Carbon Isotope Signatures and Spatial Scales of Energy Flow in food webs supporting salmonids in Northern California Rivers

Project ObjectivesSpatial scales of the food webs that support the growth of juvenile salmonids in California rivers are largely unknown, but such information is essential for management of flows, species, and other ecosystem factors influencing salmonid production. Our project objectives were:1. to determine whether predictable variation in algal d13C with water velocity, and measurements of consumer d13C and d15N could be used to examine energy flow and trophic structure in food webs of the South Fork Eel River, and other salmon-bearing streams in Northern California, and2. to provide this information as a basis for examining how changes in access to energy sources following river regulation or invasions of exotic species might influence the access of various web members, including salmonids, to these sources.