When using stable isotopes as dietary tracers it is essential to consider effects of nutritional state on isotopic fractionation. While starvation is known to induce enrichment of (15)N in body tissues, effects of moderate food restriction on isotope signatures have rarely been tested. We conducted two experiments to investigate effects of a 50-55% reduction in food intake on delta(15)N and delta(13)C values in blood cells and whole blood of tufted puffin chicks, a species that exhibits a variety of adaptive responses to nutritional deficits. We found that blood from puffin chicks fed ad libitum became enriched in (15)N and (13)C compared to food-restricted chicks. Our results show that (15)N enrichment is not always associated with food deprivation and argue effects of growth on diet-tissue fractionation of nitrogen stable isotopes (Delta(15)N) need to be considered in stable isotope studies. The decrease in delta(13)C of whole blood and blood cells in restricted birds is likely due to incorporation of carbon from (13)C-depleted lipids into proteins. Effects of nutritional restriction on delta(15)N and delta(13)C values were relatively small in both experiments (delta(15)N: 0.77 and 0.41 per thousand, delta(13)C: 0.20 and 0.25 per thousand) compared to effects of ecological processes, indicating physiological effects do not preclude the use of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in studies of seabird ecology. Nevertheless, our results demonstrate that physiological processes affect nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes in growing birds and we caution isotope ecologists to consider these effects to avoid drawing spurious conclusions.

Global increases in the occurrence of large, severe wildfires in forested watersheds threaten drinking water supplies and aquatic ecology. Wildfire effects on water quality, particularly nutrient levels and forms, can be significant. The longevity and downstream propagation of these effects as well as the geochemical mechanisms regulating them remain largely undocumented at larger river basin scales. Here, phosphorus (P) speciation and sorption behavior of suspended sediment were examined in two river basins impacted by a severe wildfire in southern Alberta, Canada. Fine-grained suspended sediments (<125 μm) were sampled continuously during ice-free conditions over a two-year period (2009-2010), 6 and 7 years after the wildfire. Suspended sediment samples were collected from upstream reference (unburned) river reaches, multiple tributaries within the burned areas, and from reaches downstream of the burned areas, in the Crowsnest and Castle River basins. Total particulate phosphorus (TPP) and particulate phosphorus forms (nonapatite inorganic P, apatite P, organic P), and the equilibrium phosphorus concentration (EPC0 ) of suspended sediment were assessed. Concentrations of TPP and the EPC0 were significantly higher downstream of wildfire-impacted areas compared to reference (unburned) upstream river reaches. Sediments from the burned tributary inputs contained higher levels of bioavailable particulate P (NAIP) - these effects were also observed downstream at larger river basin scales. The release of bioavailable P from postfire, P-enriched fine sediment is a key mechanism causing these effects in gravel-bed rivers at larger basin scales. Wildfire-associated increases in NAIP and the EPC0 persisted 6 and 7 years after wildfire. Accordingly, this work demonstrated that fine sediment in gravel-bed rivers is a significant, long-term source of in-stream bioavailable P that contributes to a legacy of wildfire impacts on downstream water quality, aquatic ecology, and drinking water treatability.

Tactics of resource use for reproduction are an important feature of life-history strategies. A distinction is made between 'capital' breeders, which finance reproduction using stored energy, and 'income' breeders, which pay for reproduction using concurrent energy intake. In reality, vertebrates use a continuum of capital-to-income tactics, and, for many species, the allocation of capital towards reproduction is a plastic trait. Here, we review how trophic interactions and the timing of life-history events are influenced by tactics of resource use in birds and mammals. We first examine how plasticity in the allocation of capital towards reproduction is linked to phenological flexibility via interactions between endocrine/neuroendocrine control systems and the sensory circuits that detect changes in endogenous state, and environmental cues. We then describe the ecological drivers of reproductive timing in species that vary in the degree to which they finance reproduction using capital. Capital can be used either as a mechanism to facilitate temporal synchrony between energy supply and demand or as a means of lessening the need for synchrony. Within many species, an individual's ability to cope with environmental change may be more tightly linked to plasticity in resource allocation than to absolute position on the capital-to-income breeder continuum.This article is part of the themed issue 'Wild clocks: integrating chronobiology and ecology to understand timekeeping in free-living animals'.

Ecohydrological linkages between phosphorus (P) production, stream algae, benthic invertebrate, and fish communities were studied for 4 years after severe wildfire in the Rocky Mountains (Alberta, Canada). Mean concentrations of all forms of P (soluble reactive, total dissolved, particulate, and total) were 2 to 13 times greater in burned and post‐fire salvage‐logged streams than in unburned streams (p < 0.001). Post‐disturbance recovery of P was slow with differences in P‐discharge relationships still evident 5 years after the fire (p < 0.001). Coupled P and sediment interactions were likely responsible for slow recovery of P regimes in fire‐disturbed watersheds. P loading was associated with strong ecological responses in stream biota. Annual algal productivity was 5 to 71 times greater in streams within burned watersheds than in reference watersheds and persisted for 5 years after the fire (p < 0.001). Elevated algal production was associated with strong differences in benthic invertebrate community structure, including greater invertebrate densities, biomass, species diversity, and shifts in species composition. Monotonic shifts in invertebrate stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios indicated increased consumption of autochthonous food sources and effects on energy pathways for invertebrates from fire‐affected streams. Wildfire‐related changes at lower trophic lead to increases in size (weight and length) and growth rate (weight : age ratios) of cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki). This cascading series of effects of wildfire on stream productivity (primary production, secondary invertebrate consumers, and fish) may be long‐lived legacies of wildfire because of the slow recovery of P regimes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The production of offspring by vertebrates is often timed to coincide with the annual peak in resource availability. However, capital breeders can extend the energetic benefits of a resource pulse by storing food or fat, thus relaxing the need for synchrony between energy supply and demand. Food-hoarding red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) breeding in the boreal forest are reliant on cones from a masting conifer for their nutrition, yet lactation is typically completed before the annual crop of cones is available for consumption such that peaks in energy supply and demand are not synchronized. We investigated the phenological response of red squirrels to annual variation in environmental conditions over a 20-year span and examined how intra- and inter-annual variation in the timing of reproduction affected offspring recruitment. Reproductive phenology was strongly affected by past resource availability with offspring born earlier in years following large cone crops, presumably because this affected the amount of capital available for reproduction. Early breeders had higher offspring survival and were more likely to renest following early litter loss when population density was high, perhaps because late-born offspring are less competitive in obtaining a territory when vacancies are limited. Early breeders were also more likely to renest after successfully weaning their first litter, but renesting predominantly occurred during mast years. Because of their increased propensity to renest and the higher survival rates of their offspring, early breeders contribute more recruits to the population but the advantage of early breeding depends on population density and resource availability.