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Ecological tracers can quantify food web structure and change.

Craig E Hebert1, Michael T Arts, D V Chip Weseloh

  • 1Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service, National Wildlife Research Centre, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H3, Canada. craig.hebert@ec.gc.ca

Environmental Science & Technology
|September 30, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Ecological tracers like stable isotopes and fatty acids reveal how herring gulls’ diets shift with ecosystem changes. These methods help track energy flow and contaminant transfer in disrupted food webs.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Environmental Science
  • Wildlife Biology

Background:

  • Human activities increasingly disrupt natural food webs.
  • Understanding trophodynamic changes is crucial for ecosystem management.
  • Ecological tracers are needed to study energy, nutrient, and contaminant flow.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the utility of stable nitrogen isotopes and fatty acids as ecological tracers.
  • To investigate trophic dynamics in herring gulls (Larus argentatus).
  • To link food web structure to ecosystem change.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of stable nitrogen isotopes in herring gull eggs to infer trophic position.
  • Analysis of fatty acid concentrations in herring gull eggs to infer diet composition.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Correlating isotopic and fatty acid data to understand energy flow.

    • Main Results:

    • Stable nitrogen isotopes and fatty acid profiles provided corroborating evidence of gull diet.
    • Trophic position of herring gulls correlated with the consumption of aquatic foods, particularly fish.
    • The tracers effectively elucidated energy and contaminant transfer pathways.

    Conclusions:

    • Stable isotopes and fatty acids are valuable intrinsic tracers for studying food web dynamics.
    • Herring gull trophic ecology is influenced by the availability of aquatic prey.
    • These tracers enhance understanding of ecosystem change impacts on food webs.