Where you are and what you eat: stable isotope analysis for marine conservation

Understanding how animals move through and use their environment underpins much of the information marine managers need to best manage marine ecosystems. Having well-connected habitats and high biodiversity is known to allow... [ view full abstract ]

Understanding how animals move through and use their environment underpins much of the information marine managers need to best manage marine ecosystems. Having well-connected habitats and high biodiversity is known to allow marine habitats to have increased flexibility in their ability to adapt to climate change and other human stressors. Stable isotope analysis is a useful tool for better understanding how different marine organisms interact to produce productive, healthy ecosystems. While conventional bulk stable isotope analysis has yielded key information about animal movement and food web structure, new advances in compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) are opening doors to vastly improve our understanding of how marine ecosystems function. Using CSIA of δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values from essential/non-essential and source/trophic amino acids, researchers are gaining an unprecedented view into how marine organisms historically and currently use their environments. Recent studies have documented shifts in the foraging ecology of seabirds to diets dominated by lower trophic level squid, quantified the contributions of different habitats and food sources to economically important fishes’ juvenile populations, and developed new understanding of the different roles herbivorous fishes play on coral reefs, among other key findings. This talk aims to expound on key results from recent CSIA research efforts, with a goal of highlighting their relevance for marine managers. When incorporated with current management plans, CSIA has great potential to positively influence ecosystem-based management initiatives.