A missing trophic link: Contribution of the microbial loop to the estimation of the trophic position of pelagic consumers

Trophic position estimation has been a central issue in food web studies. Estimates using compound-specific isotopic analyses of amino acids were generally based on the trophic enrichment of glutamic acid. However, this trophic position estimation mainly accounts for the trophic steps involving metazoa, as the isotopic fractionation of this amino acid is minimal at trophic steps within the microbial food web. Alternatively, trophic position estimates based on alanine seem to also reflect microbial trophic steps. The difference between these estimations can provide an index of the microbial food web contribution to the trophic position of a particular consumer. Here, we examined the differences between both trophic position estimates through a meta-analysis of the published data over a large range of marine consumers. The results suggest that the microbial contribution to trophic position decreases as trophic position increases in the marine pelagic food web, showing the lowest values in top consumers. Ureotelic organisms showed the highest microbial contributions. The current data point to an upper limit for the estimation of this index at delta N-15 values of glutamic acid or alanine of similar to 18.5 parts per thousand , or trophic positions of 3.9 or 4.7 for fish and ammoniotelic organisms, respectively. Under the stable isotope lens, bacteria and protists may play a key role in the estimation of trophic positions of consumers. However, uncertainties that related both to the microbial loop (e.g., metabolic bacterial pathways) and to metazoan consumers (e.g., influence of the gut microbiome) still obscure the establishment of clear quantitative links between microbial and metazoan food webs.

Automated summary

Trophic position estimation is crucial in food web studies. By analyzing published data, it was found that the contribution of microbes to the trophic position of marine consumers decreases as trophic position increases, with the lowest values found in top consumers. Additionally, bacteria and protists play a key role in the estimation of trophic positions of consumers.