Martin Kainz

Martin Kainz
University for Continuing Education Krems · WasserCluster - Biologische Station Lunz

PhD

About

218
Publications
53,622
Reads
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Citations
Introduction
Martin's research focuses on the importance of energy linkages among habitats in freshwater ecosystems. He is especially interested in the function of dietary energy from terrestrial and aquatic sources to consumers in aquatic food webs. He is currently interested in understanding how climate change affects functions, such as vision, cognition, and reproduction in aquatic consumers. Martin explores food web functioning using experimental and field studies and applies biochemical tracers, such as fatty acids and stable isotopes, and recently compound-specific stable isotopes. Martin’s passion for exploring aquatic food webs has taken him to Canada, USA, China, Australia, and many countries in Europe.
Additional affiliations
June 1995 - June 2001
University of Quebec in Montreal
Position
  • PhD Student
May 2016 - May 2016
Tongji University
Position
  • Lecturer
Description
  • Aquatic food webs and eco-toxicology
January 2006 - October 2006
National Water Research Institute
National Water Research Institute
Position
  • Research Associate
Education
June 1995 - June 2001
University of Quebec in Montreal
Field of study
  • Limnology

Publications

Publications (218)
Preprint
Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are linked through the reciprocal exchange of materials and organisms. Aquatic-to-terrestrial subsidies are relatively low quantity in most terrestrial ecosystems, but they can provide high contents of limiting resources that increase consumer fitness and ecosystem production. However, they also may carry signific...
Article
Full-text available
Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) undertake one of the most remarkable long-distance insect migrations, travelling thousands of kilometres to overwinter in the central trans-volcanic belt of Mexico. This study explored how monarch butterflies use essential fatty acids (EFA) and nonessential fatty acids (NFA) during overwintering. We collected...
Article
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Understanding the stable hydrogen isotope (δ2H) composition and fractionation in lipid biomolecules of primary producers, such as terrestrial and aquatic plants, is crucial for deciphering past environmental conditions, as well as applying compound-specific stable isotope analysis for the study of metabolic and ecological processes. We conducted a...
Article
Human land-use intensification threatens arthropod (for example, insect and spider) biodiversity across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Insects and spiders play critical roles in ecosystems by accumulating and synthesizing organic nutrients such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). However, links between biodiversity and nutrient content of...
Article
Full-text available
Chironomids are keystone primary benthic consumers with semi‐aquatic life cycles. They support aquatic and terrestrial consumers at higher trophic levels by conveying dietary nutrients, such as fatty acids. In this study, we combined field sampling and laboratory experiments to examine the effects of environmental parameters, including diet, on fat...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In aquatic systems, essential biomolecules such as fatty acids, which fulfil important functions in living organisms, are produced by phytoplankton and passed on to zooplankton, fish and ultimately humans. The fatty acid profile is mainly determined by primary producers. Their fatty acid metabolism is, however, strongly influenced by environmental...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Zooplankton communities are the primary conduit of energy from phytoplankton to planktivorous fish in freshwater ecosystems and play key roles in the functioning of these systems. Therefore, they are often proposed as ecological indicators. However, most zooplankton research focuses on a single waterbody or region, and insights from such studies ma...
Article
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Spatial and temporal zooplankton feeding dynamics across the water column of lakes are key for understanding site-specific acquisition of diet sources. During this 6-week lake study, we examined stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotopes and conducted compound-specific fatty acid (FA) stable isotope analysis (CSIA) of edible seston in the ep...
Chapter
Quantifying Diets of Wildlife and Fish presents different techniques available to study animal diets. Ecologists determine animal diets to build natural history knowledge, test hypotheses in ecological theory and make informed management decisions for important ecosystems. Many researchers use techniques traditionally applied to the animals they st...
Article
Climate warming causes shorter winters and changes in ice and snow cover in subarctic lakes, highlighting the need to better understand under-ice ecosystem functioning. The plankton community in a subarctic, oligotrophic lake was studied throughout the ice-covered season, focusing on lipid dynamics and life history traits in two actively overwinter...
Article
Full-text available
Stable isotope analysis has been broadly used to study food webs, but often relies on inaccurate assumptions of trophic isotopic discriminations, which could lead to misinterpretation of obtained results. While many taxa exhibit similar trophic discrimination factors (TDFs), crayfish, exhibit omnivorous feeding strategies, yet TDFs are missing. In...
Article
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In temperate lakes, eutrophication and warm temperatures can promote cyanobacteria blooms that reduce water quality and impair food-chain support. Although parasitic chytrids of phytoplankton might compete with zooplankton, they also indirectly support zooplankton populations through the “mycoloop”, which helps move energy and essential dietary mol...
Article
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Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are critical for reproduction and thermal adaptation. Year-round variability in the expression of fads2 (fatty acid desaturase 2) in the liver of European perch (Perca fluviatilis) in a boreal lake was tested in relation to individual variation in size, sex, and maturity, together with stable isotopes v...
Article
Full-text available
Dietary uptake is key for transferring potentially toxic contaminants, such as mercury (Hg) and essential dietary nutrients, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), to consumers at higher trophic levels of aquatic food webs. We evaluated the role of diet sources for Hg bioaccumulation and PUFA retention in fish across lake food webs in seven Sw...
Preprint
Full-text available
Deglaciation in mountain catchments changes water source contributions and associated habitat conditions in usually cold and dynamic mountain rivers. Although recent research has listed consequences of glacier retreat for aquatic biodiversity, specific invertebrate and algal groups, quantitative effects on the aquatic food web structure remain poor...
Article
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Traditionally, trophic ecology research on aquatic ecosystems has focused more on the quantity of dietary energy flow within food webs rather than food quality and its effects on organisms at various trophic levels. Recent studies emphasize that food quality is central to consumer growth and reproduction, and the importance of food quality for aqua...
Article
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Compound-specific stable-isotope analysis (CSIA) of fatty acids is a powerful tool to better understand the trophic transfer of fatty acids and their biochemical fate in and across ecosystems, including tracing animal migration and understanding physiological processes. The non-exchangeable nature of C—H bonds in acyl chains, hydrogen (δ²H) and car...
Article
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Lake ecosystems process and cycle organic substrates, thus serving as important bioreactors in the global carbon cycle. Climate change is predicted to increase extreme weather and precipitation events that can flush nutrients and organic matter from soils to streams and lakes. Here we report changes in stable isotopes (δ2H, δ13C, δ15N, or δ18O) of...
Article
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Primary production is the basis for energy and biomolecule flow in food webs. Nutritional importance of terrestrial and plastic carbon via mixotrophic algae to upper trophic level is poorly studied. We explored this question by analysing the contribution of osmo‐ and phagomixotrophic species in boreal lakes and used ¹³C‐labelled materials and compo...
Article
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Organisms at the base of stream food webs are typically poor in long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC‐PUFA), especially in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), whereas consumers at higher trophic levels are often rich in LC‐PUFA. For example, fish tissues, especially the brain, are DHA‐rich. This obvious mismatch between consumer LC‐PUFA and their basa...
Article
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Chytrid fungal parasites increase herbivory and dietary access to essential molecules, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), at the phytoplankton-zooplankton interface. Warming enhances cyanobacteria blooms and decreases algae-derived PUFA for zooplankton. Whether chytrids could support zooplankton with PUFA under global warming scenarios rem...
Article
Full-text available
Using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) to assess trophic interactions in freshwater ecosystems is a well established method, providing insight into ecosystem functioning. However, the spatial and temporal variability of isotope values, driven by environmental fluctuation is poorly understood and can complicate interpretat...
Article
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Species invasions can lead to ecological regime shifts by altering food web structure and changing nutrient cycling. Stable isotopes are a powerful tool to understand the potential and realized impacts of invasive species on food webs, especially when used in tandem with other dietary tracers. An invasion by one of the most notorious freshwater inv...
Article
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Non-exchangeable hydrogen-isotope (δ²Hn) measurements of complex organic samples are used in forensics to determine sample authenticity, traceability, and provenance. However, δ²Hn assays of organics are usually complicated by uncontrolled “exchangeable hydrogen” and residual moisture contamination; hence, δ²Hn assays are persistently incomparable...
Article
Aquatic micropollutants can be transported to terrestrial systems and their consumers by emergent aquatic insects. However, micropollutants, such as metals, may also affect the flux of physiologically important polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). As certain PUFAs have been linked to physiological fitness and breeding success of terrestrial consume...
Article
Full-text available
Zoosporic fungi of the phylum Chytridiomycota are ubiquitous parasites of phytoplankton in aquatic ecosystems, but little is known about phytoplankton defense strategies against parasitic chytrid attacks. Using a model chytrid-phytoplankton pathosystem, we experimentally tested the hypothesis that the mucilage envelope of a mucilage-forming desmid...
Article
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Introduction Among long-distance migratory insects, the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is one of the most iconic, whose journey is fueled by nectar from flowering plants along the migratory route which may involve up to 3,500 km. Understanding how and where monarchs obtain their dietary resources to fuel migratory flight and ensure overwinter...
Preprint
Final text: https://academic.oup.com/plankt/article/45/3/454/7135784 Old version: Global warming enhances the dominance of poorly palatable PUFA-deprived bloom-forming cyanobacteria. Chytrid fungal parasites increase herbivory and dietary access to polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) across the phytoplankton-zooplankton interface. Little is known h...
Article
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Microbial mineralization of organic compounds is essential for carbon recycling in food webs. Microbes can decompose terrestrial recalcitrant and semi-recalcitrant polymers such as lignin and cellulose, which are precursors for humus formation. In addition to naturally occurring recalcitrant substrates, microplastics have been found in various aqua...
Article
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Unlabelled: Fishponds, despite being globally abundant, have mainly been considered as food production sites and have received little scientific attention in terms of their ecological contributions to the surrounding terrestrial environment. Emergent insects from fishponds may be important contributors of lipids and essential fatty acids to terres...
Article
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Chytrid fungal parasites convert dietary energy and essential dietary molecules, such as long‐chain (LC) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), from inedible algal/cyanobacteria hosts into edible zoospores. How the improved biochemical PUFA composition of chytrid‐infected diet may extend to zooplankton, linking diet quality to consumer fitness, remain...
Article
Algal density can significantly impact mercury (Hg) bioaccumulation and biomagnification in aquatic food webs, but the underlying mechanisms remain controversial especially in subtropical and tropical regions. We conducted a comprehensive field study on Hg bioconcentration in phytoplankton and bioaccumulation in size-fractionated zooplankton across...
Article
Phytoplankton biomass can significantly affect metal(loid) bioaccumulation in plankton, but the underlying mechanisms are still controversial. We investigated the bioaccumulation of eight metal(loid)s (As, Co, Cu, Hg, Mn, Pb, Se, and Zn) in three size categories of planktonic organisms – seston (0.7–64 μm), mesozooplankton (200–500 μm), and macrozo...
Article
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The physiological dependence of animals on dietary intake of vitamins, amino acids, and fatty acids is ubiquitous. Sharp differences in the availability of these vital dietary biomolecules among different resources mean that consumers must adopt a range of strategies to meet their physiological needs.We review the emerging work on omega-3 long-chai...
Article
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Lipids and fatty acids are key dietary components for the nutrition of organisms at all trophic levels. They are required to build cellular structures, such as cell membranes, serve as energy storage and are taking part in signal transduction cascades. For decades, ecological research investigated how dietary fatty acid availability contributes to...
Article
Fatty acids (FA) in lake zooplankton are largely provided by dietary FA and affected by taxonomic composition of zooplankton, temperature, and other environmental conditions. However, the extent to which dietary FA are retained and/or bioconverted in zooplankton remains unclear. In this lake study, we examined how dietary FA (seston), temperature a...
Article
Full-text available
The introduction of fish into mountain lakes typically leads to profound ecological changes within the food web, but its consequences depend on the dietary preferences of fish and on the resistance of prey organisms against predation. Here we used stable isotopes and fatty acid analyses in combination with the traditional stomach content analysis t...
Article
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Emergent insects represent a key vector through which aquatic nutrients are transferred to adjacent terrestrial food webs. Aquatic fluxes of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from emergent insects are particularly important subsidies for terrestrial ecosystems due to high PUFA contents in several aquatic insect taxa and their physiological importa...
Article
Full-text available
Omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA) are key structural lipids and their dietary intake is essential for brain development of virtually all vertebrates. The importance of n-3 LC-PUFA has been demonstrated in clinical and laboratory studies, but little is known about how differences in the availability of n-3 LC-PUFA in natur...
Article
Full-text available
Omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA) are essential micronutrients for aquatic consumers. Synthesized by aquatic primary producers, n-3 LC-PUFA are transferred across trophic levels and may eventually end up accumulating in fish. However, if short in dietary supply, fish may also biosynthesize n-3 LC-PUFA from dietary precurs...
Article
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Methods for identifying origin, movement, and foraging areas of animals are essential for understanding ecosystem connectivity, nutrient flows, and other ecological processes. Telemetric methods can provide detailed spatial coverage but are limited to a minimum body size of specimen for tagging. In recent years, stable isotopes have been increasing...
Article
Full-text available
We studied how physiologically important long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in benthic macroinvertebrates (Asellus aquaticus, Chironomidae, and Oligochaeta) were related to those in periphyton and terrestrial organic matter (tree leaves), collected from littoral areas of 17 boreal lakes that differed in their dissolved organic carbon (DO...
Article
Diet quality is crucial for the development of offspring. Here, we examined how the nutritional quality of prey affects somatic growth and the lipid, carbohydrate, protein, amino acid, and polyunsaturated fatty acid content of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fry using a three-trophic-level experimental setup. Diets differed especially in their...
Article
Climate change can decouple resource supply from consumer demand, with the potential to create phenological mismatches driving negative consequences on fitness. However, the underlying ecological mechanisms of phenological mismatches between consumers and their resources have not been fully explored. Here, we use long-term records of aquatic and te...
Article
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are essential components of cell membranes and reproductive and sensory organs in vertebrates and are largely acquired through their diets. Accordingly, identification of the dietary sources of PUFA is an important consideration in food web studies. We collected fish, macroinvertebrates (aquatic and terrestrial),...
Article
Full-text available
Organisms at the base of aquatic food webs synthesize essential nutrients, such as omega‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n‐3 PUFA), which are transferred to consumers at higher trophic levels. Many consumers, requiring n‐3 long‐chain (LC) PUFA, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), have limited ability to biosynthesize...
Preprint
1. Omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA) are key structural lipids and their dietary intake is essential for brain development of virtually all vertebrates. The importance of n-3 LC-PUFA has been demonstrated in clinical and laboratory studies, but little is known about how differences in availability of n-3 LC-PUFA in natura...
Preprint
Full-text available
Omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA) are key structural lipids and their dietary intake is essential for brain development of virtually all vertebrates. The importance of n-3 LC-PUFA has been demonstrated in clinical and laboratory studies, but little is known about how differences in availability of n-3 LC-PUFA in natural p...
Article
1.Overfishing, altered flow regimes, loss of connectivity, pollution and other direct human disturbances have had a significant impact on freshwater fish biodiversity. While direct effects of these disturbances are well documented, some can also lead to changes in the nutritional composition at the base of freshwater food webs and may affect fish g...
Article
Full-text available
• The importance of mixotrophic algae as key bacterivores in microbial food webs is increasingly acknowledged, but their effects on the next trophic level remain poorly understood. Their high stoichiometric food quality is contrasted by anti-grazing strategies. • We tested the quality of freshwater mixotrophs as prey for zooplankton, using four non...
Article
Full-text available
Consumers feeding at the aquatic–terrestrial ecosystem interface may obtain a mixture of aquatic and terrestrial diet resources that vary in nutritional composition. However, in lake riparian spiders, the relative significance of aquatic versus terrestrial diet sources remains to be explored. We investigated the trophic transfer of lipids and polyu...
Article
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• The ecological role of emergent aquatic insects from lakes in exporting dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) across the freshwater-land interface is still poorly understood. • In this field study, we explored the seasonal biomass export of emergent insects from three subalpine lakes and investigated how lipids of emergent insects were relat...
Article
Full-text available
Across ecosystems, resources vary in their nutritional composition and thus their dietary value to consumers. Animals can either access organic compounds, such as fatty acids, directly from diet or through internal biosynthesis, and the extent to which they use these two alternatives likely varies based on the availability of such compounds across...
Article
Full-text available
There is growing recognition of the importance of food quality over quantity for aquatic consumers. In streams and rivers, most previous studies considered this primarily in terms of the quality of terrestrial leaf litter and importance of microbial conditioning. However, many recent studies suggest that algae are a more nutritional food source for...
Article
Full-text available
Climate change scenarios predict increases in temperature and organic matter supply from land to water, which affect trophic transfer of nutrients and contaminants in aquatic food webs. How essential nutrients, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and potentially toxic contaminants, such as methylmercury (MeHg), at the base of aquatic food w...