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- Title
USE OF ISOTOPIC ANALYSIS OF VERTEBRAE IN RECONSTRUCTING ONTOGENETIC FEEDING ECOLOGY IN WHITE SHARKS.
- Authors
Estrada, James A.; Rice, Aaron N.; Natanson, Lisa J.; Skomal, Gregory B.
- Abstract
We conducted stable 13C and 15N analysis on white shark vertebrae and demonstrated that incremental analysis of isotopes along the radius of a vertebral centrum produces a chronological record of dietary information, allowing for reconstruction of an individual's trophic history. Isotopic data showed significant enrichments in 15N with increasing sampling distance from the centrum center, indicating a correlation between body size and trophic level. Additionally, isotopic values verified two distinct ontogenetic trophic shifts in the white shark: one following parturition, marking a dietary switch from yolk to fish; and one at a total length of >341 cm, representing a known diet shift from fish to marine mammals. Retrospective trophic-level reconstruction using vertebral tissue will have broad applications in future studies on the ecology of threatened, endangered, or extinct species to determine life-long feeding patterns, which would be impossible through other methods.
- Subjects
WHITE shark; FISH feeds; MARINE animals; FISH ecology; ELASMOBRANCH fisheries; MARINE mammals; ONTOGENY; STABLE isotopes; MARINE ecology
- Publication
Ecology, 2006, Vol 87, Issue 4, p829
- ISSN
0012-9658
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1890/0012-9658(2006)87[829:UOIAOV]2.0.CO;2