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More than a corridor: use of a main stem stream as supplemental foraging habitat by a brook trout metapopulation

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Abstract

Coldwater fishes in streams, such as brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), typically are headwater specialists that occasionally expand distributions downstream to larger water bodies. It is unclear, however, whether larger streams function simply as dispersal corridors connecting headwater subpopulations, or as critical foraging habitat needed to sustain large mobile brook trout. Stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) and a hierarchical Bayesian mixing model analysis was used to identify brook trout that foraged in main stem versus headwater streams of the Shavers Fork watershed, West Virginia. Headwater subpopulations were composed of headwater and to a lesser extent main stem foraging individuals. However, there was a strong relationship between brook trout size and main stem prey contributions. The average brook trout foraging on headwater prey were limited to 126 mm standard length. This size was identified by mixing models as a point where productivity support switched from headwater to main stem dependency. These results, similar to other studies conducted in this watershed, support the hypothesis that productive main stem habitat maintain large brook trout and potentially facilitates dispersal among headwater subpopulations. Consequently, loss of supplementary main stem foraging habitats may explain loss of large, mobile fish and subsequent isolation of headwater subpopulations in other central Appalachian watersheds.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the WV Department of Natural Resources for gate access and funding, as well as the US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Geological Survey for funding (grant NRAC 387). Partial support for this work was also provided by the National Science Foundation’s early career instrumentation grant (EAR-1205596) to S.S. We would like to thank the many members of the J.T.P lab for field assistance and Donna Hartman for administrative help. We would also like to thank Nate Taylor, Christina Slover, Bethany Meier, Andrea Sack, Dr. Ajaya Warrier, Travis Wilson and Darren Wood for field and lab assistance. All applicable institutional and/or national guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. Early drafts of this manuscript were greatly improved by comments from Dr. Mike Venarsky, Dr. Jonathan Benstead, and Dr. Colleen Caldwell.

Author contribution statement

BMH conceived and designed the study, conducted fieldwork, performed statistical analysis, and wrote the manuscript. JTP conceived and designed the study, and wrote the manuscript. SS processed stable isotope data and wrote the manuscript. ERM conducted fieldwork and processed stable isotope data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26506, USA

    Brock M. Huntsman, J. Todd Petty & Eric R. Merriam

  2. Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26506, USA

    Shikha Sharma

  3. Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University, 2980 South Espina Street, 132 Knox Hall, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA

    Brock M. Huntsman

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  1. Brock M. Huntsman
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Correspondence to Brock M. Huntsman.

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Communicated by Joel Trexler.

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442_2016_3676_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Fig. A1 Isospace of brook trout isotopic signatures with sources corrected by two separate trophic enrichment factors. The “Tradition” trophic enrichment factor represents a 3.4 ‰ enrichment in nitrogen and a 1 ‰ enrichment in carbon. The “McCutchen” trophic enrichment factor represents enrichment specific to brook trout, where nitrogen is enriched by 3.8 ‰ and carbon is enriched by 3.3 ‰ (DOCX 93 kb)

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Huntsman, B.M., Petty, J.T., Sharma, S. et al. More than a corridor: use of a main stem stream as supplemental foraging habitat by a brook trout metapopulation. Oecologia 182, 463–473 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-016-3676-4

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