The use of fatty acids to identify food sources of secondary consumers in wetland mesocosms

Growns, Ivor; Ryder, Darren; McInerney, Paul; Bond, Nick; Holt, Galen; Lester, Rebecca E.

doi:10.1080/02705060.2020.1761463

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…Characterising the diet of many aquatic consumers is problematic owing to the difficulty of identifying diverse, partially‐digested taxa, and differential digestion rates among prey can lead to biased inferences about the relative importance of different prey to a consumer (e.g., Amundsen & Sánchez‐Hernández, 2019). Modification of rivers also can transform the nutritional composition of resources at the base of freshwater food webs by altering the composition of organic material, associated microorganisms, and primary consumers (e.g., Atkinson et al., 2009; Dwyer et al., 2018; Growns et al., 2020). However, the consequences of nutritional transformations to consumer performance remain poorly understood (e.g., Dwyer et al., 2020; Ruess & Müller‐Navarra, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary fatty acid profiles shape crayfish biosynthesis and performance: Implications for riverine food webs

et al. 2022

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary fatty acid profiles shape crayfish biosynthesis and performance: Implications for riverine food webs

et al. 2022

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“…The application of biotracers to diet tracing is based on the assumption that a consumer's chemical profile should reflect that of its food sources (Iverson et al, 2004; O'Donovan et al, 2018; Peterson & Fry, 1987). Relative proportions or ratios of biotracers are then used to establish qualitative links between consumers and their likely food sources (Growns et al, 2020) or used to produce quantitative diet proportion estimates using Bayesian mixing models frameworks sources (Brett et al, 2016; Galloway et al, 2014; Iverson et al, 2004; Thiemann et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using biotracer techniques to uncover consumer diets: A comparison of stable isotopes, fatty acids, and amino acids

Pickett,

Dwyer,

Macqueen

et al. 2024

Ecosphere

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Biotracers are commonly used in food‐web studies to estimate consumer diets. Increasingly, multiple biotracer types are combined to provide more nuanced pictures of consumer resource use, unravel more complex diet mixtures, and improve the discriminatory power of mixing models. However, few studies compare different biotracer types, including the impact of tracer selection choices, and few methods exist for combining multiple types into a single analysis. We processed three biotracer types (stable isotopes, fatty acids, and amino acids) from the same samples to determine how common galaxias (Galaxias maculatus) and flathead gudgeon (Philypnodon grandiceps) utilize different basal resources (algae, macrophytes, and detritus) using Bayesian mixing models. We then combined subsets of different biotracer types by either combining them directly into one model using generalist priors (all possible two and three biotracer type combinations) or informative priors based on other biotracer types. We compared our mixing model results with independent food webs constructed from gut contents to assess accuracy. We found fatty acids gave the most accurate diet estimates, amino acid models were the least accurate, and stable isotope models did not converge. Model precision tended to increase with the number of individual tracers included (with exceptions). Adding biotracer types that produced similar diet estimates in their respective models tightened the posterior probability distributions of combined models, while adding ones that disagreed expanded those distributions, as expected. However, tracer selection and the combination of tracer sets must be carefully considered, as they can dramatically affect model accuracy. We also demonstrate the utility of a complementary method that combines information from multiple biotracers using informative priors based on other biotracer types. Overall, our work shows that choices made when constructing mixing models can greatly influence resultant diet estimates, and we provide heuristics for making those choices, so they are most appropriate for an individual study's objectives and available data.

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“…Degerman et al [29] found that additions of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) as glucose to an existing algal food web decreased the growth of planktivorous juvenile fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) due to the channelling of energy through inefficient bacterial pathways. Meanwhile, Growns et al [30] found that additions of terrestrial dissolved organic matter (tDOM) as leachate had no positive influence on the growth of carp gudgeons (Hypseleotris spp. ), although they acknowledged that an abundance of algal resources may have overshadowed any potential influence of tDOM on growth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), although they acknowledged that an abundance of algal resources may have overshadowed any potential influence of tDOM on growth. On this basis, they proposed that future investigations should use a diet where terrestrial resources were abundant and algal resources were excluded [30]. Such a terrestrially dominant diet may be more representative of the food web conditions that can occur in estuaries after larger inflows where terrestrially derived resources and heterotrophic processes dominate the food web and algal resources are limited [28,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrestrial Carbon Additions to Zooplankton Prey Influence Juvenile Estuarine Fish Growth

et al. 2023

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Freshwater inflows are linked to the abundance and catch rates of fish in estuaries. The role of terrestrial carbon resources brought into estuaries after inflows may be important, but this is currently not well understood. Therefore, we performed a study examining the effect of terrestrial dissolved organic matter (tDOM) dietary additions on the growth of food-limited juvenile Australian bass (Macquaria novemculeata). Crustaceous zooplankton Artemia franciscana (Artemia) were reared for two days under control conditions (no addition) or with additions of tDOM leachate at dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations of 5 mg/L or 10 mg/L. Artemia were fed to juvenile bass in their treatment tanks over 42 days at feeding rates reduced by 65–75% of ad libitum. Juvenile fish from the 5 mg/L treatment exhibited no statistical difference in weight or standard, fork and total lengths compared to the control treatment. In contrast, the fish in the 10 mg/L tDOM treatment had significant increases (p < 0.05) in all length parameters after 42 days compared to the other treatments. The greater lengths of fish where tDOM is available indicate that tDOM can contribute to improved growth and development in juvenile Australian bass. While stable isotope analysis of fish tissue showed only minor changes toward terrestrial carbon signatures, increased terrestrial resource availability in the juvenile fish diets may have subsidised energetic needs, facilitating the greater utilisation of endogenous resources. Overall, the results indicate that freshwater inflows that deliver terrestrial resources may be important for the growth and development of estuarine fish.

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The use of fatty acids to identify food sources of secondary consumers in wetland mesocosms

Cited by 6 publications

References 75 publications

Dietary fatty acid profiles shape crayfish biosynthesis and performance: Implications for riverine food webs

Dietary fatty acid profiles shape crayfish biosynthesis and performance: Implications for riverine food webs

Using biotracer techniques to uncover consumer diets: A comparison of stable isotopes, fatty acids, and amino acids

Terrestrial Carbon Additions to Zooplankton Prey Influence Juvenile Estuarine Fish Growth

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