Because discrimination factors are relatively constant between taxonomically close species, the results here obtained may be reliably extrapolated to other cetaceans to improve dietary reconstructions. The skin discrimination factors are of particular relevance to monitoring diet through biopsies or other non-destructive sampling methods. The large difference in bone protein discrimination factors from those of other tissues should be taken into consideration when bone collagen is used to determine trophic level or to assess diet in paleodietary isotopic reconstructions.

The finding that tissue δ15N values increase with protein catabolism has led researchers to apply this value to gauge nutritive condition in vertebrates. However, its application to marine mammals has in most occasions failed. We investigated the relationship between δ15N values and the fattening/fasting cycle in a model species, the fin whale, a migratory capital breeder that experiences severe seasonal variation in body condition. We analyzed two tissues providing complementary insights: one with isotopic turnover (muscle) and one that keeps a permanent record of variations in isotopic values (baleen plates). In both tissues δ15N values increased with intensive feeding but decreased with fasting, thus contradicting the pattern previously anticipated. The apparent inconsistency during fasting is explained by the fact that a) individuals migrate between different isotopic isoscapes, b) starvation may not trigger significant negative nitrogen balance, and c) excretion drops and elimination of 15N-depleted urine is minimized. Conversely, when intensive feeding is resumed in the northern grounds, protein anabolism and excretion start again, triggering 15N enrichment. It can be concluded that in whales and other mammals that accrue massive depots of lipids as energetic reserves and which have limited access to drinking water, the δ15N value is not affected by fasting and therefore cannot be used as an indicatior of nutritive condition.

RATIONALE The relationship between stocks of fin whales inhabiting the temperate eastern North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea is subject to controversy. The use of chemical markers facilitates an alternative insight into population structure and potential borders between stocks because the two areas present dissimilar isotopic baselines. METHODS Baleen plates, composed of inert tissue that keeps a permanent chronological record of the isotopic value of body circulating fluids, were used to investigate connectivity and boundaries between the stocks. Values were determined by continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry. RESULTS Stable isotopes confirm that, while the two subpopulations generally forage in well‐differentiated grounds, some individuals with characteristic Atlantic values do penetrate into the Mediterranean Sea up to the northernmost latitudes of the region. As a consequence, the border between the two putative subpopulations may be not as definite as previous acoustic investigations suggested. The discriminant function obtained in this study may assist researchers to use baleen plate isotopic data to assign the origin of fin whales of uncertain provenance. CONCLUSIONS This study strengthens the stock subdivision currently accepted for management and conservation while recognizes a low level of exchange between the Mediterranean and temperate eastern North Atlantic subdivisions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In mammals, the influence of gestation and lactation on the tissue stable-isotope ratios of females, fetuses, and milk remains poorly understood. Here we investigate the incidence of these events on δ(13)C and δ(15)N values in fin whales sampled off northwestern Spain between 1983 and 1985. The effect of gestation on tissue stable-isotope ratios was examined in the muscle of pregnant females (n = 13) and their fetuses (n = 10) and that of lactation in the muscle of nursing females (n = 21) and their milk (n = 25). Results suggest that fetuses are enriched compared to their mothers in both (15)N (Δ(15)N = 1.5‰) and (13)C (Δ(13)C =1.1‰), while, compared to muscle, milk is enriched in (15)N (Δ(15)N = 0.3‰) but depleted in (13)C (Δ(13)C = -0.62‰). This pattern is consistent with that previously observed for other species that, like the fin whale, rely on endogenous energy during reproduction, and it substantiates a general difference in the physiological processing of nitrogen and carbon balances between income and capital breeders. These findings are relevant to the understanding of the energetic balance of mammals during gestation and lactation and are central when inferences on trophic ecology are drawn from isotopic values of reproductive females.

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