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Variability in δ13C and δ15N trophic discrimination factors for teleost fishes: a meta-analysis of temperature and dietary effects

Stable isotope analysis (SIA) is widely used to assess animal diet and movements, requiring accurate estimates of trophic discrimination factors (TDFs). Since TDFs are only available for a limited number of species, SIA applications typically rely on universal across-taxa averages, disregarding pote...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Reviews in fish biology and fisheries 2022-06, Vol.32 (2), p.313-329
Main Authors: Canseco, J. A., Niklitschek, E. J., Harrod, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Stable isotope analysis (SIA) is widely used to assess animal diet and movements, requiring accurate estimates of trophic discrimination factors (TDFs). Since TDFs are only available for a limited number of species, SIA applications typically rely on universal across-taxa averages, disregarding potential sources of variability such as phylogeny, temperature, and diet. We compiled 20 published articles reporting experimental TDF measurements for carbon ( Δ 13 C) and nitrogen ( Δ 15 N) in 22 teleost fishes, which together provided sufficient information to assess the effects of temperature, prey delta baseline (PDB), tissue-, prey-, and habitat-type on TDF. Overall adjusted means (± SE) of 3.1 ± 1.6‰ for Δ 15 N and 2.1±1.4‰ for Δ 13 C were close to previously published values for fishes. However, our results showed that Δ 15 N was affected by temperature, δ 15 N PDB , prey-type and tissue-type: Δ 15 N decreased by 1.6‰ as temperature increased from 4 to 27 °C, and by 4.3‰ when δ 15 N PDB increased from 1 to 15.5‰. Δ 15 N differences of 0.8 were found between tissue-type and 2.5‰ between prey-types. Δ 13 C was affected by both δ 13 C PDB and tissue-type: Δ 13 C decreased by 1.6‰ as δ 13 C PDB increased from − 26.9 to − 14.1‰, while Δ 13 C differed between tissue-types by 2.4‰. Evidence of prey-type and temperature effects upon Δ 13 C was unclear. Our results indicate that TDF variability caused by water temperature, PDB, and prey-type effects is sufficient to recommend not using universal mean TDF values for SIA applications for fish inhabiting particularly cold or warm habitats and/or consuming isotopically distinct prey. This review also highlighted the continued need for new, purposely-designed and properly reported experimental studies.
ISSN:0960-3166
1573-5184
DOI:10.1007/s11160-021-09689-1