A New Tool for Inferring Trophic Interactions and Fish Movement Using Stable Carbon Isotope Analysis of Otolith Amino Acids

摘要: Understanding the diet and movement patterns of marine organisms is central to understanding population connectivity, energy flow, and trophic dynamics for migratory species. Stable isotope analysis(SIA) has become a staple component of this research in the marine environment. However, the stable isotope ratio of any consumer is a function of the trophic level of that consumer scaled to the stable isotope ratio of the primary producers at the base of the food web. It can be challenging to distinguish between changes in consumer bulk delta 13 C value associated with diet or trophic shifts versus changes due to movement to a habitat with a different isotopic baseline( delta 13 C_Base), particularly for highly migratory species. Compound specific-SIA of individual biological compounds(e. g. amino acids) has the potential to provide a more powerful tool to examine trophic interactions and movement patterns than …