USING STABLE ISOTOPES TO ESTIMATE TROPHIC POSITION: MODELS, METHODS, AND ASSUMPTIONS
2002/03/01 by David M. Post · 147 citations
Environmental Science · #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies #Fish Ecology and Management Studies
paper · doi:10.1890/0012-9658(2002)083[0703:usitet]2.0.co;2
Abstract
The stable isotopes of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) provide powerful tools for estimating the trophic positions of and carbon flow to consumers in food webs; however, the isotopic signature of a consumer alone is not generally sufficient to infer trophic position or carbon source without an appropriate isotopic baseline. In this paper, I develop and discuss methods for generating an isotopic baseline and evaluate the assumptions required to estimate the trophic position of consumers using stable isotopes in multiple ecosystem studies. I test the ability of two primary consumers, surface-grazing snails and filter-feeding mussels, to capture the spatial and temporal variation at the base of aquatic food webs. I find that snails reflect the isotopic signature of the base of the littoral food web, mussels reflect the isotopic signature of the pelagic food web, and together they provide a good isotopic baseline for estimating trophic position of secondary or higher trophic level consumers in lake ecosystems. Then, using data from 25 north temperate lakes, I evaluate how δ15N and δ13C of the base of aquatic food webs varies both among lakes and between the littoral and pelagic food webs within lakes. Using data from the literature, I show that the mean trophic fractionation of δ15N is 3.4‰ (1 sd = 1‰) and of δ13C is 0.4‰ (1 sd = 1.3‰), and that both, even though variable, are widely applicable. A sensitivity analysis reveals that estimates of trophic position are very sensitive to assumptions about the trophic fractionation of δ15N, moderately sensitive to different methods for generating an isotopic baseline, and not sensitive to assumptions about the trophic fractionation of δ13C when δ13C is used to estimate the proportion of nitrogen in a consumer derived from two sources. Finally, I compare my recommendations for generating an isotopic baseline to an alternative model proposed by M. J. Vander Zanden and J. B. Rasmussen. With an appropriate isotopic baseline and an appreciation of the underlying assumptions and model sensitivity, stable isotopes can help answer some of the most difficult questions in food web ecology.
Citations
Cited by
- Stable isotopes and elasmobranchs: tissue types, methods, applications and assumptions
- Integrating ecosystem metabolism and consumer allochthony reveals nonlinear drivers in lake organic matter processing
- Historical changes in nutrient inputs from humans and anadromous fishes in New England's coastal watersheds
- Application of stable isotope mixing models for defining trophic biomagnification pathways of mercury and selenium
- The decadal variability of elemental, isotopic, and biochemical compositions of coastal Mediterranean zooplankton responds to environmental changes
- Trophic ecology of Mnemiopsis leidyi in the southern North Sea: a biomarker approach
- Quantifying spatial variation in isotopic baselines reveals size-based feeding in a model estuarine predator: implications for trophic studies in dynamic ecotones
- Current methods and future directions in avian diet analysis
- Spiders in rice-paddy ecosystems shift from aquatic to terrestrial prey and use carbon pools of different origin
- Studying animal niches using bulk stable isotope ratios: an updated synthesis
- Variation in trophic shift for stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur
- Using stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N) values from feces and breath to infer shorebird diets
- The return of raptors to Scotland’s skies: Investigating the diets of reintroduced red kites and white-tailed eagles using stable isotopes
- Dating Human Remains from the Historical Period in Belgium: Diet Changes and the Impact of Marine and Freshwater Reservoir Effects
- Connecting taxonomy and ecology: Trophic niches of collembolans as related to taxonomic identity and life forms
- Spatial models cannot compensate for sampling designs unstructured relative to isotopic variation: implications for baseline isoscape development in the Mediterranean Sea
- Epibenthic food web structure across the Northeast Greenland seascape
- Spatial patterns in zooplankton communities and stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) in relation to oceanographic conditions in the sub-Arctic Pacific and western Arctic regions during the summer of 2008
- Fishing‐Induced Regulation of Diadromous Fish Subsidies in Stream Communities
- Differential PFAS transfer through the terrestrial and aquatic food web to predatory spiders
- Dynamic omnivory shapes the functional role of large carnivores under global change
- Evaluating the Effects of Managed Free-Roaming Cat Populations on Prey Through Stable Isotope Analysis: A Pilot Study from British Columbia, Canada
- Patterns of Raccoon Craniodental Morphology under Urbanization
- Environmental and ecological drivers of eye size variation in a freshwater predator: A trade‐off between foraging and predation risk
- Graph tools for analysing trophic assemblies in the isotopic space
- Isotopic niches of native and invasive large decapods along a steep estuarine gradient
- Detecting trophic‐level variation in consumer assemblages
- Consumer‐specific responses to riverine subsidy pulses in a riparian arthropod assemblage
- Shearing Tooth Morphology May Allow Sharks to Access Higher Trophic Levels at Smaller Sizes
- Generalist predators function as pest specialists: Examining diet composition of spiders and ladybeetles across rice crop stages
- Diverse diet compositions among harpaline ground beetle species revealed by mixing model analyses of stable isotope ratios
- Stable isotope analysis reveals resource use by rays in an Australian temperate estuary
- Trophic niche partitioning between the white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) in the central Mediterranean Sea
- Reconstructing the historical wintering destinations of seabirds using stable isotope analyses of museum specimens
- Recoupling terrestrial, benthic and pelagic habitats by constructing littoral zones diversifies carbon flows to aquatic macroinvertebrates
- Trophic ecology of Ophiuroidea and Asteroidea in the Clarion-Clipperton-Fracture Zone (Central Pacific)
- Relating Microplastic Contamination to Trophic Ecology of the Highly Invasive Red Swamp Crayfish and Eastern Mosquitofish
- Seabird biomonitoring indicates similar plastic pollution throughout the Canary Current
- Distinct Food Web Responses to Environmental Gradients Suggest Different Effects of Invasive Species in a Large, Fragmented Lake
- An extraordinary colonial spider community in Sulfur Cave (Albania/Greece) sustained by chemoautotrophy
- Trophic dynamics of shallow water consumers in coastal systems with distinct connectivity degrees and anthropogenic pressures
- Dietary Shifts Among the Developmental Stages of the Ectoparasite, Argulus japonicus (Crustacea; Branchiura), Mirror Ontogeny as Shown Through Differences in Stable Isotope Ratios of Carbon (δ13C) and Nitrogen (δ15N)
- Stable isotope ecology in insects: a review
- Trophic organisation of a large lake fish community: comparing alternative models and evaluating resource use based on stable isotope ratios
- Semi‐tilling maintains the arthropod food web structure but decreases biological pest control in olive groves
- Birds of a feather moult together: Differences in moulting distribution of four species of storm-petrels
- Correcting Lipid Extraction Effects on Nitrogen Isotopic Values ( δ 15 N ) in Cetacean Skin
- Relative Effects of Eutrophication and Warming on Freshwater Ecosystems Across Ecological Levels
- Marine‐derived nutrients shape the functional composition of High Arctic plant communities
- Energy expenditure of Adélie penguins during the breeding season: females pay the cost in years of low food availability
- What do tadpoles really eat? Assessing the trophic status of an understudied and imperiled group of consumers in freshwater habitats
- Carnivory and resource‐based niche differentiation in anuran larvae: implications for food web and experimental ecology
- Fine‐scale variation in natural nitrogen isotope ratios of ants
- The journey of loggerhead turtles from the Northwest Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea as recorded by the stable isotope ratios of O, C and N of their bones
- Coarse Woody Debris Maintains Two Distinct and Interrelated Detrital Food Webs in Forest Ecosystems
- Integrated responses: Multi-dimensional evidence of diet-microbiome coupling of fish across a River Continuum in a dry-hot valley
- Regional variability of resource use, trophic position and habitat coupling within Lake Superior
- Integrating network and stable isotope approaches to reveal food web structures
- Regional ecosystem responses to environmental drivers in cold‐water lakes evaluated using stable isotopes of salmonid fishes
- Dogs of War: The Effect of War‐Inflicted Environmental Damage on Free‐Ranging Domestic Dogs
- Habitat and Trophic Specialization Among Greenland Cod (Gadus ogac) Morphotypes in the Context of Climate Change Resilience
- Trophic ecology of roosterfish (Nematistius pectoralis) inferred from stomach content and stable isotope analyses in the southern part of Baja California peninsula
- Community macroecological patterns and interspecific interactions in guild level regulate avian isotopic niche over time
- Differences in trophic niches and life-history traits between brook trout and brown trout in alpine lake food webs
- Isotopic variability of the invasive blue crab Callinectes sapidus in the Gulf of Cadiz: Impacts and implications for coastal ecosystem management
- Do sympatric catfish radiations in Lake Tanganyika show eco-morphological diversification?
- Ontogenetic trophic shift and niche partitioning among two sympatric demersal sharks (Mustelus mustelus and Mustelus punctulatus) revealed by vertebral stable isotope analysis
- Variation in marine mammal sulfur stable isotope compositions (δ34S) is driven by sources of primary production, not trophic position
- Dynamics of 13C and 15N isotopes in fire-affected soils under rotational shifting cultivation in Northern Thailand
- Trophic interactions and climate-driven range dynamics of native and invasive catfish in freshwater ecosystems
- What determines trophic niche breadth? A global analysis of freshwater fishes using isospaces
- Marine ecosystems with elevated temperature and terrestrial input support simplified food webs
- Benthopelagic Deep-Sea Food Webs Along a Latitudinal Gradient in the Scotia Sea (Southern Ocean)
- Assessing resource use as a predictor for Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) smolt body size
- Trophic ecology of four shark species in the Gulf of Salamanca, Colombian Caribbean, using multi‐tissue stable isotopes analysis
- Identifying Bottlenecks to Energy Circulation in the Bay of Biscay Pelagic Food Web: Key Species Under the Spotlight
- Spatiotemporal dynamics, risk assessment, and trophic fate of pharmaceuticals in a rurally-zoned freshwater terminal lake
- Resource niche partitioning and overlap among native and non-native lizards in an urban environment
- Seven Shortfalls that Beset Large-Scale Knowledge of Biodiversity
- Intraspecific body size determines isotopic trophic structure of a large river fish community
- Stomach content and stable isotope analysis of invasive lionfish ( Pterois volitans ) in the Florida Keys
- Decoupled conservatism of Grinnellian and Eltonian niches in an invasive arthropod
- The role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food webs
- Stable isotope analysis in bone collagen reveals new insights into the feeding ecology of free-ranging manatees in the Mexican Caribbean
- Influence of the dietary contribution of terrestrial insects to the condition factor of bleak Alburnus alburnus in a highly polluted lowland river
- Comparative trophic ecology of microhabitat‐associated guilds of reef fishes in the Adriatic Sea
- Spatial and seasonal variability in trophic relationships and carbon sources of two key invertebrate species in Lake Ontario
- Differences in diet have implications for potential ecosystem roles of two key rocky reef fish
- Patterns of resource use in loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) from the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean
- Seafood Abundance Correlates With Nitrogen Stable Isotope Ratio in Japanese Diet
- Greater trophic diversity of soil animal communities under agricultural land use and tropical climate
- Muscle-fin tissue stable isotope relationships for studying Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) and bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) trophic ecology
- Tracing terrestrial nitrogen contributions to the salt marsh food web of the Obitsu River estuary in Tokyo Bay using compound-specific δ15N analysis of amino acids
- Discrepancies between feeding ecology and trophic position based on nitrogen isotopic composition in endosymbiont-bearing benthic foraminifers
- Stable isotope analysis shows limited assimilation of carbohydrates in muscle tissue of an omnivorous fish
- Investigating eye lens composition for stable isotope analysis in fishes: a comparison between Chondrichthyes and Actinopterygii
- Trophic level, food chain length and omnivory in the Paraná River: a food web model approach in a floodplain river system
- Anadromous alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) contribute marine-derived nutrients to coastal stream food webs
- Trophic relationships of deep-sea benthic invertebrates on a continental margin in the NW Atlantic inferred by stable isotope, elemental, and fatty acid composition
- Feeding habits and ecological roles of marine cladocerans in offshore zooplankton food-web in Suruga Bay, Japan
- Mercury contamination in gull chicks raised in natural vs. urban habitats
- Carbon and nitrogen discrimination factors for elasmobranch soft tissues based on a long-term controlled feeding study
- Trophic ecology and stable isotope niche space of tuna, billfishes and sharks in New Zealand waters
- Seabirds shaped the expansion of pre-Inca society in Peru
- An assessment of the habitats and trophic level of the introduced slug Limax maximus in Japan
- Anchoveta and sardine feeding responses to environmental variations in the central and south Humboldt Current System revealed by stable isotopes
- Passive acoustic monitoring provides a fresh perspective on fundamental ecological questions
- Variation in food resource use differs between marine residents and river migrants in the Japanese seabass Lateolabrax japonicus
- Insights into the trophic ecology of Etmopterus molleri, one of the smallest shark species: a multi-tracer analysis
- Litter complexity rather than land-use intensity emerges as a key driver of taxonomic and isotopic diversity of Collembola in urban systems
- Trophic dynamics and metabolic pathways in host parasite interactions revealed by nitrogen isotope analysis of amino acids in multiple tissues
- The first global deep-sea stable isotope assessment reveals the unique trophic ecology of Vampire Squid Vampyroteuthis infernalis (Cephalopoda)
- Land use extent and intensity affect the trophic structure of apex fish in neotropical lagoons
- Fish trophic structure and potential competitive interactions in a typical subtropical river
- Resource partitioning among algal turf‐feeding fishes on a tropical artificial shoreline
- Linking millipede trophic niche to litter–millipede elemental composition across an altitudinal gradient
- Stable isotope analysis in deep-sea chondrichthyans: recent challenges, ecological insights, and future directions
- Coexistence, resource partitioning, and fisheries management: A tale of two mesopredators in equatorial waters
- Nitrogen and carbon isotopic relationships in the diet and eye lenses of chub mackerel revealed in a laboratory rearing experiment
- Gleaning of δ15N in ecosystems and its animal-organ isotope data: perspectives for the construction of the isotopically ordered world
- Host–Parasite Trophic Interactions as Revealed by Stable Isotope Analyses: Determinants for Trophic and Isotopic Niches of Hosts and Their Associated Parasites
- Habitat-specific foraging and sex determine mercury concentrations in sympatric benthic and limnetic ecotypes of threespine stickleback
- DNA barcoding insect-host plant associations. [europepmc]
- Microbial community structure, pigment composition, and nitrogen source of red snow in Antarctica. [europepmc]
- Individual specialists in a generalist population: results from a long-term stable isotope series. [europepmc]
- Rapid sympatric ecological differentiation of crater lake cichlid fishes within historic times. [europepmc]
- Speciation along a depth gradient in a marine adaptive radiation. [europepmc]
- A low trophic position of Japanese eel larvae indicates feeding on marine snow. [europepmc]
- The influence of fish length on tissue mercury dynamics: implications for natural resource management and human health risk. [europepmc]
- Trophic hierarchies illuminated via amino acid isotopic analysis. [europepmc]
- Habitat-specific density and diet of rapidly expanding invasive red lionfish, Pterois volitans, populations in the northern Gulf of Mexico. [europepmc]
- Bioaccumulation and trophic dilution of human pharmaceuticals across trophic positions of an effluent-dependent wadeable stream. [europepmc]
- Stable isotopes reveal links between human food inputs and urban ant diets. [europepmc]
- Mercury in Marine and Oceanic Waters-a Review. [europepmc]
- Niche partitioning and the role of intraspecific niche variation in structuring a guild of generalist anurans. [europepmc]
- Predictors and immunological correlates of sublethal mercury exposure in vampire bats. [europepmc]
- Ocean acidification as a driver of community simplification via the collapse of higher-order and rise of lower-order consumers. [europepmc]
- The trophic role of a large marine predator, the tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvier. [europepmc]
- Starvation effects on nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes of animals: an insight from meta-analysis of fasting experiments. [europepmc]
- European catfish (Silurus glanis) as a freshwater apex predator drives ecosystem via its diet adaptability. [europepmc]
- Mercury Contamination in Riverine Sediments and Fish Associated with Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Madre de Dios, Peru. [europepmc]
- The gut of the finch: uniqueness of the gut microbiome of the Galápagos vampire finch. [europepmc]
- Protura are unique: first evidence of specialized feeding on ectomycorrhizal fungi in soil invertebrates. [europepmc]
- Habitat fragmentation is associated with dietary shifts and microbiota variability in common vampire bats. [europepmc]
- Stable isotopes reveal winter feeding in different habitats in blue, fin and sei whales migrating through the Azores. [europepmc]
- Ecological characteristics impact PFAS concentrations in a U.S. North Atlantic food web. [europepmc]
- Legacy and Emerging Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in a Subtropical Marine Food Web: Suspect Screening, Isomer Profile, and Identification of Analytical Interference. [europepmc]
Related