Stable Isotope and Biochemical Composition of White Perch in a Phragmites Dominated Salt Marsh and Adjacent Waters

• Published in: Wetlands (Wilmington, N.C.) Vol. 30; no. 6; pp. 1181 - 1191
• Main Authors: Weinstein, Michael P., Litvin, Steven Y., Guida, Vincent G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-12-2010; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algae; Aquatic plants; Biochemical composition; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carbon 13; Coastal Sciences; Creeks & streams; Deciduous trees; Ecology; Energy; Energy reserves; Environmental Management; Environmental quality; Estuaries; Fish; Fish populations; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Hydrogeology; Isotope composition; Isotopes; Landscape Ecology; Life Sciences; Lipids; Monoculture; Morone americana; Plankton; Populations; Salt marshes; Stable isotopes; Triglycerides; Vegetation; Hudson River; Delaware Bay; Habitat comparisons; Trophodynamics; Biochemical condition
• ISSN: 0277-5212; 1943-6246
• DOI: 10.1007/s13157-010-0102-2

Tissue stable isotopes and biochemical condition were compared in two populations of white perch,
Morone americana
, residing in a
Phragmites australis
-dominated tidal salt marsh and adjacent open waters of Haverstraw Bay, in the Hudson River estuary, USA. As reported previously for other taxa in this system, stable isotope composition of
M. americana
was influenced by the dominant vegetation present, in this case a near monoculture of
P. australis
and other C
3
vegetation, mainly deciduous trees, that lined the immediate upland shoreline of the marsh. However, all three stable isotopes, δ
13
C, δ
15
N, and δ
34
S, differed significantly between the two populations, with all three parameters displaying enrichment in the open water collections. Both fish populations exhibited the expected allometric relationships among mass components (total protein, total lipids, dry weight) but energy reserves in the form of triacylglycerols and total lipids were significantly greater in the Haverstraw Bay population. These results were interpreted to not only be a function of fish size but also to originate from differences in habitat quality at the two locations.