
Comparing the Ecological Stoichiometry in Green and Brown Food Webs – A Review and Meta-analysis of Freshwater Food Webs journal June 2017

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Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES
¹⁵N
consumer
food resources
food web
label mismatch
nitrogen cycling
stable isotope tracer addition