Using Stable Hydrogen Isotope Analysis of Feathers to Delineate Origins of Harvested Sandhill Cranes in the Central Flyway of North America

Hobson, Keith A.; Wilgenburg, Steven L. Van; Wassenaar, Leonard I.; Hands, Helen M.; Johnson, William P.; O'Meilia, Mike; Taylor, Philip B.

doi:10.1675/1524-4695(2006)29[137:ushiao]2.0.co;2

Cited by 38 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The second previous limitation of mapping approaches was that the process did not adequately propagate error despite attempts to use tolerance limits at the population level for more conservative interpretations (e.g. Hobson et al 2006). Modern approaches use likelihood-based statistics or Bayesian methods combined with GIS to deal with these issues, and a valuable treatment of this topic is given by Wunder and Norris (2008) and Wunder (2010).…”

Section: Tracing Origins Of Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rubenstein et al (2002) concluded that northern breeding populations of Black-throated Blue Warblers (Dendroica caerulescens) wintered in the western Greater Antilles, while those in the southern portion of their range wintered in the eastern Greater Antilles. Hobson et al (2006) depicted the origins of hunter-killed Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) based on feather dD, which included large longitudinal portions of the species' range. Others have used isotopic assignments into large spatial ''bins'' using categorical criteria, Bayesian or likelihood assignment techniques (Royle and Rubenstein 2004;Bearhop et al 2005;Norris et al 2006).…”

Section: Closing Thoughtsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Isotopic ornithology: a perspective

2011

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The use of measurements of naturally occurring stable isotopes of the light elements C, N, H, O, S in avian tissues and their associated foodwebs has grown tremendously during the last 30 years. Three primary applications of this approach have been (1) the delineation of diets or trophic relationships and sources of nutrients to individuals or populations, (2) the assessment of the relative contributions of endogenously and exogenously derived nutrients to reproduction in birds that travel to breed, and, more recently, (3) the assignment to origin of migratory individuals. This paper will briefly summarize the roots of these theme areas and highlight the benefits of an isotope perspective. However, the primary focus of this paper is on key assumptions, misunderstandings, information gaps and the path ahead. Specific recommendations for future research are outlined for all of these theme areas. Finally, a plea is made for more constructive criticism in the field of isotopic applications to animal ecological studies, especially those involving birds.

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Section: Tracing Origins Of Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Closing Thoughtsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isotopic ornithology: a perspective

2011

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“…For example, in North America the strong latitudinal gradient in δD p across much of the USA and Canada is directly reflected in feathers (δD f ) grown by birds prior to migration. This hydrospherebiosphere isotopic linkage provides a powerful means of inferring origins of individuals captured elsewhere (Kelly et al 2002;Rubenstein et al 2002;Hobson et al 2006Hobson et al , 2007.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A feather hydrogen isoscape for Mexico

Hobson

Wilgenburg

Larson

et al. 2009

Journal of Geochemical Exploration

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Developing useful biological isoscapes for areas of the world is a priority. This is the case for Mexico that hosts a large percentage of North America's Neotropical migrant birds. Here we investigated the use of House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) feathers to create a spatially explicit feather deuterium isoscape for that country using samples (n = 461) that were collected across Mexico. Considerable and useful spatial hydrogen isotopic structure was observed, suggesting that isotopes may be a potential forensic tool for evaluating origins of Mexican derived fauna and flora. The most positive feather δD values occurred in the northeast and most negative in the south-central part of the country, roughly matching δD patterns observed in groundwater. A weak negative isotopic relationship was found with altitude in both the Pacific and Atlantic drainage systems. The most parsimonious model describing isotopic spatial variation in feathers between 300 and 3000 m a.s.l. included groundwater δD (δD gw ; precipitation proxy), sex, amount of precipitation, and the coefficient of variation in amount of precipitation. Overall, δD gw was a poor predictor of sparrow δD f values for all of Mexico. However, this relationship was considerably strengthened when we considered sex separately, removed the Baja peninsula from our sample, and considered the Atlantic and Pacific drainage basins separately. The strongest relationship between δD gw and δD f was found for female sparrows in the Atlantic drainage basin (r 2 = 0.464). We recommend that researchers interested in inferring origins of migratory birds and other animals in Mexico create species specific isotopic basemaps that may be guided by the isotopic patterns we have observed for House Sparrows and groundwater.

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“…obs.). Recent studies show a highly significant correlation between δD, δ 13 C, and δ 13 N in feathers and claws (Bearhop et al 2003, Hobson et al 2006, and studies using both tissues have assumed that keratinous tissues grown in the same locale share δD values (Bearhop et al 2005). Thus, comparisons of δD values in various tissues may provide clues about the prior movement of organisms.…”

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confidence: 99%