Fresh Water Studies Commons^™

Plankton Trophic Structure Within Lake Michigan As Revealed By Stable Carbon And Nitrogen Isotopes, Zachery G. Driscoll

Theses and Dissertations

Zooplankton represent a critical component of aquatic food webs in that they transfer energy from primary producers to higher trophic positions. However, their small size makes the application of traditional trophic ecology techniques difficult. Fortunately, novel techniques have been developed that can be used to elucidate feeding information between zooplankton species. I used the analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios to estimate the trophic structure of Lake Michigan's zooplankton community. The major zooplankton species, three size classes of seston, and seston from specific water column depths were collected in 2011 and 2012 for stable isotope analysis. Trophic position …