Abstract
Isotopic techniques have been used to study phenomena in the geological, environmental, and ecological sciences. For example, isotopic values of multiple elements elucidate the pathways energy and nutrients take in the environment. Isoscapes interpolate isotopic values across a geographical surface and are used to study environmental processes in space and time. Thus, isoscapes can reveal ecological shifts at local scales, and show distribution thresholds in the wider environment at the macro-scale. This study demonstrates a further application of isoscapes, using soil isoscapes of 13C/12C and 15N/14N as an environmental baseline, to understand variation in trophic ecology across a population of Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) at a regional scale. The use of soil isoscapes reduced error, and elevated the statistical signal, where aggregated badger hairs were used, and where individuals were identified using genetic microarray analysis. Stable isotope values were affected by land-use type, elevation, and meteorology. Badgers in lowland habitats had diets richer in protein and were adversely affected by poor weather conditions in all land classes. It is concluded that soil isoscapes are an effective way of reducing confounding biases in macroscale, isotopic studies. The method elucidated variation in the trophic and spatial ecology of economically important taxa at a landscape level. These results have implications for the management of badgers and other carnivores with omnivorous tendencies in heterogeneous landscapes.
Highlights
Isotopic techniques have been used to study phenomena in the geological, environmental, and ecological sciences
Isoscapes can shift over long time periods: δ13C, for example, decreases and increases as soil organic carbon is depleted or replenished, but this only occurs with respect to changes in land use over decades, for example δ13C can increase by 0.008–0.024‰ per year18. δ15N values of soils typically decrease with elevation and rise in mean temperature/precipitation but remain stable if climate and land use remain consistent19,20. δ15N ratios in soil are affected by the nitrogen cycle, plant ecology, soil microbiota, type, and drainage, mineral nitrogen is more readily retained in the soils of colder, wetter regions as less is lost through fractionation p athways[19,20]
This study examines the use of soil isoscapes as an environmental baseline for isotopic transference in an intraspecific comparison of European badgers (Meles meles) on a macro-scale across Northern Ireland (Fig. 1)
Summary
Isotopic techniques have been used to study phenomena in the geological, environmental, and ecological sciences. Isoscapes interpolate isotopic values across a geographical surface and are used to study environmental processes in space and time. This study demonstrates a further application of isoscapes, using soil isoscapes of 13C/12C and 15N/14N as an environmental baseline, to understand variation in trophic ecology across a population of Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) at a regional scale. Stable isotope values were affected by land-use type, elevation, and meteorology. The method elucidated variation in the trophic and spatial ecology of economically important taxa at a landscape level These results have implications for the management of badgers and other carnivores with omnivorous tendencies in heterogeneous landscapes. Discrimination patterns and turnover rates in individual tissues/organisms vary temporally, and must be accounted for, to avoid misinterpreting noise from the e nvironment[8,9] This is difficult outside laboratory conditions, where environmental factors cannot be controlled. Isoscapes in temperate regions could be a tool in ecological studies for an array of organisms, especially those with a fossorial ecology
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