| Title |
Meta-analysis of amino acid stable nitrogen isotope ratios for estimating trophic position in marine organisms
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Oecologia, April 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s00442-015-3305-7 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Jens M. Nielsen, Brian N. Popp, Monika Winder |
| Abstract |
Estimating trophic structures is a common approach used to retrieve information regarding energy pathways, predation, and competition in complex ecosystems. The application of amino acid (AA) compound-specific nitrogen (N) isotope analysis (CSIA) is a relatively new method used to estimate trophic position (TP) and feeding relationships in diverse organisms. Here, we conducted the first meta-analysis of δ(15)N AA values from measurements of 359 marine species covering four trophic levels, and compared TP estimates from AA-CSIA to literature values derived from food items, gut or stomach content analysis. We tested whether the AA trophic enrichment factor (TEF), or the (15)N enrichment among different individual AAs is constant across trophic levels and whether inclusion of δ(15)N values from multiple AAs improves TP estimation. For the TEF of glutamic acid relative to phenylalanine (Phe) we found an average value of 6.6 ‰ across all taxa, which is significantly lower than the commonly applied 7.6 ‰. We found that organism feeding ecology influences TEF values of several trophic AAs relative to Phe, with significantly higher TEF values for herbivores compared to omnivores and carnivores, while TEF values were also significantly lower for animals excreting urea compared to ammonium. Based on the comparison of multiple model structures using the metadata of δ(15)N AA values we show that increasing the number of AAs in principle improves precision in TP estimation. This meta-analysis clarifies the advantages and limitations of using individual δ(15)N AA values as tools in trophic ecology and provides a guideline for the future application of AA-CSIA to food web studies. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 6 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Chile | 2 | 33% |
| Netherlands | 1 | 17% |
| Unknown | 3 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Scientists | 3 | 50% |
| Members of the public | 2 | 33% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 17% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 256 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 2 | <1% |
| Portugal | 1 | <1% |
| Australia | 1 | <1% |
| Canada | 1 | <1% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
| Belgium | 1 | <1% |
| Argentina | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 248 | 97% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 76 | 30% |
| Researcher | 46 | 18% |
| Student > Master | 40 | 16% |
| Student > Bachelor | 21 | 8% |
| Professor > Associate Professor | 11 | 4% |
| Other | 26 | 10% |
| Unknown | 36 | 14% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 108 | 42% |
| Environmental Science | 54 | 21% |
| Earth and Planetary Sciences | 19 | 7% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 8 | 3% |
| Chemistry | 6 | 2% |
| Other | 13 | 5% |
| Unknown | 48 | 19% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 May 2015.
All research outputs
#7,893,552
of 25,388,177 outputs
Outputs from Oecologia
#1,608
of 4,474 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#88,312
of 279,773 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Oecologia
#21
of 61 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,388,177 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 68th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,474 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 61 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 67% of its contemporaries.