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Matthews CJD, Yarnes CT, Lefort KJ, Edkins TL, Kiszka JJ, Ferguson SH. Dietary plasticity and broad North Atlantic origins inferred from bulk and amino acid-specific δ 15N and δ 13C favour killer whale range expansions into Arctic waters. J Anim Ecol 2024; 93:1049-1064. [PMID: 38956826 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.14123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 07/04/2024]
Abstract
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) occur seasonally in the eastern Canadian Arctic (ECA), where their range expansion associated with declining sea ice have raised questions about the impacts of increasing killer whale predation pressure on Arctic-endemic prey. We assessed diet and distribution of ECA killer whales using bulk and compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) of amino acids (AA) of 54 skin biopsies collected from 2009 to 2020 around Baffin Island, Canada. Bulk ECA killer whale skin δ15N and δ13C values did not overlap with potential Arctic prey after adjustment for trophic discrimination, and instead reflected foraging history in the North Atlantic prior to their arrival in the ECA. Adjusted killer whale stable isotope (SI) values primarily overlapped with several species of North Atlantic baleen whales or tuna. Amino acid (AA)-specific δ15N values indicated the ECA killer whales fed primarily on marine mammals, having similar glutamic acid δ15N-phenylalanine δ15N (δ15NGlx-Phe) and threonine δ15N (δ15NThr) as mammal-eating killer whales from the eastern North Pacific (ENP) that served as a comparative framework. However, one ECA whale grouped with the fish-eating ENP ecotype based δ15NThr. Distinctive essential AA δ13C of ECA killer whale groups, along with bulk SI similarity to killer whales from different regions of the North Atlantic, indicates different populations converge in Arctic waters from a broad source area. Generalist diet and long-distance dispersal capacity favour range expansions, and integration of these insights will be critical for assessing ecological impacts of increasing killer whale predation pressure on Arctic-endemic species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cory J D Matthews
- Arctic Aquatic Research Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 501 University Crescent, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | - Chris T Yarnes
- Stable Isotope Facility, University of California, Davis, California, USA
| | - Kyle J Lefort
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St John's, Newfoundland, Canada
| | - Tera L Edkins
- Arctic Aquatic Research Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 501 University Crescent, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| | - Jeremy J Kiszka
- Institute of Environment, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, North Miami, Florida, USA
| | - Steven H Ferguson
- Arctic Aquatic Research Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 501 University Crescent, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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2
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Matthews CJD, Smith EAE, Ferguson SH. Comparison of δ 13C and δ 15N of ecologically relevant amino acids among beluga whale tissues. Sci Rep 2024; 14:11146. [PMID: 38750037 PMCID: PMC11096183 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-59307-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 05/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Ecological applications of compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) of amino acids (AAs) include 1) tracking carbon pathways in food webs using essential AA (AAESS) δ13C values, and 2) estimating consumer trophic position (TP) by comparing relative differences of 'trophic' and 'source' AA δ15N values. Despite the significance of these applications, few studies have examined AA-specific SI patterns among tissues with different AA compositions and metabolism/turnover rates, which could cause differential drawdown of body AA pools and impart tissue-specific isotopic fractionation. To address this knowledge gap, especially in the absence of controlled diet studies examining this issue in captive marine mammals, we used a paired-sample design to compare δ13C and δ15N values of 11 AAs in commonly sampled tissues (skin, muscle, and dentine) from wild beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas). δ13C of two AAs, glutamic acid/glutamine (Glx, a non-essential AA) and, notably, threonine (an essential AA), differed between skin and muscle. Furthermore, δ15N of three AAs (alanine, glycine, and proline) differed significantly among the three tissues, with glycine δ15N differences of approximately 10 ‰ among tissues supporting recent findings it is unsuitable as a source AA. Significant δ15N differences in AAs such as proline, a trophic AA used as an alternative to Glx in TP estimation, highlight tissue selection as a potential source of error in ecological applications of CSIA-AA. Amino acids that differed among tissues play key roles in metabolic pathways (e.g., ketogenic and gluconeogenic AAs), pointing to potential physiological applications of CSIA-AA in studies of free-ranging animals. These findings underscore the complexity of isotopic dynamics within tissues and emphasize the need for a nuanced approach when applying CSIA-AA in ecological research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cory J D Matthews
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 501 University Crescent, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
| | - Emma A Elliott Smith
- National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Steven H Ferguson
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 501 University Crescent, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
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3
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Rogers EJ, Gerson AR. Water restriction increases oxidation of endogenous amino acids in house sparrows (Passer domesticus). J Exp Biol 2024; 227:jeb246483. [PMID: 38380522 PMCID: PMC11093224 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.246483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/22/2024]
Abstract
Animals can cope with dehydration in a myriad of ways, both behaviorally and physiologically. The oxidation of protein produces more metabolic water per kilojoule than that of fat or carbohydrate, and it is well established that birds increase protein catabolism in response to high rates of water loss. However, the fate of amino acids mobilized in response to water restriction has not been explicitly determined. While protein catabolism releases bound water, we hypothesized that water-restricted birds would also oxidize the resulting amino acids, producing additional water as a product of oxidative phosphorylation. To test this, we fed captive house sparrows (Passer domesticus) 13C-labeled leucine for 9 weeks to label endogenous proteins. We conducted weekly trials during which we measured the physiological response to water restriction as changes in lean mass, fat mass, metabolism and the enrichment of 13C in exhaled CO2 (δ13Cbreath). If water-restricted birds catabolized proteins and oxidized the resulting amino acids, we expected to simultaneously observe greater lean mass loss and elevated δ13Cbreath relative to control birds. We found that water-restricted birds catabolized more lean tissue and also had enriched δ13Cbreath in response to water restriction, supporting our hypothesis. δ13Cbreath, however, varied with metabolic rate and the length of the water restriction period, suggesting that birds may spare protein when water balance can be achieved using other physiological strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth J. Rogers
- Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Alexander R. Gerson
- Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
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4
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Rogers MC, Heintz RA, Vollenweider JJ, Sreenivasan A, Miller KB. Climate change-informed dietary modeling in Pacific cod: Experimentally-derived effects of temperature and dietary quality on carbon and nitrogen stable isotope trophic discrimination factors. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0295564. [PMID: 38060595 PMCID: PMC10703269 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Stable isotope analysis is a powerful tool for dietary modeling and trophic ecology research. A crucial piece of information for isotopic dietary modeling is the accurate estimation of trophic discrimination factors (TDFs), or the isotopic offset between a consumer's tissue and its diet. In order to parameterize stable isotope dietary models for future climate scenarios, we investigated the effect of water temperature and dietary protein and lipid content on TDFs in juvenile Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus). Pacific cod are a commercially and ecologically important species, with stock numbers in the northeast Pacific recently having dropped by more than 70%. We tested four water temperatures (6, 8, 10, and 12°C) and two dietary regimens (low and high lipid content), representing a range of potential ocean temperature and prey quality scenarios, in order to determine carbon and nitrogen TDFs in juvenile Pacific cod. Additionally, we assessed dietary intake and proximate composition of the experimental fish in order to estimate consumption, assimilation, and retention of dietary nutrients. The results of this study suggest that dietary protein catabolism is a primary driver of nitrogen TDF variability in juvenile Pacific cod. Across all temperature treatments from 6 to 12°C, fish reared on the lower quality, lower lipid content diet had higher nitrogen TDFs. The mean TDFs for fish raised on the higher lipid, lower protein diet were +3.40 ‰ for nitrogen (Δ15N) and +0.36 ‰ for lipid-corrected carbon (Δ LC 13C). The mean TDFs for fish raised on the lower lipid, higher protein diet were +4.09 ‰ for nitrogen (Δ15N) and 0.00 ‰ for lipid-corrected carbon (Δ LC 13C). Lipid-corrected carbon isotope data showed that, regardless of temperature, fish consuming the lower lipid diet had essentially no trophic discrimination between diet and bulk tissues. We found no ecologically meaningful differences in TDFs due to water temperature across the 6°experimental range. The results of this experiment demonstrate that dietary quality, and more specifically the use of dietary protein for energetic needs, is a primary driver of trophic discrimination factors. The TDFs determined in this study can be applied to understanding trophic ecology in Pacific cod and closely related species under rapidly changing prey availability and ocean temperature conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew C. Rogers
- NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratories, Juneau, Alaska, United States of America
| | - Ron A. Heintz
- Sitka Sound Science Center, Sitka, Alaska, United States of America
| | - Johanna J. Vollenweider
- NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratories, Juneau, Alaska, United States of America
| | - Ashwin Sreenivasan
- University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau, Alaska, United States of America
| | - Katharine B. Miller
- NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Auke Bay Laboratories, Juneau, Alaska, United States of America
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5
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Abstract
The measurement of naturally occurring stable isotope ratios of the light elements (C, N, H, O, S) in animal tissues and associated organic and inorganic fractions of associated environments holds immense potential as a means of addressing effects of global change on animals. This paper provides a brief review of studies that have used the isotope approach to evaluate changes in diet, isotopic niche, contaminant burden, reproductive and nutritional investment, invasive species and shifts in migration origin or destination with clear links to evaluating effects of global change. This field has now reached a level of maturity that is impressive but generally underappreciated and involves technical as well as statistical advances and access to freely available R-based packages. There is a need for animal ecologists and conservationists to design tissue collection networks that will best answer current and anticipated questions related to the global change and the biodiversity crisis. These developments will move the field of stable isotope ecology toward a more hypothesis driven discipline related to rapidly changing global events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith A Hobson
- Wildlife Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 0X4, Canada.
- Department of Biology, Western University, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada.
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6
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Grainger R, Raoult V, Peddemors VM, Machovsky-Capuska GE, Gaston TF, Raubenheimer D. Integrating isotopic and nutritional niches reveals multiple dimensions of individual diet specialisation in a marine apex predator. J Anim Ecol 2023; 92:514-534. [PMID: 36421071 PMCID: PMC10107186 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13852] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2021] [Accepted: 09/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Dietary specialisations are important determinants of ecological structure, particularly in species with high per-capita trophic influence like marine apex predators. These species are, however, among the most challenging in which to establish spatiotemporally integrated diets. We introduce a novel integration of stable isotopes with a multidimensional nutritional niche framework that addresses the challenges of establishing spatiotemporally integrated nutritional niches in wild populations, and apply the framework to explore individual diet specialisation in a marine apex predator, the white shark Carcharodon carcharias. Sequential tooth files were sampled from juvenile white sharks to establish individual isotopic (δ-space; δ13 C, δ15 N, δ34 S) niche specialisation. Bayesian mixing models were then used to reveal individual-level prey (p-space) specialisation, and further combined with nutritional geometry models to quantify the nutritional (N-space) dimensions of individual specialisation, and their relationships to prey use. Isotopic and mixing model analyses indicated juvenile white sharks as individual specialists within a broader, generalist, population niche. Individual sharks differed in their consumption of several important mesopredator species, which suggested among-individual variance in trophic roles in either pelagic or benthic food webs. However, variation in nutrient intakes was small and not consistently correlated with differences in prey use, suggesting white sharks as nutritional specialists and that individuals could use functionally and nutritionally different prey as complementary means to achieve a common nutritional goal. We identify how degrees of individual specialisation can differ between niche spaces (δ-, p- or N-space), the physiological and ecological implications of this, and argue that integrating nutrition can provide stronger, mechanistic links between diet specialisation and its intrinsic (fitness/performance) and extrinsic (ecological) outcomes. Our time-integrated framework is adaptable for examining the nutritional consequences and drivers of food use variation at the individual, population or species level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Grainger
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Vincent Raoult
- School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Victor M Peddemors
- New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Fisheries, Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Mosman, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Gabriel E Machovsky-Capuska
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,Nutri Lens, East Ryde, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Troy F Gaston
- School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, New South Wales, Australia
| | - David Raubenheimer
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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7
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Manlick PJ, Cook JA, Newsome SD. The coupling of green and brown food webs regulates trophic position in a montane mammal guild. Ecology 2023; 104:e3949. [PMID: 36495220 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3949] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Revised: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 11/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Food web ecology has revolutionized our understanding of ecological processes, but the drivers of food web properties like trophic position (TP) and food chain length are notoriously enigmatic. In terrestrial ecosystems, above- and belowground systems were historically compartmentalized into "green" and "brown" food webs, but the coupling of these systems by animal consumers is increasingly recognized, with potential consequences for trophic structure. We used stable isotope analysis (δ13 C, δ15 N) of individual amino acids to trace the flow of essential biomolecules and jointly measure multichannel feeding, food web coupling, and TP in a guild of small mammals. We then tested the hypothesis that brown energy fluxes to aboveground consumers increase terrestrial food chain length via cryptic trophic transfers during microbial decomposition. We found that the average small mammal consumer acquired nearly 70% of their essential amino acids (69.0% ± 7.6%) from brown food webs, leading to significant increases in TP across species and functional groups. Fungi were the primary conduit of brown energy to aboveground consumers, providing nearly half the amino acid budget for small mammals on average (44.3% ± 12.0%). These findings illustrate the tightly coupled nature of green and brown food webs and show that microbially mediated energy flow ultimately regulates food web structure in aboveground consumers. Consequently, we propose that the integration of green and brown energy channels is a cryptic driver of food chain length in terrestrial ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip J Manlick
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.,Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.,Pacific Northwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Juneau, Alaska, USA
| | - Joseph A Cook
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.,Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
| | - Seth D Newsome
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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8
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Hesse T, Nachev M, Khaliq S, Jochmann MA, Franke F, Scharsack JP, Kurtz J, Sures B, Schmidt TC. Insights into amino acid fractionation and incorporation by compound-specific carbon isotope analysis of three-spined sticklebacks. Sci Rep 2022; 12:11690. [PMID: 35804029 PMCID: PMC9270445 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15704-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Interpretation of stable isotope data is of upmost importance in ecology to build sound models for the study of animal diets, migration patterns and physiology. However, our understanding of stable isotope fractionation and incorporation into consumer tissues is still limited. We therefore measured the δ13C values of individual amino acids over time from muscle and liver tissue of three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) on a high protein diet. The δ13C values of amino acids in the liver quickly responded to small shifts of under ± 2.0‰ in dietary stable isotope compositions on 30-day intervals. We found on average no trophic fractionation in pooled essential (muscle, liver) and non-essential (muscle) amino acids. Negative Δδ13C values of − 0.7 ± 1.3‰ were observed for pooled non-essential (liver) amino acids and might indicate biosynthesis from small amounts of dietary lipids. Trophic fractionation of individual amino acids is reported and discussed, including unusual Δδ13C values of over + 4.9 ± 1.4‰ for histidine. Arginine and lysine showed the lowest trophic fractionation on individual sampling days and might be useful proxies for dietary sources on short time scales. We suggest further investigations using isotopically enriched materials to facilitate the correct interpretation of ecological field data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Hesse
- Instrumental Analytical Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany
| | - Milen Nachev
- Aquatic Ecology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany.,Centre for Water and Environmental Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany
| | - Shaista Khaliq
- Instrumental Analytical Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany
| | - Maik A Jochmann
- Instrumental Analytical Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany. .,Centre for Water and Environmental Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany.
| | - Frederik Franke
- Institute for Evolution & Biodiversity, University of Münster, Hüfferstr. 1, 48149, Münster, Germany.,Bavarian State Institute of Forestry, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 1, 85354, Freising, Germany
| | - Jörn P Scharsack
- Institute for Evolution & Biodiversity, University of Münster, Hüfferstr. 1, 48149, Münster, Germany.,Thünen Institute of Fisheries Ecology, Herwigstr. 31, 27572, Bremerhaven, Germany
| | - Joachim Kurtz
- Institute for Evolution & Biodiversity, University of Münster, Hüfferstr. 1, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Bernd Sures
- Aquatic Ecology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany.,Centre for Water and Environmental Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany
| | - Torsten C Schmidt
- Instrumental Analytical Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany.,Centre for Water and Environmental Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany
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9
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Yun HY, Larsen T, Choi B, Won E, Shin K. Amino acid nitrogen and carbon isotope data: Potential and implications for ecological studies. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e8929. [PMID: 35784034 PMCID: PMC9163675 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8929] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2022] [Revised: 04/18/2022] [Accepted: 04/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Explaining food web dynamics, stability, and functioning depend substantially on understanding of feeding relations within a community. Bulk stable isotope ratios (SIRs) in natural abundance are well-established tools to express direct and indirect feeding relations as continuous variables across time and space. Along with bulk SIRs, the SIRs of individual amino acids (AAs) are now emerging as a promising and complementary method to characterize the flow and transformation of resources across a diversity of organisms, from microbial domains to macroscopic consumers. This significant AA-SIR capacity is based on empirical evidence that a consumer's SIR, specific to an individual AA, reflects its diet SIR coupled with a certain degree of isotopic differences between the consumer and its diet. However, many empirical ecologists are still unfamiliar with the scope of applicability and the interpretative power of AA-SIR. To fill these knowledge gaps, we here describe a comprehensive approach to both carbon and nitrogen AA-SIR assessment focusing on two key topics: pattern in AA-isotope composition across spatial and temporal scales, and a certain variability of AA-specific isotope differences between the diet and the consumer. On this basis we review the versatile applicability of AA-SIR to improve our understanding of physiological processes as well as food web functioning, allowing us to reconstruct dominant basal dietary sources and trace their trophic transfers at the specimen and community levels. Given the insightful and opportunities of AA-SIR, we suggest future applications for the dual use of carbon and nitrogen AA-SIR to study more realistic food web structures and robust consumer niches, which are often very difficult to explain in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hee Young Yun
- Deparment of Marine Science and Convergent TechnologyHanyang UniversityAnsanKorea
| | - Thomas Larsen
- Department of ArchaeologyMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human HistoryJenaGermany
| | - Bohyung Choi
- Deparment of Marine Science and Convergent TechnologyHanyang UniversityAnsanKorea
- Inland Fisheries Research InstituteNational Institute of Fisheries ScienceGeumsan‐gunKorea
| | - Eun‐Ji Won
- Deparment of Marine Science and Convergent TechnologyHanyang UniversityAnsanKorea
| | - Kyung‐Hoon Shin
- Deparment of Marine Science and Convergent TechnologyHanyang UniversityAnsanKorea
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10
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Chibowski P, Brzeziński M, Suska-Malawska M, Zub K. Diet/Hair and Diet/Faeces Trophic Discrimination Factors for Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes, and Hair Regrowth in the Yellow-Necked Mouse and Bank Vole. ANN ZOOL FENN 2022. [DOI: 10.5735/086.059.0115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Piotr Chibowski
- Faculty of Biology, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, Żwirki i Wigury 101, PL-02-089 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Marcin Brzeziński
- Faculty of Biology, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, Żwirki i Wigury 101, PL-02-089 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Małgorzata Suska-Malawska
- Faculty of Biology, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw, Żwirki i Wigury 101, PL-02-089 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Karol Zub
- Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Stoczek 1, PL-17-230 Białowieża, Poland
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11
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Summer/fall diet and macronutrient assimilation in an Arctic predator. Oecologia 2022; 198:917-931. [PMID: 35412091 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-022-05155-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2021] [Accepted: 03/28/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Free-ranging predator diet estimation is commonly achieved by applying molecular-based tracers because direct observation is not logistically feasible or robust. However, tracers typically do not represent all dietary macronutrients, which likely obscures resource use as prey proximate composition varies and tissue consumption can be specific. For example, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) preferentially consume blubber, yet diets have been estimated using fatty acids based on prey blubber or stable isotopes of lipid-extracted prey muscle, neither of which represent both protein and lipid macronutrient contributions. Further, additional bias can be introduced because dietary fat is known to be flexibly routed beyond short-term energy production and storage. We address this problem by simultaneously accounting for protein and lipid assimilation using carbon and nitrogen isotope compositions of lipid-containing prey muscle and blubber to infer summer/fall diet composition and macronutrient proportions from Chukchi Sea polar bear guard hair (n = 229) sampled each spring between 2008 and 2017. Inclusion of blubber (85-95% lipid by dry mass) expanded the isotope mixing space and improved separation among prey species. Ice-associated seals, including nutritionally dependent pups, were the primary prey in summer/fall diets with lower contributions by Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) and whales. Percent blubber estimates confirmed preferential selection of this tissue and represented the highest documented lipid assimilation for any animal species. Our results offer an improved understanding of summer/fall prey macronutrient usage by Chukchi Sea polar bears which likely coincides with a nutritional bottleneck as the sea ice minimum is approached.
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12
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Hobson KA, Kuwae T, Drever MC, Easton WE, Elner RW. Biofilm and invertebrate consumption by western sandpipers ( Calidris mauri) and dunlin ( Calidris alpina) during spring migratory stopover: insights from tissue and breath CO 2 isotopic ( δ 13C, δ 15N) analyses. CONSERVATION PHYSIOLOGY 2022; 10:coac006. [PMID: 35198213 PMCID: PMC8857455 DOI: 10.1093/conphys/coac006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2021] [Revised: 01/13/2022] [Accepted: 02/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Shorebirds use key migratory stopover habitats in spring and fall where body proteins are replenished and lipids stored as fuel for the remaining journey. The Fraser River estuary, British Columbia, Canada, is a critical spring stopover site for hundreds of thousands of migrating western sandpiper, Calidris mauri, and dunlin, Calidris alpina. Intertidal biofilm in spring is an important nutritional source for western sandpiper, with previous isotopic research predicting 45-59% of total diet and 50% of total energy needs. However, these studies relied on isotopic mixing models that did not consider metabolic routing of key dietary macromolecules. Complexity arises due to the mixed macromolecular composition of biofilm that is difficult to characterize isotopically. We expanded on these earlier findings by considering a protein pathway from diet to the body protein pool represented by liver tissue, using a Bayesian mixing model based on δ 13C and δ 15N. We used δ 13C measurements of adipose tissue and breath CO2 to provide an estimate of the carbohydrate and protein δ 13C values of microphytobenthos and used these derived values to better inform the isotopic mixing models. Our results reinforce earlier estimates of the importance of biofilm to staging shorebirds in predicting that assimilated nutrients from biofilm contribute ~35% of the protein budgets for staging western sandpipers (n = 13) and dunlin (n = 11) and at least 41% of the energy budget of western sandpiper (n = 69). Dunlin's ingestion of biofilm appeared higher than anticipated given their expected reliance on invertebrate prey compared to western sandpiper, a biofilm specialist. Isotopic analyses of bulk tissues that consider metabolic routing and that make use of breath CO2 and adipose lipid assays can provide new insights into avian physiology. We advocate further isotopic research to better understand biofilm use by migratory shorebirds in general and as a critical requirement for more effective conservation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith A Hobson
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, 11 Innovation Blvd., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 3H5, Canada
- Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond St., London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Tomohiro Kuwae
- Coastal and Estuarine Environment Research Group, 3-1-1, Nagase, Yokosuka 239-0826, Japan
| | - Mark C Drever
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, 5421 Robertson Rd., Delta, British Columbia, V4K 3Y3, Canada
| | - Wendy E Easton
- Coastal and Estuarine Environment Research Group, 3-1-1, Nagase, Yokosuka 239-0826, Japan
| | - Robert W Elner
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, 5421 Robertson Rd., Delta, British Columbia, V4K 3Y3, Canada
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13
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Doherty SP, Collins MJ, Harris AJT, Sistiaga A, Newton J, Alexander MM. A modern baseline for the paired isotopic analysis of skin and bone in terrestrial mammals. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2022; 9:211587. [PMID: 35242352 PMCID: PMC8753148 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2021] [Accepted: 12/14/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
We present the isotopic discrimination between paired skin and bone collagen from animals of known life history, providing a modern baseline for the interpretation of archaeological isotopic data. At present, the interpretation of inter-tissue variation (Δ(skin-bone)) in mummified remains is based on comparisons with other archaeological material, which have attributed divergence to their contrasting turnover rates, with rapidly remodelling skin collagen incorporating alterations in environmental, cultural and physiological conditions in the months prior to death. While plausible, the lack of baseline data from individuals with known life histories has hindered evaluation of the explanations presented. Our analysis of a range of animals raised under a variety of management practices showed a population-wide trend for skin collagen to be depleted in 13C by -0.7‰ and enriched in 15N by +1.0‰ relative to bone collagen, even in stillborn animals. These results are intriguing and difficult to explain using current knowledge; however, on the basis of the findings reported here, we caution any results which interpret simply on differing turnover rates. We hypothesize that there may be a consistent difference in the routing of dietary protein and lipids between skin and bone, with potentially on-site synthesis of non-essential amino acids using carbon and nitrogen that have been sourced via different biochemical pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean P. Doherty
- Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QE, UK
- BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Matthew J. Collins
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 1353, Denmark
| | - Alison J. T. Harris
- Department of Archaeology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's A1C 5S7, Canada
| | - Ainara Sistiaga
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 1353, Denmark
- Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Jason Newton
- NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride G75 0QF, UK
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14
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Xu D, Liu J, Gu Y, Chen Y, Zhao C, Sun G, Ren Y, Li C, Xia B. Biosynthesis and Isotopic Routing of Dietary Protein by Sea Cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka): Evidence from Compound-Specific Carbon Stable Isotope Analysis. JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY 2021; 69:14802-14809. [PMID: 34852201 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.1c04731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Compound-specific stable isotope analysis of individual amino acids (AAs) has been widely used in studies on food webs, resource tracing, and biochemical cycling. In the present study, juvenile sea cucumbers Apostichopus japonicus were fed the microalga Cylindrotheca fusiformis (CF) or Sargassum thunbergii (ST) during a 130-day experiment. The δ13C values of individual AAs in the experimental diet and body wall of sea cucumbers were determined to calculate the variability in carbon isotopic fractionation (Δ13C) and elucidate the isotopic routing of essential AAs and biosynthesis of nonessential AAs. The results showed that the sea cucumbers fed with diet CF had higher specific growth and ingestion rates but relatively lower feed conversion efficiency compared to those fed with diet ST. The experimental diets were generally less abundant in nonessential AAs (i.e., glycine, serine, aspartic acid, and arginine) but more abundant in essential AAs (i.e., isoleucine, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, and histidine) than body walls. The fluctuations in the δ13C values of total AAs analyzed were 19.8 ± 4.6‰ for diets and 21.3 ± 2.7‰ for body walls. Serine and threonine were 13C-enriched AAs, while leucine and phenylalanine were 13C-depleted AAs. The diet ST treatment exhibited more positive Δ13C values of nonessential AAs (e.g., glycine, alanine, aspartic acid, and proline) compared to diet CF. There were significant negative relationships between Δ13C values and differences in nonessential AA percent abundance between the experimental diets and body walls of sea cucumber (for diet CF: y = -0.79 - 0.56x, r2 = 0.47; diet ST: y = 0.75 - 0.29x, r2 = 0.51), which implied the flexibility in the routing of various dietary macronutrients (protein, lipids, and carbohydrates) by sea cucumber. This study can greatly provide a new understanding of nutrient utilization and metabolism routing during juvenile sea cucumber culturing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dongxue Xu
- School of Marine Science and Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China
| | - Ji Liu
- School of Marine Science and Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China
| | - Yuanxue Gu
- School of Marine Science and Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China
| | - Yanru Chen
- School of Marine Science and Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China
| | - Chunyan Zhao
- School of Marine Science and Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China
| | - Guohua Sun
- School of Agriculture, Ludong University, Yantai, Shandong 264025, China
| | - Yichao Ren
- School of Marine Science and Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China
| | - Chao Li
- School of Marine Science and Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China
| | - Bin Xia
- School of Marine Science and Engineering, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China
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15
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Riekenberg PM, Camalich J, Svensson E, IJsseldijk LL, Brasseur SMJM, Witbaard R, Leopold MF, Rebolledo EB, Middelburg JJ, van der Meer MTJ, Sinninghe Damsté JS, Schouten S. Reconstructing the diet, trophic level and migration pattern of mysticete whales based on baleen isotopic composition. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2021; 8:210949. [PMID: 34909214 PMCID: PMC8652277 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210949] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 10/28/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Baleen from mysticete whales is a well-preserved proteinaceous material that can be used to identify migrations and feeding habits for species whose migration pathways are unknown. Analysis of δ13C and δ15N values from bulk baleen have been used to infer migration patterns for individuals. However, this approach has fallen short of identifying migrations between regions as it is difficult to determine variations in isotopic shifts without temporal sampling of prey items. Here, we apply analysis of δ15N values of amino acids to five baleen plates belonging to three species, revealing novel insights on trophic position, metabolic state and migration between regions. Humpback and minke whales had higher reconstructed trophic levels than fin whales (3.7-3.8 versus 3-3.2, respectively) as expected due to different feeding specialization. Isotopic niche areas between baleen minima and maxima were well separated, indicating regional resource use for individuals during migration that aligned with isotopic gradients in Atlantic Ocean particulate organic matter. Phenylanine δ15N values confirmed regional separation between the niche areas for two fin whales as migrations occurred and elevated glycine and threonine δ15N values suggested physiological changes due to fasting. Simultaneous resolution of trophic level and physiological changes allow for identification of regional migrations in mysticetes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip M. Riekenberg
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, Den Hoorn 1790AB, The Netherlands
| | - Jaime Camalich
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, Den Hoorn 1790AB, The Netherlands
| | - Elisabeth Svensson
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, Den Hoorn 1790AB, The Netherlands
| | - Lonneke L. IJsseldijk
- Division of Pathology, Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3854 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Sophie M. J. M. Brasseur
- Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University and Research, PO Box 57, 1780 AB Den Helder, The Netherlands
| | - Rob Witbaard
- Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and Utrecht University, PO Box 140, 4400 AC Yerseke, The Netherlands
| | - Mardik F. Leopold
- Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University and Research, PO Box 57, 1780 AB Den Helder, The Netherlands
| | - Elisa Bravo Rebolledo
- Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University and Research, PO Box 57, 1780 AB Den Helder, The Netherlands
| | - Jack J. Middelburg
- Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8a, 3584 CB Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Marcel T. J. van der Meer
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, Den Hoorn 1790AB, The Netherlands
| | - Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, Den Hoorn 1790AB, The Netherlands
- Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8a, 3584 CB Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Stefan Schouten
- Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, PO Box 59, Den Hoorn 1790AB, The Netherlands
- Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8a, 3584 CB Utrecht, The Netherlands
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16
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Morra KE, Newsome SD, Graves GR, Fogel ML. Physiology Drives Reworking of Amino Acid δ2H and δ13C in Butterfly Tissues. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.729258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies of animal movement and migration over large geospatial scales have long relied on natural continental-scale hydrogen isotope (δ2H) gradients in precipitation, yet the physiological processes that govern incorporation of δ2H from precipitation into plant and then herbivore tissues remain poorly understood, especially at the molecular level. Establishing a biochemical framework for the propagation of δ2H through food webs would enable us to resolve more complicated regional-scale animal movements and potentially unlock new applications for δ2H data in animal ecology and eco-physiology. Amino acid δ2H analysis offers a promising new avenue by which to establish this framework. We report bulk tissue δ2H, δ13C, and δ15N data as well as amino acid δ2H and δ13C data from three Pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor) tissues—caterpillars, butterfly bodies, and wings—as well as their obligate plant source: pipevine leaves (Aristolochia macrophylla). Insects are often dominant herbivores in terrestrial food webs and a major food source for many higher-level consumers, so it is particularly important to understand the mechanisms that influence insect tissue δ2H values. Our data reveal extensive δ2H variation within and among individuals of a relatively simple plant-herbivore system that cannot be explained by temporal or geospatial gradients of precipitation δ2H or dietary differences. Variations in essential amino acid δ2H and δ13C indicate that B. philenor acquire these compounds from an additional source that is isotopically distinct from pipevine leaves, potentially gut microbes. We also found multiple isotopic carryover effects associated with metamorphosis. This study emphasizes the strong influence of physiology on consumer-diet δ2H discrimination in a local population of pipevines and swallowtails and provides a template that can be broadly applied to Lepidoptera—the second most diverse insect order—and other holometabolous insects. Understanding these physiological mechanisms is critical to interpreting the large degree of δ2H variation in consumer tissues often observed at a single collection site, which has implications for using δ2H isoscapes to study animal movement. Further investigation into amino acid δ2H holds promise to elucidate how subsets of amino acids may be best utilized to address specific ecological and physiological questions for which bulk tissue δ2H is insufficient.
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17
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Hopkins JB, Ferguson JM, Frederick C, Jerina K. Measuring the impact of corn on mammalian omnivores. J Mammal 2021. [DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyaa152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
In human-dominated landscapes throughout the world, wildlife seek out anthropogenic foods because they are high in nutritional value and are consistently available. To investigate this mode of foraging, some researchers use stable isotope analysis to detect these animals in populations and estimate their individual diets. In this study, we develop an integrative approach to measure the proportion of corn, a C4 plant, in the diets of free-ranging mammalian omnivores in C3-dominated ecosystems. We fed captive mice corn, C3 plants, and meat until carbon stable isotopes (δ 13C) from each diet equilibrated in their hair. We then used carbon discrimination factors (Δ 13C; offsets between stable isotope values of consumer tissues and their foods) for mice from these feeding trials and a simple carbon stable isotope mixing model to estimate the corn-based diets of free-ranging American black bears in Wisconsin and brown bears in Slovenia. We used Δ 13C factors for mice to estimate the diets of bears because mouse models are used commonly to study mammalian diet and health, including humans and bears, and body mass has no effect on carbon discrimination factors in monogastric mammalian omnivores. In this study, we found that mice grew fastest, largest, and δ 13C values equilibrated quickest in the hair of mice fed meat versus plant-based diets, suggesting protein quantity (quality was the same) has an effect on Δ 13C. Evidence also suggests that Δ 13C did not increase with animal growth rate as all mice grew throughout the 109-day feeding trials, but isotopic equilibration occurred early while mice still were subadults and was maintained throughout their adult lives. We also found that Δ 13C was highest and most variable in the hair, serum, and liver, of mice fed a mixed diet of C3 plants, supporting our mixed diet hypothesis that states that Δ 13C varies more among tissues of animals fed mixed diets than animals fed nonmixed diets because the former are composed of multiple foods, each with different macromolecular and isotopic compositions. Lastly, we found that corn may have been a more important component of bear diets in Wisconsin than previously thought (adults: x¯ = 29%; x¯ = 33%; subadults: x¯ = 22%; x¯ = 28%), and male brown bears may have fed on 50% more corn (x¯ = 47% versus 31%) in autumn during a year when beechnut availability was low. In a world that is rapidly changing, it is more important than ever to develop the appropriate quantitative tools to measure the impact people have on wildlife. Here, we provide such a tool for monogastric mammalian omnivores and encourage other researchers to do the same for other taxa of interest.
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Affiliation(s)
- John B Hopkins
- Center for Wildlife Studies, North Yarmouth, ME, USA
- University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, Večna pot 83, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Jake M Ferguson
- School of Life Sciences, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA
| | | | - Klemen Jerina
- University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, Večna pot 83, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
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18
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Whiteman JP, Newsome SD, Bustamante P, Cherel Y, Hobson KA. Quantifying capital versus income breeding: New promise with stable isotope measurements of individual amino acids. J Anim Ecol 2020; 90:1408-1418. [PMID: 33300602 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2020] [Accepted: 11/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Capital breeders accumulate nutrients prior to egg development, then use these stores to support offspring development. In contrast, income breeders rely on local nutrients consumed contemporaneously with offspring development. Understanding such nutrient allocations is critical to assessing life-history strategies and habitat use. Despite the contrast between these strategies, it remains challenging to trace nutrients from endogenous stores or exogenous food intake into offspring. Here, we tested a new solution to this problem. Using tissue samples collected opportunistically from wild emperor penguins Aptenodytes forsteri, which exemplify capital breeding, we hypothesized that the stable carbon (δ13 C) and nitrogen (δ15 N) isotope values of individual amino acids (AAs) in endogenous stores (e.g. muscle) and in egg yolk and albumen reflect the nutrient sourcing that distinguishes capital versus income breeding. Unlike other methods, this approach does not require untested assumptions or diet sampling. We found that over half of essential AAs had δ13 C values that did not differ between muscle and yolk or albumen, suggesting that most of these AAs were directly routed from muscle into eggs. In contrast, almost all non-essential AAs differed in δ13 C values between muscle and yolk or between muscle and albumen, suggesting de novo synthesis. Over half of AAs that have labile nitrogen atoms (i.e. 'trophic' AA) had higher δ15 N values in yolk and albumen than in muscle, suggesting that they were transaminated during their routing into egg tissue. This effect was smaller for AAs with less labile nitrogen atoms (i.e. 'source' AA). Our results indicate that the δ15 N offset between trophic-source AAs (Δ15 Ntrophic-source ) may provide an index of the extent of capital breeding. The value of emperor penguin Δ15 NPro-Phe was higher in yolk and albumen than in muscle, reflecting the mobilization of endogenous stores; in comparison, the value of Δ15 NPro-Phe was similar across muscle and egg tissue in previously published data for income-breeding herring gulls Larus argentatus smithsonianus. Our results provide a quantitative basis for using AA δ13 C and δ15 N, and isotopic offsets among AAs (e.g. Δ15 NPro-Phe ), to explore the allocation of endogenous versus exogenous nutrients across the capital versus income spectrum of avian reproduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- John P Whiteman
- Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA.,Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Seth D Newsome
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Paco Bustamante
- Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), UMR 7266 du CNRS-La Rochelle Université, La Rochelle, France
| | - Yves Cherel
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), UMR 7372 du CNRS-La Rochelle Université, Villiers-en-Bois, France
| | - Keith A Hobson
- Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Environment and Climate Change Canada, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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19
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Newsome SD, Feeser KL, Bradley CJ, Wolf C, Takacs-Vesbach C, Fogel ML. Isotopic and genetic methods reveal the role of the gut microbiome in mammalian host essential amino acid metabolism. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20192995. [PMID: 32126953 PMCID: PMC7126075 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2995] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Intestinal microbiota perform many functions for their host, but among the most important is their role in metabolism, especially the conversion of recalcitrant biomass that the host is unable to digest into bioavailable compounds. Most studies have focused on the assistance gut microbiota provide in the metabolism of carbohydrates, however, their role in host amino acid metabolism is poorly understood. We conducted an experiment on Mus musculus using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and carbon isotope analysis of essential amino acids (AAESS) to quantify the community composition of gut microbiota and the contribution of carbohydrate carbon used by the gut microbiome to synthesize AAESS that are assimilated by mice to build skeletal muscle tissue. The relative abundances of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes inversely varied as a function of dietary macromolecular content, with Firmicutes dominating when mice were fed low-protein diets that contained the highest proportions of simple carbohydrates (sucrose). Mixing models estimated that the microbial contribution of AAESS to mouse muscle varied from less than 5% (threonine, lysine, and phenylalanine) to approximately 60% (valine) across diet treatments, with the Firmicute-dominated microbiome associated with the greatest contribution. Our results show that intestinal microbes can provide a significant source of the AAESS their host uses to synthesize structural tissues. The role that gut microbiota play in the amino acid metabolism of animals that consume protein-deficient diets is likely a significant but under-recognized aspect of foraging ecology and physiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seth D Newsome
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
| | - Kelli L Feeser
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
| | - Christina J Bradley
- Department of Biological Sciences, Salisbury University, Salisbury MD, USA.,College of Natural Science, University of California Merced, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Caitlin Wolf
- Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
| | | | - Marilyn L Fogel
- College of Natural Science, University of California Merced, Merced, CA, USA.,Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and EDGE Institute, University of California Riverside, Riverside CA, USA
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20
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Votruba SB, Shaw PA, Oh EJ, Venti CA, Bonfiglio S, Krakoff J, O'Brien DM. Associations of plasma, RBCs, and hair carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios with fish, meat, and sugar-sweetened beverage intake in a 12-wk inpatient feeding study. Am J Clin Nutr 2019; 110:1306-1315. [PMID: 31515553 PMCID: PMC6885477 DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/nqz208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2019] [Accepted: 07/31/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Naturally occurring carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios [13C/12C (CIR) and 15N/14N (NIR)] are promising dietary biomarkers. As these candidate biomarkers have long tissue residence times, long-term feeding studies are needed for their evaluation. OBJECTIVE Our aim was to evaluate plasma, RBCs, and hair CIR and NIR as biomarkers of fish, meat, and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake in a 12-wk dietary intervention. METHODS Thirty-two men (aged 46.2 ± 10.5 y; BMI: 27.2 ± 4.0 kg/m2) underwent a 12-wk inpatient dietary intervention at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) in Phoenix, Arizona. The effects of fish, meat, and SSB intake on CIR and NIR were evaluated using a balanced factorial design, with each intake factor at 2 levels (present/absent) in a common, background diet (50% carbohydrate, 30% fat, 20% protein). Fasting blood samples were taken biweekly from baseline, and hair samples were collected at baseline and postintervention. Data were analyzed using multivariable regression. RESULTS The postintervention CIR of plasma was elevated when diets included meat (β = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.73,1.05) and SSBs (β = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.32, 0.64). The postintervention NIR of plasma was elevated when diets included fish (β = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.64, 1.05) and meat (β = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.42, 0.8). Results were similar for RBCs and hair. Postintervention RBC CIR and NIR had strong associations with baseline, suggesting that turnover to the intervention diets was incomplete after 12 wk. Estimates of isotopic turnover rate further confirmed incomplete turnover of RBCs. CONCLUSIONS CIR was associated with meat and SSBs, and more strongly with meat. NIR was associated with fish and meat, and more strongly with fish. Overall, CIR and NIR discriminated between dietary fish and meat, and to a lesser extent SSBs, indicating their potential utility as biomarkers of intake in US diets. Approaches to make these biomarkers more specific are needed. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01237093.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susanne B Votruba
- Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases/NIH, Phoenix, AZ, USA,Address correspondence to SBV (e-mail: )
| | - Pamela A Shaw
- Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Eric J Oh
- Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Colleen A Venti
- Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases/NIH, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Susan Bonfiglio
- Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases/NIH, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Jonathan Krakoff
- Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases/NIH, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Diane M O'Brien
- Center for Alaska Native Health Research, Institute of Arctic Biology, Department of Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
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21
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Stanek A, Wolf N, Welker J, Jensen S. Experimentally derived incorporation rates and diet-to-tissue discrimination values for carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in gray wolves (Canis lupus) fed a marine diet. CAN J ZOOL 2019. [DOI: 10.1139/cjz-2019-0049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Recent studies have noted the differential effects of marine versus terrestrial diets on the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope (13C and 15N, respectively) diet-to-tissue discrimination values and incorporation rates for omnivorous and carnivorous mammals. Inaccurate estimates of these parameters may result in misrepresentation of diet composition or in the timing of diet shifts. Here, we present the results of a diet-switch experiment designed to estimate diet-to-tissue discrimination values and incorporation rates for tissues of gray wolves (Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758) fed a diet of Pacific salmon (genus Oncorhynchus Suckley, 1861). Our results demonstrate substantial differences in both parameters between wolves maintained on a marine (salmon) diet and wolves maintained on terrestrially sourced prey (beef, Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758). Increased awareness of the significance of marine resources to omnivorous and carnivorous consumers, like wolves, highlights the importance of phenomenological and mechanistic understandings of the effects of fish and other marine prey on dietary investigations based on stable isotopes.
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Affiliation(s)
- A.E. Stanek
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA
| | - N. Wolf
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA
| | - J.M. Welker
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA
- Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland 90014, and UArctic Research Chair
| | - S. Jensen
- The Alaska Zoo, 4731 O’Malley Road, Anchorage, AK 99507, USA
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22
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Arostegui MC, Schindler DE, Holtgrieve GW. Does lipid-correction introduce biases into isotopic mixing models? Implications for diet reconstruction studies. Oecologia 2019; 191:745-755. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-019-04525-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2017] [Accepted: 10/09/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
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23
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Fry B, Carter JF. Stable carbon isotope diagnostics of mammalian metabolism, a high-resolution isotomics approach using amino acid carboxyl groups. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0224297. [PMID: 31658286 PMCID: PMC6816566 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2019] [Accepted: 10/09/2019] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The carbon isotopic compositions of amino acids are increasingly measured to characterize diets and metabolic response to diets. We report a new high-resolution system to measure the stable carbon isotopic composition of carboxyl atoms within amino acids. The automated system used HPLC to separate amino acids followed by addition of ninhydrin for decarboxylation and transfer of the evolved CO2 to a stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer for δ13CCARBOXYL measurement. The ninhydrin reaction was conducted at acidic pH (1.5) and elevated temperature (160 oC) giving yields close to 100% for most common amino acids. Eight mammalian keratin samples from herbivores (kudu and caribou), omnivores (humans) and carnivores (bowhead and humpback zooplanktivorous whales) were analysed with this new system. The data provide an initial calibration of reference materials to be used in studies of this type and is the first report of carboxyl carbon isotope distributions in mammals. Results showed widespread 13C enrichments in both essential and non-essential amino acid carboxyl groups, likely linked to decarboxylation of amino acids during normal metabolism. Analyses of non-essential amino acid isotope profiles showed (1) consistent and general taxon-level metabolic differences between the herbivore, human and whale samples, (2) marked differences among individual humans, ruminants and whales (3) evidence for gluconeogenesis in the wildlife samples, and (4) extensive 13C enrichment likely associated with fasting in the humpback whale sample. Future mammalian research related to the metabolism of growth, reproduction, aging and disease may benefit from using this technique. Values obtained for internationally available samples USGS42 and USGS43 (Tibetan and Indian human hair) provide a first characterization of reference materials for δ13CCARBOXYL profiles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian Fry
- Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - James F. Carter
- Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services, Coopers Plains, Queensland, Australia
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Elucidating stygofaunal trophic web interactions via isotopic ecology. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0223982. [PMID: 31618251 PMCID: PMC6795446 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2019] [Accepted: 10/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Subterranean ecosystems host highly adapted aquatic invertebrate biota which play a key role in sustaining groundwater ecological functioning and hydrological dynamics. However, functional biodiversity studies in groundwater environments, the main source of unfrozen freshwater on Earth, are scarce, probably due to the cryptic nature of the systems. To address this, we investigate groundwater trophic ecology via stable isotope analysis, employing δ13C and δ15N in bulk tissues, and amino acids. Specimens were collected from a shallow calcrete aquifer in the arid Yilgarn region of Western Australia: a well-known hot-spot for stygofaunal biodiversity. Sampling campaigns were carried out during dry (low rainfall: LR) and the wet (high rainfall: HR) periods. δ13C values indicate that most of the stygofauna shifted towards more 13C-depleted carbon sources under HR, suggesting a preference for fresher organic matter. Conversion of δ15N values in glutamic acid and phenylalanine to a trophic index showed broadly stable trophic levels with organisms clustering as low-level secondary consumers. However, mixing models indicate that HR conditions trigger changes in dietary preferences, with increasing predation of amphipods by beetle larvae. Overall, stygofauna showed a tendency towards opportunistic and omnivorous habits—typical of an ecologically tolerant community—shaped by bottom-up controls linked with changes in carbon flows. This study provides baseline biochemical and ecological data for stygofaunal trophic interactions in calcretes. Further studies on the carbon inputs and taxa-specific physiology will help refine the interpretation of the energy flows shaping biodiversity in groundwaters. This will aid understanding of groundwater ecosystem functioning and allow modelling of the impact of future climate change factors such as aridification.
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Silva MA, Borrell A, Prieto R, Gauffier P, Bérubé M, Palsbøl PJ, Colaço A. Stable isotopes reveal winter feeding in different habitats in blue, fin and sei whales migrating through the Azores. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:181800. [PMID: 31598219 PMCID: PMC6731742 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2018] [Accepted: 07/23/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Knowing the migratory movements and behaviour of baleen whales is fundamental to understanding their ecology. We compared δ15N and δ13C values in the skin of blue (Balaenoptera musculus), fin (Balaenoptera physalus) and sei (Balaenoptera borealis) whales sighted in the Azores in spring with the values of potential prey from different regions within the North Atlantic using Bayesian mixing models to investigate their trophic ecology and migration patterns. Fin whale δ15N values were higher than those recorded in blue and sei whales, reflecting feeding at higher trophic levels. Whales' skin δ15N and δ13C values did not reflect prey from high-latitude summer foraging grounds; instead mixing models identified tropical or subtropical regions as the most likely feeding areas for all species during winter and spring. Yet, differences in δ13C values among whale species suggest use of different regions within this range. Blue and sei whales primarily used resources from the Northwest African upwelling and pelagic tropical/subtropical regions, while fin whales fed off Iberia. However, determining feeding habitats from stable isotope values remains difficult. In conclusion, winter feeding appears common among North Atlantic blue, fin and sei whales, and may play a crucial role in determining their winter distribution. A better understanding of winter feeding behaviour is therefore fundamental for the effective conservation of these species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mónica A. Silva
- Okeanos Centre & Institute of Marine Research (IMAR), University of the Azores, 9901-862 Horta, Portugal
- Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
- Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre Açores (MARE), Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, 9901-862 Horta, Portugal
| | - Asunción Borrell
- Institute of Biodiversity Research (IRBio) & Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Rui Prieto
- Okeanos Centre & Institute of Marine Research (IMAR), University of the Azores, 9901-862 Horta, Portugal
- Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre Açores (MARE), Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, 9901-862 Horta, Portugal
| | - Pauline Gauffier
- Institute of Biodiversity Research (IRBio) & Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Martine Bérubé
- Groningen Institute of Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
- Centre for Coastal Studies, Provincetown, MA 02657, USA
| | - Per J. Palsbøl
- Groningen Institute of Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
- Centre for Coastal Studies, Provincetown, MA 02657, USA
| | - Ana Colaço
- Okeanos Centre & Institute of Marine Research (IMAR), University of the Azores, 9901-862 Horta, Portugal
- Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre Açores (MARE), Department of Oceanography and Fisheries, 9901-862 Horta, Portugal
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Crumsey JM, Searle JB, Sparks JP. Isotope values of California vole (Microtus californicus) hair relate to historical drought and land use patterns in California, USA. Oecologia 2019; 190:769-781. [PMID: 31273518 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-019-04457-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2018] [Accepted: 06/28/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Increased drought frequency and intensity and agricultural intensification have been key stressors to ecological systems over the past century. Biological proxies (e.g., pollen, tree rings) have been used to track this environmental change; however, linking these changes to the ecology of organisms remains challenging. Here, we link historical drought records to conditions of high water-stress in grassland habitats through the stable isotope analysis of California vole museum specimens (Microtus californicus). Using museum collections spanning 118-years (1891-2009), isotope values of dated hair tissues were associated with statewide drought metrics on the Palmer Drought Severity Index. We observed a positive correlation between δ15N and δ18O values and drought severity. The range in δ15N values (~ 18‰) is greater than what would be expected as a result of dietary shifts across the landscape (~ 3‰), and is likely attributed to the combined effects of physiological responses of M. californicus and isotopic shifts in plant resources with increased water-stress. Geospatial patterns in δ34S values of hair tissues reflect higher baseline isotope values in coastal habitats. However, comparably high δ34S values in the southern-most inland localities suggest sulfur fertilization of croplands and subsequent transfer to surrounding grassland habitats in 34S enriched forms. A broad δ13C range (- 28.7 to - 14.3‰) further suggests the consumption of C3 and C4 plant-based dietary proteins. As shown here, stable isotope analysis of museum collections can provide a climate and land use record based on the physiological performance and ecology of a study species in a region affected intensely by anthropogenic activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasmine M Crumsey
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853-7202, USA. .,Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602-2202, USA.
| | - Jeremy B Searle
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853-7202, USA
| | - Jed P Sparks
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853-7202, USA
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The Importance of Isotopic Turnover for Understanding Key Aspects of Animal Ecology and Nutrition. DIVERSITY-BASEL 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/d11050084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Stable isotope-based methods have proved to be immensely valuable for ecological studies ranging in focus from animal movements to species interactions and community structure. Nevertheless, the use of these methods is dependent on assumptions about the incorporation and turnover of isotopes within animal tissues, which are oftentimes not explicitly acknowledged and vetted. Thus, the purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the estimation of stable isotope turnover rates in animals, and to highlight the importance of these estimates for ecological studies in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems that may use a wide range of stable isotopes. Specifically, we discuss 1) the factors that contribute to variation in turnover among individuals and across species, which influences the use of stable isotopes for diet reconstructions, 2) the differences in turnover among tissues that underlie so-called ‘isotopic clocks’, which are used to estimate the timing of dietary shifts, and 3) the use of turnover rates to estimate nutritional requirements and reconstruct histories of nutritional stress from tissue isotope signatures. As we discuss these topics, we highlight recent works that have effectively used estimates of turnover to design and execute informative ecological studies. Our concluding remarks suggest several steps that will improve our understanding of isotopic turnover and support its integration into a wider range of ecological studies.
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Commendador AS, Finney BP, Fuller BT, Tromp M, Dudgeon JV. Multiproxy isotopic analyses of human skeletal material from Rapa Nui: Evaluating the evidence from carbonates, bulk collagen, and amino acids. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2019; 169:714-729. [PMID: 31062347 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23851] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2018] [Revised: 04/24/2019] [Accepted: 04/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Stable isotope ratio analysis of bulk bone collagen dominates research into past diet; however, bone carbonate and compound specific isotope analyses (CSIA) of amino acids provide alternative, yet complementary, lines of evidence toward that same research goal. Together they inform on different aspects of diet, allowing greater certainty in reconstructions. Here we present new data on carbonate isotopes for Rapa Nui and reevaluate prehistoric diet in the context of these new and previously published bulk collagen and CSIA data. MATERIALS AND METHODS We analyzed carbon isotopes in bone carbonate from 28 prehistoric human teeth from Rapa Nui. These represent a subset of material examined previously for carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in bulk collagen. We then reevaluate prehistoric diet in light of these and other published data. In addition, we analyzed carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in 28 modern plant specimens from Rapa Nui to better approximate the isotopic value of the terrestrial endmember. RESULTS Bulk data suggest a predominantly terrestrial diet, with the amount of marine sources incorporated varying though time. While previously argued to reveal greater amounts of marine consumption, reanalysis of recently published CSIA data suggests this result may relate to the proportion of carbon assimilated rather than consumed. Utilizing models incorporating concentration dependence for estimating dietary proportions results in much lower estimates of marine consumption, in line with findings of the bulk data. DISCUSSION While these data indicate a larger focus on terrestrial resources, limitations in all forms of analysis make it difficult to determine exact dietary contributions in this mixed system. Better understanding of the complex physiological processes governing isotopic routing and fractionation, and knowledge of appropriate isotopic endmember values are needed to advance this research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy S Commendador
- Idaho Museum of Natural History, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho.,Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho
| | - Bruce P Finney
- Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho.,Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho.,Department of Geosciences, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho
| | - Benjamin T Fuller
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Højbjerg, Denmark
| | - Monica Tromp
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - John V Dudgeon
- Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho
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Clark CT, Horstmann L, Misarti N. Lipid normalization and stable isotope discrimination in Pacific walrus tissues. Sci Rep 2019; 9:5843. [PMID: 30971722 PMCID: PMC6458160 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-42095-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2018] [Accepted: 03/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values (δ13C and δ15N) of animal tissues can provide important information about diet, physiology, and movements. Interpretation of δ13C and δ15N values, however, is influenced by factors such as sample lipid content, tissue-specific isotope discrimination, and tissue turnover rates, which are typically species- and tissue-specific. In this study, we generated lipid normalization models for δ13C and investigated the effects of chemical lipid extractions on δ13C and δ15N in Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) muscle, liver, and skin. We also evaluated tissue-specific isotope discrimination in walrus muscle, liver, skin, and bone collagen. Mean δ13Clipid-free of skin and bone collagen were similar, as were mean δ15N of muscle and liver. All other tissues differed significantly for both isotopes. Differences in δ13Clipid-free and δ15N among tissues agreed with published estimates of marine mammal tissue-specific isotope discrimination factors, with the exception of skin. The results of this work will allow researchers to gain a clearer understanding of walrus diet and the structure of Arctic food webs, while also making it possible to directly compare the results of contemporary walrus isotope research with those of historic and paleoecological studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Casey T Clark
- Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1764 Tanana Loop, Fairbanks, Alaska, 99775-5860, USA. .,College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2150 Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, Alaska, 99775-7220, USA.
| | - Lara Horstmann
- College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2150 Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, Alaska, 99775-7220, USA
| | - Nicole Misarti
- Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1764 Tanana Loop, Fairbanks, Alaska, 99775-5860, USA
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Javornik J, Hopkins JB, Zavadlav S, Levanič T, Lojen S, Polak T, Jerina K. Effects of ethanol storage and lipids on stable isotope values in a large mammalian omnivore. J Mammal 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyy187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Jernej Javornik
- Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - John B Hopkins
- Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- School of Biodiversity Conservation, Unity College, Unity, ME, USA
| | - Saša Zavadlav
- Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Department of Yield and Silviculture, Slovenian Forestry Institute, Večna pot, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Tom Levanič
- Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Department of Yield and Silviculture, Slovenian Forestry Institute, Večna pot, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Sonja Lojen
- Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Nova Gorica, Lanthieri mansion, Glavni,Vipava, Slovenia
| | - Tomaž Polak
- Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Klemen Jerina
- Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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A Guide to Using Compound-Specific Stable Isotope Analysis to Study the Fates of Molecules in Organisms and Ecosystems. DIVERSITY-BASEL 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/d11010008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The measurement of stable isotopes in ‘bulk’ animal and plant tissues (e.g., muscle or leaf) has become an important tool for studies of functional diversity from organismal to continental scales. In consumers, isotope values reflect their diet, trophic position, physiological state, and geographic location. However, interpretation of bulk tissue isotope values can be confounded by variation in primary producer baseline values and by overlapping values among potential food items. To resolve these issues, biologists increasingly use compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA), in which the isotope values of monomers that constitute a macromolecule (e.g., amino acids in protein) are measured. In this review, we provide the theoretical underpinnings for CSIA, summarize its methodology and recent applications, and identify future research directions. The key principle is that some monomers are reliably routed directly from the diet into animal tissue, whereas others are biochemically transformed during assimilation. As a result, CSIA of consumer tissue simultaneously provides information about an animal’s nutrient sources (e.g., food items or contributions from gut microbes) and its physiology (e.g., nitrogen excretion mode). In combination, these data clarify many of the confounding issues in bulk analysis and enable novel precision for tracing nutrient and energy flow within and among organisms and ecosystems.
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Wang YV, Wan AH, Krogdahl Å, Johnson M, Larsen T. 13C values of glycolytic amino acids as indicators of carbohydrate utilization in carnivorous fish. PeerJ 2019; 7:e7701. [PMID: 31579597 PMCID: PMC6754727 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2019] [Accepted: 08/19/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Stable isotope analysis of single amino acids (AA) is usually applied in food web studies for tracing biosynthetic origins of AA carbon backbones and establishing trophic positions of consumers, but the method is also showing promise for characterizing quantity and quality of dietary lipids and carbohydrates. METHODS To investigate whether changes in high- and low-digestible carbohydrates affect δ 13C values of glycolytic AA, i.e., AA carbon backbones sourced from the glycolytic pathway, we compared Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from a feeding experiment with and without dietary inclusion of the red macroalga Palmaria palmata. The Control and experimental diets had similar relative proportions of macronutrients, but their ingredients differed; in the experimental treatment, 15% Palmaria inclusion substituted proteins from fishmeal and carbohydrates from corn starch. RESULTS We found that 13C values of the glycolytic AA were highly sensitive to substitution of corn starch with Palmaria. The δ 13C offsets of glycolytic AA between salmon and their diets were significantly greater in the Palmaria inclusion than Control treatment. This greater offset can be attributed to the different utilization of high- vs. low-digestible carbohydrate sources, i.e., corn starch vs. Palmaria, in the two treatments, and metabolic routing of dietary lipids. In addition, similar δ 13C values of essential AA between treatments indicate similar nutrient assimilation efficiency for all terrestrial (pea protein concentrate and wheat gluten meal) and marine (fishmeal and red alga) derived protein sources. These results show that δ 13CAA analysis is a promising tool for improving our understanding of how carnivorous fish utilize macronutrient and route metabolic intermediates to tissue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiming V. Wang
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Alex H.L. Wan
- Aquaculture Nutrition and Aquafeed Research Unit and Irish Seaweed Research Group, Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| | - Åshild Krogdahl
- Department of Basic Sciences and Aquatic Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway
| | - Mark Johnson
- Aquaculture Nutrition and Aquafeed Research Unit and Irish Seaweed Research Group, Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
| | - Thomas Larsen
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
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Yohannes E, Rothhaupt KO. Dietary nutrient allocation to somatic tissue synthesis in emerging subimago freshwater mayfly Ephemera danica. BMC Ecol 2018; 18:57. [PMID: 30547787 PMCID: PMC6295106 DOI: 10.1186/s12898-018-0213-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2018] [Accepted: 11/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The relative importance of nutrients derived from different sources for tissue synthesis is crucial for predicting a species responds to changes in food availability. The ecological and physiological strategies that govern the incorporation and routing of nutrients for reproduction are often well understood. However, the role and adaptive value of both species and individual variation during early life-stage remain elusive. In freshwater systems, dietary nutrient allocation to somatic tissue should be favoured when dietary source peaks and resource limitation may hinder flexible resource allocation. We used carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) to examine metabolic nutrient routing and resource allocation from four dietary sources used to biosynthesize three somatic tissues of emerging subimago Ephemera danica. Aquatic emerging insects, such as the mayfly E. danica, are well suited for such studies. This is because, while burrowing nymph phase is a detritivores feeders with several early life-stages of metamorphosis, adult insects do not feed during this period but do utilize energy. RESULTS Constructed models to predict percent proportional contribution of source to tissue showed that terrestrial detritus was the dominant nutrient source for abdomen, head and wing with mean values of 57%, 65% and 73%, respectively. There was evidence for differential resource allocation, as insect partitioned periphyton and sediment (but also seston) elements for tissue synthesis. Utilizing individual-specimen based relationship in isotope value; we derived tissue specific isotopic niche estimates, for the different tissue-source combinations. CONCLUSIONS Results indicate that tissue selection is crucial for isotopic ecological measurements in arthropods. Mayfly has long been used as bio-indicator of freshwater ecosystems and their larvae show rapid response to environmental changes. In light of the recent evidence of drastic reduction in flying insect mass in Germany, developing a system using isotopic tools to trace nutrient flow in this important taxon will assist conservation and management efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Yohannes
- Limnological Institute, University of Konstanz, Mainaustrasse 252, 78464, Constance, Germany.
| | - Karl-Otto Rothhaupt
- Limnological Institute, University of Konstanz, Mainaustrasse 252, 78464, Constance, Germany
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Elliott Smith EA, Harrod C, Newsome SD. The importance of kelp to an intertidal ecosystem varies by trophic level: insights from amino acid δ13C analysis. Ecosphere 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2516] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
| | - Chris Harrod
- Instituto de Ciencias Naturales Alexander von Humboldt Universidad de Antofagasta Antofagasta Chile
- Millennium Institute for Invasive Salmonids Concepción Chile
| | - Seth D. Newsome
- Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico 87131 USA
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Amino acid isotope discrimination factors for a carnivore: physiological insights from leopard sharks and their diet. Oecologia 2018; 188:977-989. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-018-4276-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2018] [Accepted: 10/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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36
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Assimilation and discrimination of hydrogen isotopes in a terrestrial mammal. Oecologia 2018; 188:381-393. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-018-4221-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2017] [Accepted: 07/05/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Cloyed CS, Eason PK, Dell AI. The thermal dependence of carbon stable isotope incorporation and trophic discrimination in the domestic cricket, Acheta domesticus. JOURNAL OF INSECT PHYSIOLOGY 2018; 107:34-40. [PMID: 29432766 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinsphys.2018.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2017] [Revised: 01/12/2018] [Accepted: 02/08/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Stable isotopes are valuable tools in physiological and ecological research, as they can be used to estimate diet, habitat use, and resource allocation. However, in most cases a priori knowledge of two key properties of stable isotopes is required, namely their rate of incorporation into the body (incorporation rate) and the change of isotope values between consumers and resources that arises during incorporation of the isotopes into the consumer's tissues (trophic discrimination). Previous studies have quantified these properties across species and tissue types, but little is known about how they vary with temperature, a key driver of many biological rates and times. Here, we explored for the first time how temperature affects both carbon incorporation rate and trophic discrimination via growth rates, using the domestic cricket, Acheta domesticus. We raised crickets at 16 °C, 21 °C, and 26 °C and showed that temperature increased carbon isotope incorporation rate, which was driven by both an increased growth rate and catabolism at higher temperatures. Trophic discrimination of carbon isotopes decreased at higher temperatures, which we attributed to either lower activation energies needed to synthesize non-essential amino acids at higher temperatures or the increased utilization of available resources of consumers at higher temperatures. Our results demonstrate that temperature is a key driver of both carbon isotope incorporation rate and trophic discrimination, via mechanisms that likely persist across all ectotherms. Experiments to determine incorporation rates and trophic discrimination factors in ectotherms must include temperature as a major factor, and natural variation in temperature might have significant effects on these isotopic properties that then can affect inferences made from isotope values.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carl S Cloyed
- National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, East Alton, IL 62024, United States; Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Biology, St. Louis, MO 63130, United States.
| | - Perri K Eason
- University of Louisville, Department of Biology, Louisville, KY 40292, United States
| | - Anthony I Dell
- National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, East Alton, IL 62024, United States; Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Biology, St. Louis, MO 63130, United States
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Assessing seasonal changes in animal diets with stable-isotope analysis of amino acids: a migratory boreal songbird switches diet over its annual cycle. Oecologia 2018; 187:1-13. [PMID: 29564539 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-018-4113-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2017] [Accepted: 03/06/2018] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
Tools to study seasonal changes in animal diets are needed to address a wide range of ecological questions. This is especially true of migratory animals that experience distinct environments where diets may be substantially different. However, tracking diets of individuals that move vast distances has proven difficult. Compound-specific isotope analysis has emerged as a valuable tool to study diets but has been little used to study dietary changes of migratory animals. Using this technique, we quantify seasonal variation in the annual diet of a migratory songbird (gray-cheeked thrush, Catharus minimus) and test the hypothesis that migrants change their diet in response to the energetic requirements of different periods of the annual cycle. By measuring δ13C and δ15N values of amino acids from feathers grown on the breeding grounds, blood formed during migration and claw grown on the wintering grounds, we found that migration is associated with greater consumption of fruit, compared to the breeding or wintering periods. This was confirmed by the lower trophic position of blood compared to feather and claw, by a decrease in the δ15N value of the source amino acid phenylalanine in blood as a function of days of stopover, and by the positive correlation between δ15N and δ13C values of phenylalanine in blood, and not in feather or claw. This study illustrates how isotopic analysis of amino acids can contribute to understand food webs, seasonal dietary changes and metabolic routing of nutrients in migratory animals.
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Roberts P, Fernandes R, Craig OE, Larsen T, Lucquin A, Swift J, Zech J. Calling all archaeologists: guidelines for terminology, methodology, data handling, and reporting when undertaking and reviewing stable isotope applications in archaeology. RAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY : RCM 2018; 32:361-372. [PMID: 29235694 PMCID: PMC5838555 DOI: 10.1002/rcm.8044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2017] [Revised: 11/25/2017] [Accepted: 11/28/2017] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
Stable isotope analysis has been utilized in archaeology since the 1970s, yet standardized protocols for terminology, sampling, pretreatment evaluation, calibration, quality assurance and control, data presentation, and graphical or statistical treatment still remain lacking in archaeological applications. Here, we present recommendations and requirements for each of these in the archaeological context of: bulk stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of organics; bulk stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of carbonates; single compound stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis on amino acids in collagen and keratin; and single compound stable carbon and hydrogen isotope analysis on fatty acids. The protocols are based on recommendations from the Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) as well as an expanding geochemical and archaeological science experimental literature. We hope that this will provide a useful future reference for authors and reviewers engaging with the growing number of stable isotope applications and datasets in archaeology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick Roberts
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human HistoryKahlaische Str. 10D‐07745JenaGermany
| | - Ricardo Fernandes
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human HistoryKahlaische Str. 10D‐07745JenaGermany
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological ResearchDowning StCambridgeCB2 3ERUK
| | | | - Thomas Larsen
- Leibniz‐Laboratory for Isotope ResearchChristian‐Albrechts‐UniversitätD‐24118KielGermany
| | | | - Jillian Swift
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human HistoryKahlaische Str. 10D‐07745JenaGermany
| | - Jana Zech
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human HistoryKahlaische Str. 10D‐07745JenaGermany
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Eckrich CA, Flaherty EA, Ben-David M. Functional and numerical responses of shrews to competition vary with mouse density. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0189471. [PMID: 29298313 PMCID: PMC5752000 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189471] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2017] [Accepted: 11/28/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
For decades, ecologists have debated the importance of biotic interactions (e.g., competition) and abiotic factors in regulating populations. Competition can influence patterns of distribution, abundance, and resource use in many systems but remains difficult to measure. We quantified competition between two sympatric small mammals, Keen's mice (Peromyscus keeni) and dusky shrews (Sorex monticolus), in four habitat types on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. We related shrew density to that of mice using standardized regression models while accounting for habitat variables in each year from 2010-2012, during which mice populations peaked (2011) and then crashed (2012). Additionally, we measured dietary overlap and segregation using stable isotope analysis and kernel utilization densities and estimated the change in whole community energy consumption among years. We observed an increase in densities of dusky shrews after mice populations crashed in 2012 as expected under competitive release. In addition, competition coefficients revealed that the influence of Keen's mice was dependent on their density. Also in 2012, shrew diets shifted, indicating that they were able to exploit resources previously used by mice. Nonetheless, increases in shrew numbers only partially compensated for the community energy consumption because, as insectivores, they are unlikely to utilize all food types consumed by their competitors. In pre-commercially thinned stands, which exhibit higher diversity of resources compared to other habitat types, shrew populations were less affected by changes in mice densities. These spatially and temporally variable interactions between unlikely competitors, observed in a relatively simple, high-latitude island ecosystem, highlight the difficulty in assessing the role of biotic factors in structuring communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolyn A. Eckrich
- Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, La Grande, OR, United States of America
| | - Elizabeth A. Flaherty
- Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States of America
| | - Merav Ben-David
- Department of Zoology and Physiology and Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, United States of America
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Liu HZ, Luo L, Cai DL. Stable carbon isotopic analysis of amino acids in a simplified food chain consisting of the green alga Chlorella spp., the calanoid copepod Calanus sinicus, and the Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus). CAN J ZOOL 2018. [DOI: 10.1139/cjz-2016-0170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus Temminck and Schlegel, 1846) is a keystone species in the food web of the Yellow Sea and East China Sea ecosystem. To study nutrient flow at intermediate and lower trophic levels, a controlled feeding experiment was carried out on a simplified food chain of the green alga Chlorella Beijerinck, 1890 – the calanoid copepod Calanus sinicus Brodsky, 1962 – E. japonicus. For the whole organism, bulk δ13C was found to be enriched with escalating trophic level, although the intertrophic gap in δ13C was slightly lower than the commonly reported 1.5‰ per increase in level. Furthermore, 15 amino acids (AAs) were detected in the studied organisms. Among them, the δ13C values of 12 AAs were determined and were found to exhibit diverse patterns of variation. The δ13C levels of essential AAs changed very little and were highly correlated across trophic levels, indicating that they underwent little trophic fractionation and were mainly ingested by the consumers from the proteins in their food. In contrast, the δ13C values of nonessential AAs differed greatly across trophic levels, indicating that the nonessential AAs in consumers were synthesized de novo from food proteins. The fractionation pattern of nonessential AAs may depend on the carbon pool and the AA composition of the organism at the lower trophic level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hai-zhen Liu
- College of Resources and Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, People’s Republic of China
- Environment and Planning College, Liao Cheng University, Liaocheng 252059, People’s Republic of China
| | - Lin Luo
- College of Resources and Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, People’s Republic of China
| | - De-ling Cai
- First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao 266061, People’s Republic of China
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Hughes KL, Whiteman JP, Newsome SD. The relationship between dietary protein content, body condition, and Δ15N in a mammalian omnivore. Oecologia 2017; 186:357-367. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-017-4010-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2017] [Accepted: 11/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Reconstructing variability in West Greenland ocean biogeochemistry and bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) food web structure using amino acid isotope ratios. Polar Biol 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s00300-017-2136-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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Hobbie EA. Dietary protein content and tissue type control 13 C discrimination in mammals: an analytical approach. RAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY : RCM 2017; 31:639-648. [PMID: 28155261 DOI: 10.1002/rcm.7830] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2016] [Revised: 01/30/2017] [Accepted: 01/30/2017] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Erik A Hobbie
- Earth Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA
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Barreto-Curiel F, Focken U, D’Abramo LR, Viana MT. Metabolism of Seriola lalandi during Starvation as Revealed by Fatty Acid Analysis and Compound-Specific Analysis of Stable Isotopes within Amino Acids. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0170124. [PMID: 28095488 PMCID: PMC5240982 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2016] [Accepted: 12/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Fish starvation is defined as food deprivation for a long period of time, such that physiological processes become confined to basal metabolism. Starvation provides insights in physiological processes without interference from unknown factors in digestion and nutrient absorption occurring in fed state. Juveniles of amberjack Seriola lalandi were isotopically equilibrated to a formulated diet for 60 days. One treatment consisted of fish that continued to be fed and fish in the other treatment were not fed for 35 days. The isotopic signatures prior to the beginning of and after the starvation period, for fish in the starvation and control treatments, were analysed for lipid content, fatty acid composition and isotopic analysis of bulk (EA-IRMS) and of amino acids (compound specific isotope analysis, CSIA). There were three replicates for the starvation group. Fatty acid content in muscle and liver tissue before and after starvation was determined to calculate percent change. Results showed that crude lipid was the most used source of energy in most cases; the PUFAs and LC-PUFAs were highly conserved. According to the protein signature in bulk (δ15N) and per amino acid (δ13C and δ15N), in muscle tissue, protein synthesis did not appear to occur substantially during starvation, whereas in liver, increases in δ13C and δ15N indicate that protein turnover occurred, probably for metabolic routing to energy-yielding processes. As a result, isotopic values of δ15N in muscle tissue do not change, whereas CSIA net change occurred in the liver tissue. During the study period of 35 days, muscle protein was largely conserved, being neither replenished from amino acid pools in the plasma and liver nor catabolized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando Barreto-Curiel
- Facultad de Ciencias Marinas, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC), Ensenada, México
| | - Ulfert Focken
- Thuenen Institute of Fisheries Ecology, Ahrensburg, Germany
| | - Louis R. D’Abramo
- Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America
| | - María Teresa Viana
- Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanologicas, UABC, Ensenada, Baja California, México
- * E-mail:
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Newsome SD, Wolf N, Bradley CJ, Fogel ML. Assimilation and isotopic discrimination of hydrogen in tilapia: implications for studying animal diet with δ
2
H. Ecosphere 2017. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Seth D. Newsome
- Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque New Mexico 87131 USA
| | - Nathan Wolf
- Fisheries, Aquatic Science and Technology Laboratory Alaska Pacific University Anchorage Alaska 99508 USA
| | - Christina J. Bradley
- Life and Environmental Sciences School of Natural Science University of California Merced Merced California 95343 USA
| | - Marilyn L. Fogel
- Life and Environmental Sciences School of Natural Science University of California Merced Merced California 95343 USA
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McCue MD, Albach A, Salazar G. Previous Repeated Exposure to Food Limitation Enables Rats to Spare Lipid Stores during Prolonged Starvation. Physiol Biochem Zool 2017; 90:63-74. [PMID: 28051943 DOI: 10.1086/689323] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
The risk of food limitation and, ultimately, starvation dates back to the dawn of heterotrophy in animals, yet starvation remains a major factor in the regulation of modern animal populations. Researchers studying starvation more than a century ago suggested that animals subjected to sublethal periods of food limitation are somehow more tolerant of subsequent starvation events. This possibility has received little attention over the past decades, yet it is highly relevant to modern science for two reasons. First, animals in natural populations are likely to be exposed to bouts of food limitation once or more before they face prolonged starvation, during which the risk of mortality becomes imminent. Second, our current approach to studying starvation physiology in the laboratory focuses on nourished animals with no previous exposure to nutritional stress. We examined the relationship between previous exposure to food limitation and potentially adaptive physiological responses to starvation in adult rats and found several significant differences. On two occasions, rats were fasted until they lost 20% of their body mass maintained lower body temperatures, and had presumably lower energy requirements when subjected to prolonged starvation than their naive cohort that never experienced food limitation. These rats that were trained in starvation also had lower plasma glucose set -points and reduced their reliance on endogenous lipid oxidation. These findings underscore (1) the need for biologists to revisit the classic hypothesis that animals can become habituated to starvation, using a modern set of research tools; and (2) the need to design controlled experiments of starvation physiology that more closely resemble the dynamic nature of food availability.
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Kirschman LJ, McCue MD, Boyles JG, Warne RW. Exogenous stress hormones alter energetic and nutrient costs of development and metamorphosis. J Exp Biol 2017; 220:3391-3397. [DOI: 10.1242/jeb.164830] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2017] [Accepted: 07/17/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Variation in environmental conditions during larval life stages can shape development during critical windows and have lasting effects on the adult organism. Changes in larval developmental rates in response to environmental conditions, for example, can trade-off with growth to determine body size and condition at metamorphosis, which can affect adult survival and fecundity. However, it is unclear how use of energy and nutrients shape trade-offs across life stage transitions because no studies have quantified these costs of larval development and metamorphosis. We used an experimental approach to manipulate physiological stress in larval amphibians, along with respirometry and 13C-breath testing to quantify the energetic and nutritional costs of development and metamorphosis. Central to larval developmental responses to environmental conditions is the hypothalamus pituitary-adrenal/interrenal (HPA/I) axis, which regulates development, as well as energy homeostasis and stress responses across many taxa. Given these pleiotropic effects of HPA/I activity, manipulation of the HPA/I may provide insight into costs of metamorphosis. We measured the energetic and nutritional costs across the entire larval period and metamorphosis in a larval amphibian exposed to exogenous glucocorticoid (GC) hormones- the primary hormone secreted by the HPA/I axis. We measured metabolic rates and dry mass across larval ontogeny, and quantified lipid stores and nutrient oxidation via 13C-breath testing during metamorphosis, under control and GC-exposed conditions. Changes in dry mass match metamorphic states previously reported in the literature, but dynamics of metabolism were influenced by the transition from aquatic to terrestrial respiration. GC-treated larvae had lower dry mass, fat stores, and higher oxygen consumption during stages where controls were conserving energy. GC-treated larvae also oxidized greater amounts of 13C-labelled protein stores. These results provide evidence for a proximate cause of the physiological trade-off between larval growth and development, and provide insight into the energetic and nutrient costs that shape fitness trade-offs across life stages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas J. Kirschman
- Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL USA, 62901
| | - Marshall D. McCue
- Department of Biological Sciences, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, TX, 78228, USA
| | - Justin G. Boyles
- Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL USA, 62901
| | - Robin W. Warne
- Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL USA, 62901
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Riccialdelli L, Newsome SD, Fogel ML, Fernández DA. Trophic interactions and food web structure of a subantarctic marine food web in the Beagle Channel: Bahía Lapataia, Argentina. Polar Biol 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s00300-016-2007-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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50
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Rode KD, Stricker CA, Erlenbach J, Robbins CT, Cherry SG, Newsome SD, Cutting A, Jensen S, Stenhouse G, Brooks M, Hash A, Nicassio N. Isotopic Incorporation and the Effects of Fasting and Dietary Lipid Content on Isotopic Discrimination in Large Carnivorous Mammals. Physiol Biochem Zool 2016; 89:182-97. [DOI: 10.1086/686490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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