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Growth and dietary niche in Salvelinus alpinus and Salvelinus fontinalis as revealed by stable isotope analysis

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Ecology, behaviour and conservation of the charrs, genus Salvelinus

Part of the book series: Developments in environmental biology of fishes ((DEBF,volume 22))

Synopsis

Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus, and brook chair, Salvelinus fontinalis, inhabiting three lakes in the de la Trinité River and adjacent watershed, north shore, Gulf of St. Lawrence, were sampled in 1998. Arctic chart growth differed among lakes with the smallest fish coming from the largest lake. Arctic charr weight—length equation exponents were almost identical at all sample sites. Brook charr growth was also similar in all lakes. July stomach samples from Arctic chart. consisted almost entirely of cladocerans in the largest lake, less so in the intermediate sized lake and were mostly aquatic insects in the smallest lake. Brook charr stomach contents were more varied and included fish. Carbon, nitrogen and sulphur stable isotope analyses (SIA) were used to provide a spatially and temporally integrated image of charr diets. SIA corroborated observed among-lake differences and similarities in species diets and suggested lake morphometry may influence measured results. The δ 15N signature in brook chart muscle increased with fork-length, as a result of a shift towards piscivory with size. The δ 15N signature in Arctic charr muscle tissue showed a significant negative correlation with fork-length in two of the studied lakes that appears related to dietary niche shifts. Results demonstrate the ability of SIA to detect dietary shifts otherwise unobservable from standard gut content analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Michael Power, Geoffrey Power & Karin R. A. Guiguer

  2. Service de la faune aquatique, Ministère de l’Environnement et de la Faune, 675 Boulevard René-Lévesque Est, (11e), Bte 92, G1R 5V7, Québec, QC, Canada

    François Caron

  3. Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Bag service No. 45111, 4 Bailey Drive, Fredericton, New-Brunswick, E3B 6E1, Canada

    Richard R. Doucett

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  1. Michael Power
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  2. Geoffrey Power
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  3. François Caron
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  4. Richard R. Doucett
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  5. Karin R. A. Guiguer
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Editor information

Pierre Magnan Céline Audet Hélène Glémet Michel Legault Marco A. Rodríguez Eric B. Taylor

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© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Power, M., Power, G., Caron, F., Doucett, R.R., Guiguer, K.R.A. (2002). Growth and dietary niche in Salvelinus alpinus and Salvelinus fontinalis as revealed by stable isotope analysis. In: Magnan, P., Audet, C., Glémet, H., Legault, M., Rodríguez, M.A., Taylor, E.B. (eds) Ecology, behaviour and conservation of the charrs, genus Salvelinus . Developments in environmental biology of fishes, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1352-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1352-8_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6088-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1352-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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