Reply to Hussey et al.: The requirement for accurate diet-tissue discrimination factors for interpreting stable isotopes in sharks |
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Authors: | John M Logan Molly E Lutcavage |
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Institution: | (1) Large Pelagics Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, 46 College Road, Durham, NH 03824, USA |
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Abstract: | Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses have improved our understanding of food webs and movement patterns of aquatic
organisms. These techniques have recently been applied to diet studies of elasmobranch fishes, but isotope turnover rates
and isotope diet–tissue discrimination are still poorly understood for this group. We performed a diet switch experiment on
captive sandbar sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus) as a model shark species to determine tissue turnover rates for liver, whole blood, and white muscle. In a second experiment,
we subjected captive coastal skates (Leucoraja spp.) to serial salinity reductions to measure possible impacts of tissue urea content on nitrogen stable isotope values.
We extracted urea from spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) white muscle to test for effects on nitrogen stable isotopes. Isotope turnover was slow for shark tissues and similar to
previously published estimates for stingrays and teleost fishes with low growth rates. Muscle isotope data would likely fail
to capture seasonal migrations or diet switches in sharks, while liver and whole blood would more closely reflect shorter
term movement or shifts in diet. Nitrogen stable isotope values of skate blood and skate and dogfish white muscle were not
affected by tissue urea content, suggesting that available diet–tissue discrimination estimates for teleost fishes with similar
physiologies would provide accurate estimates for elasmobranchs. |
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