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Trophic Hierarchies Illuminated via Amino Acid Isotopic Analysis

Food web ecologists have long sought to characterize the trophic niches of animals using stable isotopic analysis. However, distilling trophic position from isotopic composition has been difficult, largely because of the variability associated with trophic discrimination factors (inter-trophic isoto...

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Autores principales: Steffan, Shawn A., Chikaraishi, Yoshito, Horton, David R., Ohkouchi, Naohiko, Singleton, Merritt E., Miliczky, Eugene, Hogg, David B., Jones, Vincent P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24086703
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076152
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author Steffan, Shawn A.
Chikaraishi, Yoshito
Horton, David R.
Ohkouchi, Naohiko
Singleton, Merritt E.
Miliczky, Eugene
Hogg, David B.
Jones, Vincent P.
author_facet Steffan, Shawn A.
Chikaraishi, Yoshito
Horton, David R.
Ohkouchi, Naohiko
Singleton, Merritt E.
Miliczky, Eugene
Hogg, David B.
Jones, Vincent P.
author_sort Steffan, Shawn A.
collection PubMed
description Food web ecologists have long sought to characterize the trophic niches of animals using stable isotopic analysis. However, distilling trophic position from isotopic composition has been difficult, largely because of the variability associated with trophic discrimination factors (inter-trophic isotopic fractionation and routing). We circumvented much of this variability using compound-specific isotopic analysis (CSIA). We examined the (15)N signatures of amino acids extracted from organisms reared in pure culture at four discrete trophic levels, across two model communities. We calculated the degree of enrichment at each trophic level and found there was a consistent trophic discrimination factor (~7.6‰). The constancy of the CSIA-derived discrimination factor permitted unprecedented accuracy in the measurement of animal trophic position. Conversely, trophic position estimates generated via bulk-(15)N analysis significantly underestimated trophic position, particularly among higher-order consumers. We then examined the trophic hierarchy of a free-roaming arthropod community, revealing the highest trophic position (5.07) and longest food chain ever reported using CSIA. High accuracy in trophic position estimation brings trophic function into sharper focus, providing greater resolution to the analysis of food webs.
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spelling pubmed-37833752013-10-01 Trophic Hierarchies Illuminated via Amino Acid Isotopic Analysis Steffan, Shawn A. Chikaraishi, Yoshito Horton, David R. Ohkouchi, Naohiko Singleton, Merritt E. Miliczky, Eugene Hogg, David B. Jones, Vincent P. PLoS One Research Article Food web ecologists have long sought to characterize the trophic niches of animals using stable isotopic analysis. However, distilling trophic position from isotopic composition has been difficult, largely because of the variability associated with trophic discrimination factors (inter-trophic isotopic fractionation and routing). We circumvented much of this variability using compound-specific isotopic analysis (CSIA). We examined the (15)N signatures of amino acids extracted from organisms reared in pure culture at four discrete trophic levels, across two model communities. We calculated the degree of enrichment at each trophic level and found there was a consistent trophic discrimination factor (~7.6‰). The constancy of the CSIA-derived discrimination factor permitted unprecedented accuracy in the measurement of animal trophic position. Conversely, trophic position estimates generated via bulk-(15)N analysis significantly underestimated trophic position, particularly among higher-order consumers. We then examined the trophic hierarchy of a free-roaming arthropod community, revealing the highest trophic position (5.07) and longest food chain ever reported using CSIA. High accuracy in trophic position estimation brings trophic function into sharper focus, providing greater resolution to the analysis of food webs. Public Library of Science 2013-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC3783375/ /pubmed/24086703 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076152 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration, which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.
spellingShingle Research Article
Steffan, Shawn A.
Chikaraishi, Yoshito
Horton, David R.
Ohkouchi, Naohiko
Singleton, Merritt E.
Miliczky, Eugene
Hogg, David B.
Jones, Vincent P.
Trophic Hierarchies Illuminated via Amino Acid Isotopic Analysis
title Trophic Hierarchies Illuminated via Amino Acid Isotopic Analysis
title_full Trophic Hierarchies Illuminated via Amino Acid Isotopic Analysis
title_fullStr Trophic Hierarchies Illuminated via Amino Acid Isotopic Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Trophic Hierarchies Illuminated via Amino Acid Isotopic Analysis
title_short Trophic Hierarchies Illuminated via Amino Acid Isotopic Analysis
title_sort trophic hierarchies illuminated via amino acid isotopic analysis
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24086703
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076152
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