Comparisons and Uncertainty in Fat and Adipose Tissue Estimation Techniques: The Northern Elephant Seal as a Case Study.

ABSTRACT: Fat mass and body condition are important metrics in bioenergetics and physiological studies. They can also link foraging success with demographic rates, making them key components of models that predict population-level outcomes of environmental change. Therefore, it is important to incorporate uncertainty in physiological indicators if results will lead to species management decisions. Maternal fat mass in elephant seals (Mirounga spp) can predict reproductive rate and pup survival, but no one has quantified or identified the sources of uncertainty for the two fat mass estimation techniques (labeled-water and truncated cones). The current cones method can provide estimates of proportion adipose tissue in adult females and proportion fat of juveniles in northern elephant seals (M. angusti

SUBMITTER: Schwarz LK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4486730 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature