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Do stable isotopes reflect nutritional stress? Results from a laboratory experiment on song sparrows

  • Ecophysiology
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Abstract

Stable isotope analysis is an increasingly valuable tool in ecological studies and shows promise as a measure of nutritional stress in wild animals. Thus far, however, the only studies on endotherms that have conclusively shown changes in δ15N and δ13C values in response to nutritional stress were conducted on fasting animals and animals growing under extreme levels of food restriction. We conducted a laboratory experiment to test whether δ15N and δ13C values provide a general index of nutritional stress. We compared the isotopic composition of whole blood, liver, muscle and feathers between two groups of juvenile song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) hand-reared in captivity under identical conditions except for feeding regime. To verify that our experimental treatment induced a biologically meaningful level of nutritional stress, we simultaneously measured the effects on physiology, growth and development at multiple scales. While food-restricted birds were physiologically stressed, physically smaller, and showed poorer growth and brain development compared to ad libitum-fed birds, there was no effect of feeding regime on either δ15N or δ13C values in any tissue. Instead of a continuum where the level of change in 15N or 13C contents corresponds to the level of nutritional stress, we suggest there may be a threshold level of nutritional stress below which such isotopic changes are likely to be negligible.

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Acknowledgements

We thank: Jack Millar and Bob Bailey for guidance; Kim Law, Li Huang, and Greg Rusciolelli for assistance with the stable isotope analyses; Anne Duncan Rastogi, Alexandra Hernandez, Justin Power, Sylvie Galindo, and Tyler Stevenson with help in the hand-rearing of sparrows; and Lynn Erckman for assistance with the radioimmunoassay. Craig Osenberg, Mark Chappell, and two anonymous reviewers helped improve the manuscript. All procedures were conducted in accordance with the Canadian Council on Animal Care guidelines and were approved by the University of Western Ontario Council on Animal Care. Funding was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, a Premier’s Research Excellence Award, the U.S. National Science Foundation, The American Ornithologist’s Union, the Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund, and the Research Network on Avian Reproduction and Environmental Change (E-bird Canada). All experiments complied with the laws of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Bethany Kempster & Liana Zanette

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Fred J. Longstaffe

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5C2, Canada

    Scott A. MacDougall-Shackleton

  4. Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195-1800, USA

    John C. Wingfield

  5. Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8W 3N5, Canada

    Michael Clinchy

Authors
  1. Bethany Kempster
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  2. Liana Zanette
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  3. Fred J. Longstaffe
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  4. Scott A. MacDougall-Shackleton
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  5. John C. Wingfield
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  6. Michael Clinchy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liana Zanette.

Additional information

Communicated by Mark Chappell.

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Kempster, B., Zanette, L., Longstaffe, F.J. et al. Do stable isotopes reflect nutritional stress? Results from a laboratory experiment on song sparrows. Oecologia 151, 365–371 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0597-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0597-7

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