A stable carbon and nitrogen isotope study of lake food webs in Canada’s Boreal Plain

Abstract

1. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope and fish stomach content analyses were used to investigate food webs in five relatively undisturbed lakes on the Boreal Plain of Canada. Stable isotope analysis was also used to determine the importance of external and internal carbon sources.2. Overlap in the carbon and nitrogen signatures of primary producers made it difficult to determine unambiguously the feeding habits of many invertebrates. However, isotope analysis suggested that external carbon inputs were detectable in the aquatic food chains of the one lake with a short water residence time («1 year). In the other four lakes, with water residence times ≥1 year, autochthonous carbon was the only detectable carbon source in the food webs.3. Food webs in these lakes spanned a range of four to five trophic levels. Both invertebrates and fish appeared to eat a variety of food, often feeding at more than one trophic level.4. With the exception of one lake (SPH20), top predators in these lakes, northern pike (Esox lucius) and fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas), occupied similar trophic positions despite large differences in body size and trophic morphology. In SPH20, where there were two additional fish species, pike occupied a higher trophic position. However, all the top predators in each lake appeared to be omnivores and generalists.5. The prevalence of omnivory and the apparent generalist feeding habits of fish in these lakes suggest that organisms are flexible in their feeding habits and that these food webs will be resilient to disturbance.