Determination of trophic relationships within a Bohai Bay food web using stable δ^15N and δ^13C analysis

This study measured stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in phytoplankton, zooplankton, five invertebrates species, eight fishes species and three seabirds species collected in Bohai Bay. δ13C ranged from -25.38‰ to -11.08‰ showing a relative low enrichment in the food web from Bohai Bay. The mean δ13C of mullet is higher than that of other organisms, and this might be due to that mullet is migration fish and feeds mainly on inshore sources. δ15N ranged from 4.08‰ to 13.98‰, and showed a step-wise enrichment with trophic level of 3.8‰. The δ15N enrichment factor was used to construct an isotopic food web model to establish trophic relationships within this marine food web. According to this model, exact trophic levels of all organisms were estimated as 1.46-2.10, 1.91-3.32, 2.55-4.23 and 2.98-4.28 for plankton, invertebrates, fishes, and seabirds.