QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online January 19, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 541-548 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02016

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Mirón M., L. L. Articles by Hobson, K. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Mirón M., L. L. Articles by Hobson, K. A. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Effect of diet quality on carbon and nitrogen turnover and isotopic discrimination in blood of a New World nectarivorous bat

L. Leticia Mirón M.¹, L. Gerardo Herrera M.^1,*, Nicte Ramírez P.¹ and Keith A. Hobson²

¹ Departamento de Zoología, Instituto de Biología, UNAM, Apartado Postal 70-153, 04510, México, DF, México
² University of Saskatchewan, Department of Biology, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 0W0, Canada

^* Author for correspondence at present address: Estación de Biología Chamela, Instituto de Biología, UNAM, Apartado Postal 21, San Patricio, Jalisco, 48980, México (e-mail: gherrera{at}ibiologia.unam.mx)

Accepted 29 November 2005

Diet composition of carbon and nitrogen (C:N) could affect diet-tissue isotopic discrimination and elemental turnover rate in consumers but studies that test the nature of these changes are scarce. We compared carbon and nitrogen isotopic discrimination and turnover rates in individuals of Pallas' long-tongued bats Glossophaga soricina fed diets with protein soya isolate or amaranth grains as their main source of protein. Diets were of similar protein biological value but the soya diet had higher nitrogen content (2.2%N) and lower C:N ratio (39.6) than the amaranth diet (1.3%N, C:N=40.5). Most bats on the soya diet gained body mass whereas most bats on the amaranth diet lost body mass. Half-lives of carbon (24.3±3.8 days) and nitrogen (25.6±4.4 days) in bats switched to the soya diet were very similar. In contrast, in the bats switched to the amaranth diet, carbon half-life (39.7±3.4 days) was longer than that of nitrogen (25.0±6.0 days). The enrichment in ¹⁵N between diet and blood was higher when bats were fed the amaranth diet (4.4±0.2) than when they were fed the soya diet (3.3±0.2). Similarly, bats on the amaranth diet had higher ¹³C enrichment (2.0±0.2) than bats on the soya diet (0.1±0.1). Our results support recent hypotheses of the effect of nutrition on diet-tissue isotopic discrimination and turnover rate, and further shows that blood stable isotope analysis is an adequate approach to track seasonal dietary shifts in wild bats.

Key words: blood, carbon-13, fractionation, nectarivorous bat, Glossophaga soricina, nitrogen-15, stable isotope

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. Tsahar, N. Wolf, I. Izhaki, Z. Arad, and C. M. del Rio Dietary protein influences the rate of 15N incorporation in blood cells and plasma of Yellow-vented bulbuls (Pycnonotus xanthopygos) J. Exp. Biol., February 1, 2008; 211(3): 459 - 465. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]