Le Bourg B., Letourneur Y., Banaru D., Blanchot Jean, Chevalier Cristèle, Mou-Tham Gérard, Lebreton B., Pagano Marc. (2018). The same but different : stable isotopes reveal two distinguishable, yet similar, neighbouring food chains in a coral reef. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 98 (7), p. 1589-1597. ISSN 0025-3154.
Titre du document
The same but different : stable isotopes reveal two distinguishable, yet similar, neighbouring food chains in a coral reef
Le Bourg B., Letourneur Y., Banaru D., Blanchot Jean, Chevalier Cristèle, Mou-Tham Gérard, Lebreton B., Pagano Marc
Source
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 2018,
98 (7), p. 1589-1597 ISSN 0025-3154
Stable isotope compositions were studied in particulate organic matter (POM), zooplankton and different trophic groups of teleosts to compare food chains based on plankton at two sites (lagoon and outer slope) in a New Caledonian coral reef. For each trophic compartment, delta C-13 values were always lower in the outer slope than in the lagoon. This result may be explained by potential differences in POM composition between the two environments, suggesting that the two food chains are based on different primary sources of carbon. In contrast, delta N-15 values did not vary between the lagoon and the outer slope, indicating that these two food chains presented similar length and trophic levels, despite being distinguishable.
