A trophic study of a marine ecosystem off southeastern Australia using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen

By S. R. Davenport, N. Bax. 2002

322 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen were used to investigate trophic relationships of fish and invertebrates on the continental shelf of southeastern Australia. We examined 87 fish species, marine mammals, penguins, invertebrates, algal samples, suspended particulate organic matter (POM), and sediments. The main source of primary production is oceanic phytoplankton, although there is evidence of a seagrass contribution to the benthos. Marine mammals, penguins, some benthic invertebrates, and some benthic fish filled the highest trophic positions. Sources of variability in isotope results included temporal (POM, some fish) and spatial (POM, sediments) elements, bottom depth (some fish), and size (some fish). Fish had muscle δ15N values of 9.6 to 14.7 and δ13C values of 20.6 to 14.6. Cluster analysis on fish stable isotope results produced fish groups that could be interpreted with trophic and habitat information. Trophic relationships in fish, suggested by stable isotope results, were supporte...

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change

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Citations in the corpus

Trophic ecology of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in the ocean: a synthesis of stable isotope research (2009, background): “Studies of various marine organisms have shown differences in d13C values obtained from coastal versus offshore environments (reviewed in Hobson 1999; Davenport and Bax 2000).”
Stable isotope analysis as a tool for elasmobranch conservation research: a primer for non-specialists (2012, methodology): “2011; Davenport and Bax 2002), community-wide trophic structure analysis (Davenport and Bax 2002; Revill et al. 2009; Boyle et al. 2012), changes in assemblages over time (Pinnegar et al.”
Changes in shell and soft tissue growth, tissue composition, and survival of quahogs, Mercenaria mercenaria, and softshell clams, Mya arenaria, in response to eutrophic-driven changes in food supply and habitat (2004, unknown): “…evidence that clams and other bivalves assimilate specific particles from bulk seston and sediment (Canuel et al., 1995; Riera et al., 1999; Davenport and Bax, 2002; Lorrain et al., 2002; Kang et al., 2003; Carmichael, 2004), and our data suggest clams consumed those particles most…”
Does transported seagrass provide an important trophic link in unvegetated, nearshore areas? (2005, background): “, 2000) and continental shelf (Thresher et al., 1992; Davonport and Bax, 2002) ecosystems.”
Determination of fish trophic levels in an estuarine system (2010, background): “…of species 51 at a given time whereas stable isotope analyses repres nt an integrative record of the food that 52 has really been assimilated by the fish during a period prior to the sampling (e.g. Persson and 53 Hansoon, 1999; Davenport and Bax, 2002; West et al., 2003; Winemiller et al., 2007).”
Trophic ecology of Sargassum-associated fishes in the Gulf of Mexico determined from stable isotopes and fatty acids (2006, background): “Since the biomass of producers other than phytoplankton is typically low in oceanic waters, phytoplankton often constitute the primary source of 255 Mar Ecol Prog Ser 313: 249–259, 2006 organic matter to these food webs (e.g. Davenport & Bax 2002).”
Trophic interactions in Zostera marina beds along the Swedish coast (2008, background): “Stable-isotope studies have been carried out to investigate trophic interactions in seagrass communities (Davenport & Bax 2002, Smit et al. 2006, Tomas et al. 2006), but there appear to be few of this type of study in temperate eelgrass beds (Kharlamenko et al. 2001, Fredriksen et al. 2004).”
Molluscan assemblages of seagrass-covered and bare intertidal flats on the Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania, in relation to characteristics of sediment and organic matter (2008, background): “This is shown by stable isotope measurements; benthic invertebrates living in seagrass areas show a distinct algal isotopic signature (Dauby,1989;Dauby,1995;Loneraganet al.,1997;Yamamuro, 1999; Lepoint et al., 2000; Davenport and Bax, 2002).”
Standardized diet compositions and trophic levels of skates (Chondrichthyes: Rajiformes: Rajoidei) (2007, background): “seabirds, marine mammals, large teleosts, and some sharks (Sanger 1987; Bowen 1997; Cortés 1999; Garrison 2000; Davenport and Bax 2002).”
Carbon movement and assimilation by invertebrates in estuarine habitats at a scale of metres (2004, background): “The carbon isotope signatures of phytoplankton (~20‰) (Fry 1984, Bouillon et al. 2000, Davenport & Bax 2002) also make it an unlikely source of carbon for consumers residing on the saltmarsh.”
Prey dominance shapes trophic structure of the northern California Current pelagic food web: evidence from stable isotopes and diet analysis (2010, background): “…stable isotopes on an ecosystem scale for marine upwelling ecosystems, with most occuring from other systems, such as the Tasman Sea, Australia (Davenport & Bax 2002), northeast Atlantic Ocean (Sherwood & Rose 2005), Arctic Ocean (Hobson & Welch 1992), Weddell Sea (Rau et al. 1992) and the…”
Diet and resource use among Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) and teleosts sampled in Icelandic waters, using δ13C, δ15N, and mercury (2010, background): “For example, overlapping d13C values among con- sumers can prevent the differentiation of feeding behaviors (Davenport and Bax 2002; Cai et al. 2007), and spatial variability in d13C and d15N can result in erroneous identification of resource use and TP (Vander Zanden and Rasmussen 1999).”
Community structure and food web based on stable isotopes (δ15N and δ13C) analysis of a North Eastern Atlantic maerl bed (2006, methodology): “generally lower (Hobson et al., 1995, 2002; Herman et al., 2000; Davenport and Bax, 2002; Le Loc'h and Hily, 2005) than the 8.2‰ δ15N variation found across the maerl bed”
Biological and physical processes in and around Astoria submarine Canyon, Oregon, USA (2004, background): “stomach content analysis) to study feeding relationships and the relative contributions of different primary producers (Perry et al., 1999; Polunin et al., 2001; Davenport and Bax, 2002).”
Stable isotopic evidence for trophic groupings and bio-regionalization of predators and their prey in oceanic waters off eastern Australia (2009, background): “This group consisted of species regarded primarily as piscivores and agrees with a similar grouping from the study off southeast Australia by Davenport and Bax (2002) .”