Macroinvertebrate abundance and proportion of trait categories in river biotopes across England and Wales

There is a long tradition of river monitoring using macroinvertebrate communities to assess environmental quality in Europe. A promising alternative is the use of species life-history traits. Both methods, however, have relied on the time-consuming identification of taxa. River biotopes, 1-100 m**2 'habitats' with associated species assemblages, have long been seen as a useful and meaningful way of linking the ecology of macroinvertebrates and river hydro-morphology and can be used to assess hydro-morphological degradation in rivers. Taxonomic differences, however, between different rivers had prevented a general test of this concept until now. The species trait approach may overcome this obstacle across broad geographical areas, using biotopes as the hydro-morphological units which have characteristic species trait assemblages. We collected macroinvertebrate data from 512 discrete patches, comprising 13 river biotopes, from seven rivers in England and Wales. The aim was to test whether river biotopes were better predictors of macroinvertebrate trait profiles than taxonomic composition (genera, families, orders) in rivers, independently of the phylogenetic effects and catchment scale characteristics (i.e. hydrology, geography and land cover). We also tested whether species richness and diversity were better related to biotopes than to rivers. River biotopes explained 40% of the variance in macroinvertebrate trait profiles across the rivers, largely independently of catchment characteristics. There was a strong phylogenetic signature, however. River biotopes were about 50% better at predicting macroinvertebrate trait profiles than taxonomic composition across rivers, no matter which taxonomic resolution was used. River biotopes were better than river identity at explaining the variability in taxonomic richness and diversity (40% and <=10%, respectively). Detailed trait-biotope associations agreed with independent a priori predictions relating trait categories to near river bed flows. Hence, species traits provided a much needed mechanistic understanding and predictive ability across a broad geographical area. We show that integration of the multiple biological trait approach with river biotopes at the interface between ecology and hydro-morphology provides a wealth of new information and potential applications for river science and management.

Stomach content and parasite characteristics of M. scorpius from Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island

Shorthorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus scorpius) from Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, is a slow growing long-lived species. A wide range of diet items were present in the stomachs of the shorthorn sculpins sampled but 2-3 diet items (amphipod species) comprised 99.5 % of total food consumed. These amphipods were present in the stomachs in similar proportions among all age classes of shorthorn sculpin. Several new host records for parasites were reported and mean numbers of parasite species increased with shorthorn sculpin age. The increased diversity of parasite species and higher d15N values in older/larger individuals suggest that their diets were more diverse and the prey items consumed had higher d15N values. By contrast, the value of d13C in dominant diet items masked the d13C values of minor diet items. We conclude that parasites and stable isotope values provide complementary data on feeding patterns of the shorthorn sculpin. The ubiquitous marine acanthocephalan, Echinorhynchus gadi, was found at high prevalences (87-100 %) and mean intensities (28-35), and were localized in the midgut. In contrast to other studies on acanthocephalans, E. gadi did not influence fish condition as measured by condition factor, liver somatic and gonado-somatic indices.

Fork lengths, stomach contents and parasites of ninespine stickleback and arctic char in Iqalugaajuruluit Lake, Canada

Stable d13C and d15N isotopes, diet and parasites demonstrated that the prey consumed by ninespine stickleback Pungitius pungitius in a small lake on Baffin Island changed during the summer and also revealed intraspecific variation in their ecological niche. In July, there were differences in the diets of male and female ninespine stickleback as indicated by the stable isotopes, differences corroborated by the data on diet composition and the parasite fauna. Differences suggested that the sexes occupied different habitats during spawning. During July, females utilise the shallower littoral areas consuming zooplankton and benthic organisms, while males occupy deeper areas of the littoral zone feeding mainly on pelagic zooplankton. Parasite data support these observations as males had higher infections of copepod-transmitted parasites than females. There appeared to be no segregation of resources between males and females in late August, although the diet of both male and female ninespine stickleback shifted towards more benthic organisms, compared with July. Differences in d13C isotope, diet composition and infections of co-occurring parasites demonstrated that sympatric ninespine stickleback and Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus captured in the littoral zone occupied separate niches. Ninespine stickleback preyed mainly on zooplankton and chironomids, while Arctic char consumed a greater variety of prey items, including zooplankton and larger-sized prey such as insects and ninespine stickleback. The multifaceted approach improved our understanding of the trophic ecology of ninespine stickleback in southern Baffin Island and quantified resource use and dietary overlap with Arctic char.