Life Sciences Commons^™

Carbon And Nitrogen Stable Isotopes In Fruits And Arthropods That Are Eaten By Songbirds During Migration, Sarah E. Donlan

Senior Honors Projects

The use of stable isotope analysis is becoming more common in all areas of animal ecology. In particular, natural variation in the abundance of stable isotopes makes them useful in studies of foraging ecology. For example, nitrogen stable isotopes can offer insight into trophic relationships and carbon stable isotopes tend to trace the original source of carbon in a system (e.g. - photosynthetic pathway). This natural variation is potentially useful for quantifying resource use because the isotopic composition of an animal’s diet is assimilated somewhat predictably into the animal’s tissues. In fact, the ratio of naturally-occurring isotopes in animal tissues …