Abstract
Stable isotope mixing models are used to estimate proportional contributions of sources to a mixture, such as in the analysis of animal diets, plant nutrient use, geochemistry, pollution, and forensics. We describe an algorithm implemented as SISUS software for providing a user-specified number of probabilistic exact solutions derived quickly from the extended mixing model. Our method outperforms IsoSource [1], a deterministic algorithm for providing approximate solutions to represent the solution polytope. Our method is an approximate Bayesian large sample procedure. SISUS software is freely available at StatAcumen.com/sisus and as an R package at cran.r-project.org/web/packages/sisus.
Highlights
The goal of stable isotope mixing models or “sourcing” is to estimate the proportional contributions of sources to a mixture
Because animal ecology offers a rich complexity as a result of the preferential assimilation of elements from given sources into different tissues, we focus our attention here
We introduce an algorithm and software, SISUS, for providing feasible source proportions of biomass consumed by a mixture using mass-balance mixing models
Summary
The goal of stable isotope mixing models or “sourcing” is to estimate the proportional contributions of sources to a mixture. Stable isotope analyses of a consumer tissues (the mixture) and their potential prey and diet items (the sources) are a powerful and well-studied means of quantifying relative contributions of isotopically distinct dietary components providing many benefits in comparison with traditional methods for quantifying diet, such as. We introduce an algorithm and software, SISUS, for providing feasible source proportions of biomass consumed by a mixture using mass-balance mixing models.
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