4.4 Article

Disproportionate importance of nearshore habitat for the food web of a deep oligotrophic lake

Journal

MARINE AND FRESHWATER RESEARCH
Volume 62, Issue 4, Pages 350-358

Publisher

CSIRO PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1071/MF10229

Keywords

habitat coupling; littoral zone; Oncorhynchus clarkii; Oncorhynchus mykiss; recreational fisheries; septic systems

Funding

  1. Olympic National Park
  2. National Park Service North Coast and Cascades Network Research Learning Center
  3. National Science Foundation [DEB-0528531]
  4. USA Geological Survey grant [06HQGR0082]
  5. Washington State Lake Protection Association

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In large deep oligotrophic lakes, multiple lines of evidence suggest that the shallow nearshore water provides disproportionately important feeding and breeding habitat for the whole-lake food web. We examined the trophic importance of the nearshore environment, human impacts nearshore, and several approaches to disturbance detection in a deep (190 m) oligotrophic lake with relatively modest residential development. In Lake Crescent, on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington (USA), stable isotope analysis demonstrated that apex salmonid predators derived more than 50% of their carbon from nearshore waters, even though this nearshore water accounted for only 2.5% of total lake volume. Unfortunately, it is this land-water interface that is initially degraded as shorelines are developed. We hypothesised that under these conditions of relatively modest disturbance, the effects of residential development would be strongly localised near to shore. Indeed, we found striking differences between developed and undeveloped sites in periphyton and associated organic matter, though there were no offshore signals of human impact in water nutrient analysis or paleolimnological investigations. Together, these results suggest that nearshore biological monitoring should be integrated in lake management plans to provide 'early warning' of potential food-web repercussions before pollution problems are evident in open water and comparatively intractable.

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