Abstract
Stable isotope analysis was used to investigate the food sources of benthic macroinvertebrates in the arid mangrove of the Persian Gulf. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values were analyzed for the 23 species and their potential food sources to examine the seasonal variation in the contribution of different potential food sources to macroinvertebrates. Primary food sources, e.g., mangrove leaves, microphytobenthos, sediment organic matter, and particulate organic matter, showed a wide range of δ13C values ranging between −28.07 and −13.54‰ and δ15N from 1.44 to 10.72‰. The wide range of the isotopic composition of consumers indicated that different food sources are important in the mangrove ecosystem of the Persian Gulf. The grazers tended to be more 13C-depleted than other feeding groups at both sampling seasons. In contrast, predators had significantly high δ13C, reflecting their carnivorous feeding habit of consuming 13C-enriched foods. The higher δ13C values of suspension feeders reflected the significant role of re-suspended microphytobenthos in the benthic-pelagic coupling of the mangrove ecosystem. The Bayesian stable isotope mixing model outputs suggested that the benthic food webs are supported by multiple primary sources. Microphytobenthos contribution was greater (> 40%), indicating their significant ecological role in structuring the food web of the arid mangroves. While sediment and particulate organic matter sources are involved in sustaining deposit feeders and partially suspension feeders, respectively, the mangrove-derived carbon played a significant role in maintaining herbivorous crabs.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank N. Delfan, P. Hajializadeh, S. Ebrahimnezhad, and many other students for their assistance in fieldwork. We would like to thank Dr. R. Naderloo (University of Tehran) and R. Abdollahi (Shahid Beheshti University) for sharing their taxonomic expertise. The authors are grateful to Prof. B. Abtahi (Shahid Beheshti University) for his constructive comments.
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This study was funded by the Center for International Science Studies and Collaboration, Iran (CISSC) (grant number 484), and Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) (grant number 97000327), which are gratefully acknowledged.
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Nazanin Akbari Noghabi: investigation, conceptualization, writing original draft, and writing – review and editing. Mehdi Ghodrati Shojaei: investigation, conceptualization, supervision, formal analysis, visualization, funding acquisition, and writing – review and editing. Melika Mashhadi Farahani: investigation, conceptualization, writing original draft, and writing – review and editing. Maryam Weigt: investigation, conceptualization, and writing – review and editing.
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Akbari Noghabi, N., Shojaei, M.G., Farahani, M.M. et al. Stable Isotopes Reveal the Food Sources of Benthic Macroinvertebrates in the Arid Mangrove Ecosystem of the Persian Gulf. Estuaries and Coasts 45, 2241–2253 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-022-01083-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-022-01083-9