Unlocking the power of fatty acids as dietary tracers and metabolic signals in fishes and aquatic invertebrates.

ABSTRACT: Determining the transfer and transformation of organic matter in food webs is a fundamental challenge that has implications for sustainable management of ecosystems. Fatty acids (FA) offer a potential approach for resolving complex diet mixtures of organisms because they provide a suite of molecular tracers. Yet, uncertainties in the degree of their biochemical modification by consumers, due to selective retention or metabolism, have limited their application. Here, we consolidated 316 controlled feeding studies of aquatic ectotherms (fishes and invertebrates) involving 1404 species-diet combinations to assess the degree of trophic modification of FA in muscle tissue. We found a high degree of variability within and among taxa in the %FA in consumer muscle tissue versus %FA in diet regress

SUBMITTER: Jardine TD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7333958 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature