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Cisco (Coregonus artedi) are threatened by climate change and lake eutrophication, and their oxythermal habitat can be assessed with TDO3, the water temperature at which dissolved oxygen equals 3 mg·L−1. We assessed the influence of TDO3 on cisco habitat use, genetic diversity, diets, and isotopic niche in 32 lakes ranging from oligotrophic to eutrophic. Results showed that as TDO3 increased, cisco were captured higher in the water column, in a narrower band, with higher minimum temperatures and lower minimum dissolved oxygen. TDO3 was also negatively related to cisco allelic richness and expected heterozygosity, likely driven by summer kill events. Moreover, TDO3 influenced the isotopic niche of cisco, as fish captured deeper were more depleted in δ13C and more enriched in δ15N compared to epilimnetic baselines. Lastly, cisco in high TDO3 lakes consumed more Daphnia, had fewer empty stomachs, and achieved larger body size. Our work identifies specific characteristics of cisco populations that respond to climate change and eutrophication effects and provides a framework for understanding responses of other cold-water species at the global scale.

We assessed naturally occurring stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) for available food resources and consumers in the mainstream channel of the Mississippi River. Isotopic ratios were assessed for organic sources and organisms at two different sites during a fall, spring, and two summer seasons. Terrestrial C4 plants did not appear to be an important carbon source for consumers in the mainstream channel. A mixing model, IsoSource, indicated that terrestrial C3 vegetation, suspended algae, and epixylon were at times important food resources for large river consumers. Many consumer signatures fell outside the mixing polygon defined by these sources, indicating that there was a 13C-depleted food resource for which we did not account. We could not distinguish precisely whether downstream allochthonous and autochthonous carbon, or in situ production, was the dominant food resource supporting consumers in these systems. However, our data suggest that in situ organic matter sources can be important. Consumer δ13C and δ15N signatures intermediate between several sources indicated widespread omnivory in the river reaches that we studied. To fully understand food web structure and energy sources in complex large river ecosystems, an integrative approach that combines related empirical data sets is needed.

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N, respectively) were measured for locally abundant primary producers, detritus, aquatic invertebrates, and fish in backwater lakes of two large floodplain rivers in an effort to understand patterns of energy dependence and trophic structure within these habitats. We observed trophic enrichment values for 15N that were within the ranges observed for other aquatic systems but were often considerably lower than the 3.4‰ typically assumed in stable isotope studies. Production based on benthic and terrestrial material, combined with planktonic production for larval fish, appears to be an important energy source supporting consumers in backwater lakes of large floodplain rivers. Our isotopic data challenge the conventional wisdom that macrophytes are centrally involved in supplying carbon to aquatic consumers in shallow lakes and that food webs in most lakes are sustained almost exclusively by carbon fixed by phytoplankton.