Abstract
Historically, anthropogenic fixed nitrogen has been purposely increased to benefit food production and global development. One consequence of this increase has been to raise concentrations of nitrogen in aquatic ecosystems. To evaluate whether nitrogen pollution promotes changes in the estimates of niche space of fish communities, we examined 16 sites along a Brazilian river basin highly impacted by anthropogenic activities, especially discharge of domestic and industrial sewage from a region with more than 5 million inhabitants. We analysed the carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios of fish species and both autochthonous (periphyton) and allochthonous (course and fine particulate organic matter) basal food resources. To estimate the magnitude of nitrogen pollution, we measured the nitrate and ammonium concentrations at each site. Sampling was conducted in the dry and wet seasons to evaluate the influence of seasonality. Nitrogen pollution generally increased estimates of niche space, and seasonality influenced only the niche estimates of fish communities from polluted sites. In addition, isotopic analyses of nitrogen polluted sites yielded unrealistic estimates of trophic positioning (detritivores at the top of the food web). We conclude that changes in niche space estimates reflect both alterations in baseline isotopic values and differential trophic behaviour among fishes. Our study suggests that under conditions of high pollution, other factors appear to influence isotopic estimates of niche, such as isotopically distinct sources that have not been sampled, and/or differences in δ15N turnover rates between fish tissue and basal resources, creating isotopic baselines that are challenging to interpret.
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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Agência Peixe Vivo and the Comitê de Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio das Velhas for project financial support and the Projeto Manuelzão for the logistical support. Thanks to Aline J. Grossi (Federal University of Lavras—UFLA) and Luiza Hoehne (Federal University of Minas Gerais—UFMG) for the support on processing of samples. Thanks to the Benthos Ecology Laboratory (UFMG) and the Laboratory of Fish Ecology (UFLA) who assisted in the processing of samples and infrastructure.
Funding
This work was supported by the Agência Peixe Vivo and Comitê de Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio das Velhas—CBH Rio das Velhas (grant/contract number 001/2015). Débora Reis de Carvalho received research support from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brazil (Finance code 32004010017P3 and 88881.190508/2018–01). Paulo Santos Pompeu received research support from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (grant number 303548/2017–7) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (grant number PPM-00237/13).
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DRC, JPS, ASF, and PSP originally formulated the idea, DRC, CBMA, MZM and PSP developed methodology, CBMA conducted fieldwork, DRC processed the samples; MZM conducted the stable isotope analyses, DRC performed statistical analyses and wrote the manuscript, and JPS, ASF, CBMA, MZM and PSP reviewed and edited the manuscript.
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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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The methodology for this study was approved by the Ethics committee of the Universidade Federal de Lavras (Federal University of Lavras). Ethics approval number: 070/15.
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Communicated by Craig A. Layman .
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de Carvalho, D.R., Sparks, J.P., Flecker, A.S. et al. Nitrogen pollution promotes changes in the niche space of fish communities. Oecologia 197, 485–500 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05029-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-05029-z