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Isotopic Niche Variation in a Higher Trophic Level Ectotherm: Highlighting the Role of Succulent Plants in Desert Food Webs
Stable isotope analysis of animal tissues allows description of isotopic niches, whose axes in an n-dimensional space are the isotopic ratios, compared to a standard, of different isotope systems (e.g. δ(13)C, δ(15)N). Isotopic niches are informative about where an animal, population or species live...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4431868/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25973609 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126814 |
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author | Delibes, Miguel Blazquez, Ma Carmen Fedriani, Jose Maria Granados, Arsenio Soriano, Laura Delgado, Antonio |
author_facet | Delibes, Miguel Blazquez, Ma Carmen Fedriani, Jose Maria Granados, Arsenio Soriano, Laura Delgado, Antonio |
author_sort | Delibes, Miguel |
collection | PubMed |
description | Stable isotope analysis of animal tissues allows description of isotopic niches, whose axes in an n-dimensional space are the isotopic ratios, compared to a standard, of different isotope systems (e.g. δ(13)C, δ(15)N). Isotopic niches are informative about where an animal, population or species lives and about what it consumes. Here we describe inter- and intrapopulation isotopic niche (bidimensional δ(13)C-δ(15)N space) of the Orange-throated whiptail (Aspidoscelis hyperythra), an arthropodivorous small lizard, in ten localities of Baja California Sur (Mexico). These localities range from extreme arid to subtropical conditions. Between 13 and 20 individuals were sampled at each locality and 1 cm of tail-tip was collected for isotope analysis. As expected, interpopulation niche width variation was much larger than intrapopulation one. Besides, isotopic variation was not related to age, sex or individual size of lizards. This suggests geographic variation of the isotopic niche was related to changes in the basal resources that fuel the trophic web at each locality. The position of Bayesian isotope ellipses in the δ-space indicated that whiptails in more arid localities were enriched in (13)C, suggesting most of the carbon they ingested came from CAM succulent plants (cacti, agaves) and in minor degree in C(4) grasses. Contrarily, whiptails in subtropical areas were depleted in (13)C, as they received more carbon from C(3) scrubs and trees. Localities closer to sea-level tended to be enriched in (15)N, but a clear influence of marine subsidies was detected only at individual level. The study contributes to identify the origin and pathways through which energy flows across the trophic webs of North American deserts. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4431868 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-44318682015-05-27 Isotopic Niche Variation in a Higher Trophic Level Ectotherm: Highlighting the Role of Succulent Plants in Desert Food Webs Delibes, Miguel Blazquez, Ma Carmen Fedriani, Jose Maria Granados, Arsenio Soriano, Laura Delgado, Antonio PLoS One Research Article Stable isotope analysis of animal tissues allows description of isotopic niches, whose axes in an n-dimensional space are the isotopic ratios, compared to a standard, of different isotope systems (e.g. δ(13)C, δ(15)N). Isotopic niches are informative about where an animal, population or species lives and about what it consumes. Here we describe inter- and intrapopulation isotopic niche (bidimensional δ(13)C-δ(15)N space) of the Orange-throated whiptail (Aspidoscelis hyperythra), an arthropodivorous small lizard, in ten localities of Baja California Sur (Mexico). These localities range from extreme arid to subtropical conditions. Between 13 and 20 individuals were sampled at each locality and 1 cm of tail-tip was collected for isotope analysis. As expected, interpopulation niche width variation was much larger than intrapopulation one. Besides, isotopic variation was not related to age, sex or individual size of lizards. This suggests geographic variation of the isotopic niche was related to changes in the basal resources that fuel the trophic web at each locality. The position of Bayesian isotope ellipses in the δ-space indicated that whiptails in more arid localities were enriched in (13)C, suggesting most of the carbon they ingested came from CAM succulent plants (cacti, agaves) and in minor degree in C(4) grasses. Contrarily, whiptails in subtropical areas were depleted in (13)C, as they received more carbon from C(3) scrubs and trees. Localities closer to sea-level tended to be enriched in (15)N, but a clear influence of marine subsidies was detected only at individual level. The study contributes to identify the origin and pathways through which energy flows across the trophic webs of North American deserts. Public Library of Science 2015-05-14 /pmc/articles/PMC4431868/ /pubmed/25973609 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126814 Text en © 2015 Delibes et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Delibes, Miguel Blazquez, Ma Carmen Fedriani, Jose Maria Granados, Arsenio Soriano, Laura Delgado, Antonio Isotopic Niche Variation in a Higher Trophic Level Ectotherm: Highlighting the Role of Succulent Plants in Desert Food Webs |
title | Isotopic Niche Variation in a Higher Trophic Level Ectotherm: Highlighting the Role of Succulent Plants in Desert Food Webs |
title_full | Isotopic Niche Variation in a Higher Trophic Level Ectotherm: Highlighting the Role of Succulent Plants in Desert Food Webs |
title_fullStr | Isotopic Niche Variation in a Higher Trophic Level Ectotherm: Highlighting the Role of Succulent Plants in Desert Food Webs |
title_full_unstemmed | Isotopic Niche Variation in a Higher Trophic Level Ectotherm: Highlighting the Role of Succulent Plants in Desert Food Webs |
title_short | Isotopic Niche Variation in a Higher Trophic Level Ectotherm: Highlighting the Role of Succulent Plants in Desert Food Webs |
title_sort | isotopic niche variation in a higher trophic level ectotherm: highlighting the role of succulent plants in desert food webs |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4431868/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25973609 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126814 |
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