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Energy Provenance for Juvenile Lake Trout in Small Canadian Shield Lakes as Shown by Stable Isotopes
Author(s) -
France Robert,
Steedman Robert
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1996)125<0512:epfjlt>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - littoral zone , trout , salvelinus , pelagic zone , environmental science , zooplankton , trophic level , ecology , juvenile , isotopes of nitrogen , δ15n , fishery , oceanography , biology , stable isotope ratio , geology , δ13c , physics , fish <actinopterygii> , quantum mechanics
As part of a study of trophic connectivity of boreal lakes and their riparian shorelines, juvenile lake trout Salvelinus namaycush were collected from four small oligotrophic lakes on the Canadian Shield in northwestern Ontario and analyzed for nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes. Nitrogen isotope ratios indicated that these populations of juvenile lake trout were relatively omnivorous, exhibiting individual δ 15 N values (deviations of the 15 N/ 14 N ratio from the isotopic standard) consistent with predation on opossum shrimp Mysis relicta (41 % of samples), zooplankton (35% of samples), and littoral organisms (25% of samples). Carbon isotope ratios indicated that these juvenile lake trout obtained on average about half of their carbon from littoral sources outside the deepwater pelagic zone. These observations suggest that lake trout in small Canadian Shield lakes depend on some combination of terrestrial inputs and littoral foodwebs to satisfy their energy requirements.