Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques

Dietary studies of marine predators offer an immediate signal of foodweb changes occurring at lower trophic levels, and therefore are often used to assess the ecosystem status of marine systems. Conventionally, these studies are based on morphological analysis of prey remains in stomach contents, in...

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Published in:Ecological Indicators
Main Authors: Horswill, C, Jackson, J A, Medeiros, R, Nowell, R W, Trathan, P N, O'Connell, T C
Other Authors: Natural Environment Research Council, British Antarctic Survey, Cardiff University, Imperial College London, University of Cambridge, orcid:0000-0001-7546-6495
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier BV 2018
Subjects:
DNA
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1893/35952
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.06.035
http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/retrieve/538eef3b-33de-462b-8543-cc3ba6a205f4/Horswill%202018%20Ecol%20Indic%20-%20Minimising%20limitations%20of%20dietary%20analysis%20to%20assess%20foodweb%20changes%20by%20combining%20multiple%20techniques.pdf
id ftunivstirling:oai:dspace.stir.ac.uk:1893/35952
record_format openpolar
institution Open Polar
collection University of Stirling: Stirling Digital Research Repository
op_collection_id ftunivstirling
language English
topic DNA
Macaroni penguin
Pyrosequencing
Seabird
Stable isotope analysis
Stomach contents
spellingShingle DNA
Macaroni penguin
Pyrosequencing
Seabird
Stable isotope analysis
Stomach contents
Horswill, C
Jackson, J A
Medeiros, R
Nowell, R W
Trathan, P N
O'Connell, T C
Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques
topic_facet DNA
Macaroni penguin
Pyrosequencing
Seabird
Stable isotope analysis
Stomach contents
description Dietary studies of marine predators offer an immediate signal of foodweb changes occurring at lower trophic levels, and therefore are often used to assess the ecosystem status of marine systems. Conventionally, these studies are based on morphological analysis of prey remains in stomach contents, involving invasive and destructive techniques to collect samples. More recently, the number of dietary studies based on less invasive biochemical and molecular approaches has dramatically increased. However, all three methods, morphological, biochemical and molecular, have well-documented limitations for resolving taxonomy, temporal variation or biomass composition. In this study, we minimise these limitations by considering multiple techniques in combination. As a case study, we report the target prey species and diet composition of a marine predator that has been used to assess annual change in managed fishing areas for several decades, the macaroni penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus. We use biochemical (stable isotope) and molecular (DNA) analysis of faecal samples collected across the different phases of a single breeding season, and compare the resolved diet to a 26-year dataset of stomach contents collected from a closely located colony (0.25 km apart) that exploits identical foraging grounds. Molecular analysis increased the known target prey species for this highly monitored population by 31%, including a fish species of commercial importance. Biochemical analysis detected subtle changes in the proportion of fish and krill in the diet, demonstrating promising opportunities for using a combined molecular and biochemical method to assess inter-annual foodweb changes at lower trophic levels. The combined approach offers a less invasive sampling methodology, compared to morphological analysis, and provides more information regarding prey species diversity and the overall trophic signature of the diet. Further studies are required to examine the feasibility of using this approach for long-term dietary studies of different ...
author2 Natural Environment Research Council
British Antarctic Survey
Cardiff University
Imperial College London
University of Cambridge
orcid:0000-0001-7546-6495
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Horswill, C
Jackson, J A
Medeiros, R
Nowell, R W
Trathan, P N
O'Connell, T C
author_facet Horswill, C
Jackson, J A
Medeiros, R
Nowell, R W
Trathan, P N
O'Connell, T C
author_sort Horswill, C
title Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques
title_short Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques
title_full Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques
title_fullStr Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques
title_full_unstemmed Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques
title_sort minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques
publisher Elsevier BV
publishDate 2018
url http://hdl.handle.net/1893/35952
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.06.035
http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/retrieve/538eef3b-33de-462b-8543-cc3ba6a205f4/Horswill%202018%20Ecol%20Indic%20-%20Minimising%20limitations%20of%20dietary%20analysis%20to%20assess%20foodweb%20changes%20by%20combining%20multiple%20techniques.pdf
genre Eudyptes chrysolophus
Macaroni penguin
genre_facet Eudyptes chrysolophus
Macaroni penguin
op_relation Horswill C, Jackson JA, Medeiros R, Nowell RW, Trathan PN & O'Connell TC (2018) Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques. Ecological Indicators , 94, pp. 218-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.06.035
http://hdl.handle.net/1893/35952
doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.06.035
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op_rights This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article. To request permission for a type of use not listed, please contact Elsevier Global Rights Department.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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container_title Ecological Indicators
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spelling ftunivstirling:oai:dspace.stir.ac.uk:1893/35952 2024-05-19T07:39:53+00:00 Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques Horswill, C Jackson, J A Medeiros, R Nowell, R W Trathan, P N O'Connell, T C Natural Environment Research Council British Antarctic Survey Cardiff University Imperial College London University of Cambridge orcid:0000-0001-7546-6495 2018-11 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1893/35952 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.06.035 http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/retrieve/538eef3b-33de-462b-8543-cc3ba6a205f4/Horswill%202018%20Ecol%20Indic%20-%20Minimising%20limitations%20of%20dietary%20analysis%20to%20assess%20foodweb%20changes%20by%20combining%20multiple%20techniques.pdf en eng Elsevier BV Horswill C, Jackson JA, Medeiros R, Nowell RW, Trathan PN & O'Connell TC (2018) Minimising the limitations of using dietary analysis to assess foodweb changes by combining multiple techniques. Ecological Indicators , 94, pp. 218-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.06.035 http://hdl.handle.net/1893/35952 doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.06.035 WOS:000452692500021 2-s2.0-85049347704 1999926 http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/retrieve/538eef3b-33de-462b-8543-cc3ba6a205f4/Horswill%202018%20Ecol%20Indic%20-%20Minimising%20limitations%20of%20dietary%20analysis%20to%20assess%20foodweb%20changes%20by%20combining%20multiple%20techniques.pdf This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article. To request permission for a type of use not listed, please contact Elsevier Global Rights Department. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ DNA Macaroni penguin Pyrosequencing Seabird Stable isotope analysis Stomach contents Journal Article VoR - Version of Record 2018 ftunivstirling https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.06.035 2024-04-30T23:30:30Z Dietary studies of marine predators offer an immediate signal of foodweb changes occurring at lower trophic levels, and therefore are often used to assess the ecosystem status of marine systems. Conventionally, these studies are based on morphological analysis of prey remains in stomach contents, involving invasive and destructive techniques to collect samples. More recently, the number of dietary studies based on less invasive biochemical and molecular approaches has dramatically increased. However, all three methods, morphological, biochemical and molecular, have well-documented limitations for resolving taxonomy, temporal variation or biomass composition. In this study, we minimise these limitations by considering multiple techniques in combination. As a case study, we report the target prey species and diet composition of a marine predator that has been used to assess annual change in managed fishing areas for several decades, the macaroni penguin Eudyptes chrysolophus. We use biochemical (stable isotope) and molecular (DNA) analysis of faecal samples collected across the different phases of a single breeding season, and compare the resolved diet to a 26-year dataset of stomach contents collected from a closely located colony (0.25 km apart) that exploits identical foraging grounds. Molecular analysis increased the known target prey species for this highly monitored population by 31%, including a fish species of commercial importance. Biochemical analysis detected subtle changes in the proportion of fish and krill in the diet, demonstrating promising opportunities for using a combined molecular and biochemical method to assess inter-annual foodweb changes at lower trophic levels. The combined approach offers a less invasive sampling methodology, compared to morphological analysis, and provides more information regarding prey species diversity and the overall trophic signature of the diet. Further studies are required to examine the feasibility of using this approach for long-term dietary studies of different ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Eudyptes chrysolophus Macaroni penguin University of Stirling: Stirling Digital Research Repository Ecological Indicators 94 218 225