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Turnover rates of nitrogen stable isotopes in the salt marsh mummichog, Fundulus heteroclitus, following a laboratory diet switch

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Abstract

Nitrogen stable isotopes are frequently used in ecological studies to estimate trophic position and determine movement patterns. Knowledge of tissue-specific turnover and nitrogen discrimination for the study organisms is important for accurate interpretation of isotopic data. We measured δ15 N turnover in liver and muscle tissue in juvenile mummichogs, Fundulus heteroclitus, following a laboratory diet switch. Liver tissue turned over significantly faster than muscle tissue suggesting the potential for a multiple tissue stable isotope approach to study movement and trophic position over different time scales; metabolism contributed significantly to isotopic turnover for both liver and muscle. Nitrogen diet-tissue discrimination was estimated at between 0.0 and 1.2‰ for liver and –1.0 and 0.2‰ for muscle. This is the first experiment to demonstrate a significant variation in δ15 N turnover between liver and muscle tissues in a fish species.

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Acknowledgments

We thank B. Fry, S. Herzka, and S. Litvin for their comments on the initial design of this experiment. S. Bean provided additional editing of drafts of this manuscript. We thank C. Martínez del Rio and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on drafts of this manuscript. C. Lawrence assisted in mummichog husbandry. E. Enos and J. Hanley coordinated our use of flowing seawater tables in the Whitman laboratory. R. Smolowitz supervised our animal care in the laboratory and A. Kuzirian reviewed our IACUC proposal. M. Otter performed all stable isotope analyses. C. Neefus provided consultation on statistical analyses. This study was funded by NSF LTER grant OCE-9726921. This experiment complies with current U.S. law, and organisms used in the experiment were handled according to IACUC protocol.

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  1. John Logan

    Present address: Zoology Department, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA

    John Logan, Heather Haas, Linda Deegan & Emily Gaines

  2. National Marine Fisheries Service, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA

    Heather Haas

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  1. John Logan
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  2. Heather Haas
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  3. Linda Deegan
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Correspondence to John Logan.

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Communicated by Carlos Martinez del Rio

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Logan, J., Haas, H., Deegan, L. et al. Turnover rates of nitrogen stable isotopes in the salt marsh mummichog, Fundulus heteroclitus, following a laboratory diet switch. Oecologia 147, 391–395 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-005-0277-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-005-0277-z

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