Document Detail


From food to offspring down: tissue-specific discrimination and turn-over of stable isotopes in herbivorous waterbirds and other avian foraging guilds.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  22312422     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Data-Review    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Isotopic discrimination and turn-over are fundamental to the application of stable isotope ecology in animals. However, detailed information for specific tissues and species are widely lacking, notably for herbivorous species. We provide details on tissue-specific carbon and nitrogen discrimination and turn-over times from food to blood, feathers, claws, egg tissues and offspring down feathers in four species of herbivorous waterbirds. Source-to-tissue discrimination factors for carbon (δ(13)C) and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ(15)N) showed little variation across species but varied between tissues. Apparent discrimination factors ranged between -0.5 to 2.5‰ for δ(13)C and 2.8 to 5.2‰ for δ(15)N, and were more similar between blood components than between keratinous tissues or egg tissue. Comparing these results with published data from other species we found no effect of foraging guild on discrimination factors for carbon but a significant foraging-guild effect for nitrogen discrimination factors.Turn-over of δ(13)C in tissues was most rapid in blood plasma, with a half-life of 4.3 d, whereas δ(13)C in blood cells had a half-life of approximately 32 d. Turn-over times for albumen and yolk in laying females were similar to those of blood plasma, at 3.2 and 6.0 d respectively. Within yolk, we found decreasing half-life times of δ(13)C from inner yolk (13.3 d) to outer yolk (3.1 d), related to the temporal pattern of tissue formation.We found similarities in tissue-specific turn-over times across all avian species studied to date. Yet, while generalities regarding discrimination factors and tissue turn-over times can be made, a large amount of variation remains unexplained.
Authors:
Steffen Hahn; Bethany J Hoye; Harry Korthals; Marcel Klaassen
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article     Date:  2012-02-01
Journal Detail:
Title:  PloS one     Volume:  7     ISSN:  1932-6203     ISO Abbreviation:  PLoS ONE     Publication Date:  2012  
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2012-02-07     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  101285081     Medline TA:  PLoS One     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  e30242     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Swiss Ornithological Institute, Sempach, Switzerland.
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