Can the carbon and nitrogen isotope values of offspring be used as a proxy for their mother's diet? Using foetal physiology to interpret bulk tissue and amino acid ?15N values.

ABSTRACT: The measurement of bulk tissue nitrogen (?15N) and carbon isotope values (?13C) chronologically along biologically inert tissues sampled from offspring can provide a longitudinal record of their mothers' foraging habits. This study tested the important assumption that mother-offspring stable isotope values are positively and linearly correlated. In addition, any change in the mother-offspring bulk tissues and individual amino acids that occurred during gestation was investigated. Whiskers sampled from southern elephant seal pups (Mirounga leonina) and temporally overlapping whiskers from their mothers were analyzed. This included n?=?1895 chronologically subsampled whisker segments for bulk tissue ?15N and ?13C in total and n?=?20 whisker segments for amino acid ?15N values, sampled from recently weaned pups (n?=?17), juvenile southern elephant seals (SES)?

SUBMITTER: Lubcker N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7397484 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature