West Back Bay in Biloxi, Mississippi is an oligohaline estuary. Salt-tolerant submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and saltmarsh grasses are found ubiquitously throughout this estuary with Vallisneria americana and Juncus roemerianus being the dominant SAV and saltmarsh vegetation. No studies have directly evaluated the role of these vegetation species in the food web. Carbon and sulfur stable isotope analyses were used to identify primary source contributions to fishes Menidia beryllina, Fundulus grandis, and Lepomis macrochirus. Isotopic niche overlap was compared between fishes and basal carbon sources bimonthly from May 2021 through May 2022. Fishes had greater than 50% isotopic niche overlap with SAV compared to fringing saltmarsh. Overlap was less than 23% for Juncus roemerianus and negligible for other saltmarsh species. These results suggest that Vallisneria americana in Back Bay is a primary driver of these fishes’ diets and should be a focus of habitat conservation efforts in oligohaline ecosystems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-7287 |
| Date | 13 August 2024 |
| Creators | Chenier, Keith Antoine |
| Publisher | Scholars Junction |
| Source Sets | Mississippi State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
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