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Food-web structure of coastal streams in Costa Rica revealed by dietary and stable isotope analyses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2011

Kirk O. Winemiller ,
Steven C. Zeug ,
Clinton R. Robertson ,
Brent K. Winemiller  and
Rodney L. Honeycutt
Kirk O. Winemiller*
Affiliation:
Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2258, USA
Steven C. Zeug
Affiliation:
Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2258, USA
Clinton R. Robertson
Affiliation:
Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2258, USA
Brent K. Winemiller
Affiliation:
A&M Consolidated High School, College Station, Texas 77840-5100, USA
Rodney L. Honeycutt
Affiliation:
Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2258, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract:

Food webs of streams draining tropical rain forests on Costa Rica's Pacific and Caribbean coasts were examined in the 1980s via dietary analyses, and the same streams were surveyed again in 2004 to compare trophic structure based on analysis of stable isotope ratios of fish, macro-invertebrate and plant tissues. Estimates of species’ trophic positions (TP) were calculated from stomach-contents data (51 species; 5420 specimens) and compared with TP estimates derived from analysis of nitrogen isotope ratios (82 taxa; 240 samples). Coefficients of determination for TP based on dietary versus isotopic analysis ranged from 0.18 (Quebrada Camaronal, Corcovado) to 0.73 (Quebrada Estacion, Tortuguero). Consumer taxa within all four streams spanned a broad range of carbon isotope values, indicating assimilation of variable proportions of carbon from periphyton and terrestrial vegetation that in all but one of the streams had similar δ13C values. Approximately half the consumers in all four streams had carbon ratios heavier than any of the in situ production sources examined. This pattern could be explained by consumption of other production sources that were not sampled, including periphyton taxa with variable carbon isotope signatures, or migration of prey and/or consumers between these freshwater and coastal marine habitats.

Keywords

Central Americadetritusfishesmacro-invertebratemigrationomnivoryperiphytonproduction sourceshrimptrophic position
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 27 , Issue 5 , September 2011 , pp. 463 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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