| Autor: |
Cutting KA; Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Lima, MT, USA.; Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA., Rotella JJ; Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA., Grusing E; Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Lima, MT, USA., Waxe JA; The Centennial Sandhills Preserve, The Nature Conservancy, Lima, MT, USA., Nunlist E; Department of Animal and Range Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA., Sowell BF; Department of Animal and Range Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA. |
| Abstrakt: |
Stable isotope techniques can be used to assess nutrient acquisition and allocation strategies used to produce offspring. Before stable isotope techniques can be employed, researchers need reliable isotope discrimination values. In this context, isotope discrimination compares the difference in the isotope ratio between the maternal-offspring tissue that occurs during nutrient transfer prior to egg laying. Currently, isotope discrimination values are unknown between the maternal blood constituents - that reflect different temporal scales of integration - and downy feathers of their offspring. In this study, we experimentally derive isotope discrimination relationships between maternal diet-blood constituents for egg laying, and between maternal blood constituents-down feathers of offspring in an experiment with 3 types of domesticated gallinaceous birds raised on known diets. Our experiment is the first to report isotope discrimination values for maternal blood constituents-down of offspring in avian taxa and provides a new sampling technique that is less invasive than previously available as collecting down does not require sampling viable eggs or individuals. Future researchers can use these results to assist in identifying nutrient sources used by adult birds to produce young. |
