The potential of fatty acid isotopes to trace trophic transfer in aquatic food-webs.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
Alfred BurianMonika Winder

Abstract

Compound-specific isotope analyses (CSIA) of fatty acids (FA) constitute a promising tool for tracing energy flows in food-webs. However, past applications of FA-specific carbon isotope analyses have been restricted to a relatively coarse food-source separation and mainly quantified dietary contributions from different habitats. Our aim was to evaluate the potential of FA-CSIA to provide high-resolution data on within-system energy flows using algae and zooplankton as model organisms. First, we investigated the power of FA-CSIA to distinguish among four different algae groups, namely cyanobacteria, chlorophytes, haptophytes and diatoms. We found substantial within-group variation but also demonstrated that δ13C of several FA (e.g. 18:3ω3 or 18:4ω3) differed among taxa, resulting in group-specific isotopic fingerprints. Second, we assessed changes in FA isotope ratios with trophic transfer. Isotope fractionation was highly variable in daphnids and rotifers exposed to different food sources. Only δ13C of nutritionally valuable poly-unsaturated FA remained relatively constant, highlighting their potential as dietary tracers. The variability in fractionation was partly driven by the identity of food sources. Such systematic effects...Continue Reading

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Oct 13, 2018·The Science of the Total Environment·Yuxin LiuXinda Zhao

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Citations

Jun 17, 2020·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Aaron W E Galloway, Suzanne M Budge
Jun 4, 2021·Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry : RCM·Matthias PileckyMartin J Kainz

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