Loss of trophic complexity in saline prairie lakes as indicated by stable-isotope based community-metrics

Lakes of the northern Great Plains are strongly influenced by a high variability in climate and hydrology and, as a result, are very diverse in water chemistry and lake morphometry [1,2]. Glacial retreat has left the local terrain flat and without relief [3]. Yet, 1000s of kettle lakes formed as chunks of ice broke off glaciers, forming small depressions scattered across the landscape [4]. The semi-arid to sub-humid climate in combination with the low relief resulted in the formation of closed (endorheic) drainage basins [4]. As the continuous flushing with dilute waters that is typical for boreal lakes is absent in these systems, inflows are almost exclusively associated with spring snow melt while surface water evaporation during summer is the most important loss of water [5].Water chemistry in prairie lakes is largely a function of the flux of particulate and dissolved substances that are being delivered to the lakes during the spring snow melt, and the intensity of evaporative concentration of solutes during summer. Accordingly, lakes across the Canadian prairies show a large variability in nutrient levels, and salinity ranges from freshwater to hypersaline. Water depth includes shallow-mixed (< 3 m) systems and deep-meromictic lakes (> 20 m), and lake size ranges over several orders of magnitude [1,6]. Subsequently, the taxonomic composition of the biota in these lakes also changes with water chemistry [6]. Salinity has been reported to be most important in controlling species assemblages but other environmental factors, such as nutrient content, calcium and water depth can play crucial roles as well [7]. A recent analysis across 20 prairie lakes indicated that the strength of salinity effects differs among major taxonomic groups [8]. Accordingly, fishes were excluded with increasing salinity (> 2 g L-1) while littoral macroinvertebrates were ubiquitous. In contrast, zooplankton were encountered over the whole salinity range, but showed a clear transition in ta