Arctic seabird food chains explored by fatty acid composition and stable isotopes in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard

Wold, Anette; Jæger, Iris; Hop, Haakon; Gabrielsen, Geir Wing; Falk‐Petersen, Stig

doi:10.1007/s00300-011-0975-4

Cited by 49 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In our study, Calanus copepods were set to trophic level 2 as they generally represent the first consumers on phytoplankton (e.g. Fisk et al 2001;Hop et al 2002b;Nilsen et al 2008;Wold et al 2011) and were used as the baseline value for calculation (d 15 N Calanus ). Based on spring/summer data of Calanus from Kongsfjord, this value was set to 6.7 % according to Wold et al (2011).…”

Section: Stable Isotope Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lipid composition and trophic relationships of krill species in a high Arctic fjord

2014

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Our study deals with the lipid biochemistry of the krill community in the ecosystem of the high Arctic Kongsfjord (Svalbard). During the last decades, Kongsfjord experienced a change in krill species composition due to recent increased advection of Atlantic water masses carrying characteristic boreal as well as subtropical-boreal euphausiids into the ecosystem. The lipid biochemistry and trophic relationships of the species recently inhabiting the Arctic water masses are scarcely known, although a change in a krill population may have a significant impact on the ecosystem. A comparison of nutrition and energy storage strategies, stable isotopes, lipid profiles and fatty acid compositions showed remarkable differences between the krill species. These reflected the diverse feeding behaviours and specific adaptations to the environments of their origin: the boreal Meganyctiphanes norvegica and subtropical Nematoscelis megalops appear more carnivorous and have significantly lower mean lipid contents (29 and 10 %, respectively) and a different energy storage pattern (triacylglycerols and polar lipids, respectively) than the arctoboreal Thysanoessa inermis, which consists of up to 54 % of lipids mainly stored as wax esters ([40 %). These differences may have significant implications for the rapidly changing marine food web of Kongsfjord-especially for higher trophic levels relying on the nutritional input of animal lipids.

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Section: Stable Isotope Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lipid composition and trophic relationships of krill species in a high Arctic fjord

2014

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“…Eicosenoic acid is typically found in Arctic calanoid species (Scott et al 2002;Kattner et al 2007) and has been used as an FA biomarker for organisms that feed on calanoids or organisms that are part of calanoid-based food webs (Westawski et al 1994;Dahl et al 2003;Kakela et al 2007;Karnovsky et al 2008;Kattner and Hagen 2009;Loseto et al 2009;Wilson et al 2010). Amphipods contain high amounts of eicosenoic acid as a result of their consumption of calanoid species (Graeve et al 1997;Auel 2002;Wold et al 2011) and Arctic Terns are known to consume amphipods at the water's surface (Hatch 2002). Arctic fish also consume crustaceans like amphipods (Dolgov 2009;Orlova et al 2009;Wojciech et al 2011) so the greater contribution of eicosenoic acid to FA levels in Arctic Tern eggs may have reflected direct consumption of invertebrates or consumption of fish that had consumed calanoids.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fatty acids and Sis have also been used together to determine marine bird feeding patterns (Hebert et al 2006(Hebert et al , 2008(Hebert et al , 2009Oppel et al 2010;Ronconi et al 2010;Wang et al 2010;Wold et al 2011). In general, Sis have been used as a broad tool (e.g.…”

Section: Integrated Use Of Fas and Sismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The objective of this study was to investigate possible differences in the stable isotope and fatty acid profiles of three sympatrically nesting High Arctic marine birds: Arctic Terns, Common Eiders and Long-tailed Ducks. Stable isotopes and fatty acids have been used to show inter-specific differences (Dahl et al 2003;Hobson 1993;Wold et al 2011) amongst various marine bird species but few studies have utilized them together. Previously, Arctic-breeding Common Eiders have been shown to have lower 6 15 N values in their tissues compared to marine birds that feed on higher trophic level prey (Hobson 1993;Akearok et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since FAs have been used to demonstrate inter-specific differences in feeding patterns of marine birds (Dahl et al 2003;Wold et al 2011), I expect that…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stable isotope (δ₁⁵N and δ₁₃C) and fatty acid profiles in eggs of three species of marine birds nesting sympatrically in the high arctic

Akearok¹

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Detect and exploit hidden structure in fatty acid signature data

2017

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Citation: Bromaghin, J. F., S. M. Budge, and G. W. Thiemann. 2017. Detect and exploit hidden structure in fatty acid signature data. Ecosphere 8(7):e01896. 10. 1002/ecs2.1896 Abstract. Estimates of predator diet composition are essential to our understanding of their ecology.Although several methods of estimating diet are practiced, methods based on biomarkers have become increasingly common. Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) is a popular method that continues to be refined and extended. Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis is based on differences in the signatures of prey types, often species, which are recognized and designated by investigators. Similarly, predator signatures may be structured by known factors such as sex or age class, and the season or region of sample collection. The recognized structure in signature data inherently influences QFASA results in important and typically beneficial ways. However, predator and prey signatures may contain additional, hidden structure that investigators either choose not to incorporate into an analysis or of which they are unaware, being caused by unknown ecological mechanisms. Hidden structure also influences QFASA results, most often negatively. We developed a new method to explore signature data for hidden structure, called divisive magnetic clustering (DIMAC). Our DIMAC approach is based on the same distance measure used in diet estimation, closely linking methods of data exploration and parameter estimation, and it does not require data transformation or distributional assumptions, as do many multivariate ordination methods in common use. We investigated the potential benefits of the DIMAC method to detect and subsequently exploit hidden structure in signature data using two prey signature libraries with quite different characteristics. We found that the existence of hidden structure in prey signatures can increase the confusion between prey types and thereby reduce the accuracy and precision of QFASA diet estimates. Conversely, the detection and exploitation of hidden structure represent a potential opportunity to improve predator diet estimates and may lead to new insights into the ecology of either predator or prey. The DIMAC algorithm is implemented in the R diet estimation package qfasar.

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Arctic seabird food chains explored by fatty acid composition and stable isotopes in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard

Cited by 49 publications

References 42 publications

Lipid composition and trophic relationships of krill species in a high Arctic fjord

Lipid composition and trophic relationships of krill species in a high Arctic fjord

Stable isotope (δ₁⁵N and δ₁₃C) and fatty acid profiles in eggs of three species of marine birds nesting sympatrically in the high arctic

Detect and exploit hidden structure in fatty acid signature data

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