Technological advances in stable isotope analysis provide ever more insights into animal ecology

In Focus: Whiteman J. P., Newsome S. D., Bustamante P., Cherel Y., Hobson K. A. (2021). Quantifying capital versus income breeding: New promise with stable isotope measurements of individual amino acids. Journal of Animal Ecology, 90, 1408-1418. The use of bulk stable isotope analysis (SIA) has become a staple in the field of ecology since the 1980s. This approach has proven its utility, but comes with limitations rooted in assumptions and confounding factors. Compound-specific SIA (CS-SIA) has the potential to address questions out of reach of bulk SIA by providing information on physiological pathways as well as dietary sources of consumer isotopes. Whiteman et al. (2021) provide an excellent example of the power of CS-SIA using amino acid stable isotopes to quantify the extent of capital versus income breeding involved in emperor penguin egg production. By doing so, they reframe an important life-history trait as a spectrum, rather than a dichotomy. This showcases the use of CS-SIA as a tool for investigating the resource allocation strategies employed by this species, and the potential for this technique to untangle the life-history strategies of a broad range of species.