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A critical evaluation of intrapopulation variation of δ13C and isotopic evidence of individual specialization

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Abstract

Individual variation in the diet of consumers is common in many ecological systems and has important implications for the study of population dynamics, animal behavior, and evolutionary or ecological interactions. Ecologists frequently quantify the niche of a population by intensive analyses of gut contents and feeding behaviors of consumers. Inter-individual differences in δ13C signature can indicate long term differences in feeding behavior, often unattainable by a single snapshot analysis of gut contents. If a consumer’s food sources have unique δ13C signatures, then the intrapopulation variation in δ13C may be useful for quantifying diet variation and detecting isotopic evidence of individual specialization. However, intrapopulation variation in δ13C can underestimate or overestimate dietary variation, and therefore is not directly equivalent to a dietary based niche. In this paper we show that intrapopulation variability of δ13C in consumers critically depends on the isotopic range and distribution of food sources. Our analyses fundamentally challenge how we interpret the intrapopulation isotopic variance of δ13C, and how we evaluate isotopic evidence of individual specialization.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Anholt for useful suggestions on model development in an early version of this manuscript, and Maarten Voordouw for stimulating discussions about modeling random diets. P. Ramsay and J.M. Davies provided editorial corrections and insightful comments that improved the quality of this manuscript. Two anonymous reviewers provided substantial help in the development of the NULLM model, helped guide our thinking about an appropriate null model, and provided extremely helpful comments that significantly improved the quality of this manuscript. We also thank the Dr. D. Post (handling editor) for providing valuable comments and guidance throughout the review process. This research has been supported by, NSERC-PGS A and NSERC-CGS, and UVIC’s President’s scholarships to B.M., and the NSERC Industrial Research Chair Grant and industrial support (CRD Water Department, Greater Vancouver Water Department, Galloway Lumber and Tembec) to A.M.

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  1. Water and Watershed Research Program, Department of Biology, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3020 STN CSC, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V85 3N5

    Blake Matthews & Asit Mazumder

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  1. Blake Matthews
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  2. Asit Mazumder
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Correspondence to Blake Matthews.

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Matthews, B., Mazumder, A. A critical evaluation of intrapopulation variation of δ13C and isotopic evidence of individual specialization. Oecologia 140, 361–371 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-004-1579-2

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