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Stable isotopes and a changing world

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Abstract

The measurement of naturally occurring stable isotope ratios of the light elements (C, N, H, O, S) in animal tissues and associated organic and inorganic fractions of associated environments holds immense potential as a means of addressing effects of global change on animals. This paper provides a brief review of studies that have used the isotope approach to evaluate changes in diet, isotopic niche, contaminant burden, reproductive and nutritional investment, invasive species and shifts in migration origin or destination with clear links to evaluating effects of global change. This field has now reached a level of maturity that is impressive but generally underappreciated and involves technical as well as statistical advances and access to freely available R-based packages. There is a need for animal ecologists and conservationists to design tissue collection networks that will best answer current and anticipated questions related to the global change and the biodiversity crisis. These developments will move the field of stable isotope ecology toward a more hypothesis driven discipline related to rapidly changing global events.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Indrikis Krams for the invitation to write this paper. Seth Newsome and an anonymous reviewer provided extremely helpful comments on an earlier draft.

Funding

The work was supported by Environment and Climate Change Canada and University of Western Ontario.

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  1. Wildlife Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 0X4, Canada

    Keith A. Hobson

  2. Department of Biology, Western University, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Keith A. Hobson

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KAH conceived, designed, and executed this study and wrote the manuscript. No other person is entitled to authorship.

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Communicated by Christian Voigt.

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Hobson, K.A. Stable isotopes and a changing world. Oecologia 203, 233–250 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05387-w

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