Journal ArticleDOI
Natural Abundance Variations in Stable Isotopes and their Potential Uses in Animal Physiological Ecology
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TLDR
It is argued that animal physiological ecologists can benefit from including the measurement of naturally occurring stable isotopes in their battery of techniques, and can make an important contribution to the emerging field of stable isotope in biology by testing experimentally the plethora of assumptions upon which the techniques rely.Abstract:
Chemical, biological, and physical processes lead to distinctive “isotopic signatures” in biological materials that allow tracing of the origins of organic substances. Isotopic variation has been extensively used by plant physiological ecologists and by paleontologists, and recently ecologists have adopted the use of stable isotopes to measure ecosystem patterns and processes. To date, animal physiological ecologists have made minimal use of naturally occurring stable isotopes as tracers. Here we provide a review of the current and potential uses of naturally occurring stable isotopes in animal physiological ecology. We outline the physical and biological processes that lead to variation in isotopic abundance in plants and animals. We summarize current uses in animal physiological ecology (diet reconstruction and animal movement patterns), and suggest areas of research where the use of stable isotopes can be fruitful (protein balance and turnover and the allocation of dietary nutrients). We argue that animal physiological ecologists can benefit from including the measurement of naturally occurring stable isotopes in their battery of techniques. We also argue that animal physiologists can make an important contribution to the emerging field of stable isotopes in biology by testing experimentally the plethora of assumptions upon which the techniques rely.read more
Citations
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Influence of Diet On the Distribtion of Nitrogen Isotopes in Animals
Michael J. DeNiro,Samuel Epstein +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals was investigated by analyzing animals grown in the laboratory on diets of constant nitrogen isotopic composition and found that the variability of the relationship between the δ^(15)N values of animals and their diets is greater for different individuals raised on the same diet than for the same species raised on different diets.
Journal ArticleDOI
Variation in δ15N and δ13C trophic fractionation: Implications for aquatic food web studies
TL;DR: A broad-scale analysis of stable isotope techniques to quantify food web relationships requires a priori estimates of the enrichment or depletion in δ15N and δ13C values between prey and predator, known as trophic fractionation, including three new field estimates from aquatic systems.
Journal ArticleDOI
δ15N as an integrator of the nitrogen cycle
TL;DR: Natural abundances of the rare stable isotope of nitrogen, 15N, are now being used widely in research on N cycling in organisms and ecosystems as discussed by the authors, and recent progress towards overcoming some of the key technical problems and in revealing large-scale patterns in N cycle processes is discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Best practices for use of stable isotope mixing models in food-web studies
Donald L. Phillips,Richard Inger,Stuart Bearhop,Andrew L. Jackson,Jonathan W. Moore,Andrew C. Parnell,Brice X. Semmens,Eric J. Ward +7 more
TL;DR: Stable isotope mixing models are increasingly used to quantify consumer diets, but may be misused and misinter- preted, and major challenges to their effective application are addressed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Isotopic ecology ten years after a call for more laboratory experiments.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identified four major areas of inquiry: (1) the dynamics of isotopic incorporation, (2) mixing models, (3) routing, and (4) trophic discrimination factors.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Carbon Isotope Discrimination and Photosynthesis
TL;DR: In this article, the physical and enzymatic bases of carbone isotope discrimination during photosynthesis were discussed, noting how knowledge of discrimination can be used to provide additional insight into photosynthetic metabolism and the environmental influences on that process.
Journal ArticleDOI
Influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals
Michael J. DeNiro,Samuel Epstein +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals was investigated by analyzing animals grown in the laboratory on diets of constant nitrogen isotopic composition and found that the variability of the relationship between the δ(15)N values of animals and their diets is greater for different individuals raised on the same diet than for the same species raised on different diets.
Influence of Diet On the Distribtion of Nitrogen Isotopes in Animals
Michael J. DeNiro,Samuel Epstein +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals was investigated by analyzing animals grown in the laboratory on diets of constant nitrogen isotopic composition and found that the variability of the relationship between the δ^(15)N values of animals and their diets is greater for different individuals raised on the same diet than for the same species raised on different diets.
Journal ArticleDOI
Stable isotopes in ecosystem studies
Bruce J. Peterson,Brian Fry +1 more
TL;DR: The use of stable isotopes to solve biogeochemical problems in ecosystem analysis is increasing rapidly because stable isotope data can contribute both source-sink (tracer) and process information: the elements C, N, S, H, and all have more than one isotope, and isotopic compositions of natural materials can be measured with great precision with a mass spectrometer as mentioned in this paper.
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Influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals
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