Stable isotopes, beaks and predators: a new tool to study the trophic ecology of cephalopods, including giant and colossal squids.

ABSTRACT: Cephalopods play a key role in the marine environment but knowledge of their feeding habits is limited by lack of data. Here, we have developed a new tool to investigate their feeding ecology by combining the use of their predators as biological samplers together with measurements of the stable isotopic signature of their beaks. Cephalopod beaks are chitinous hard structures that resist digestion and the stable isotope ratios of carbon (delta13C) and nitrogen (delta15N) are indicators of the foraging areas and trophic levels of consumers, respectively. First, a comparison of delta13C and delta15N values of different tissues from the same individuals showed that beaks were slightly enriched in 13C but highly impoverished in 15N compared with lipid-free muscle tissues. Second, beaks from the

SUBMITTER: Cherel Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1559839 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature