Stable-isotope analysis (SIA) can act as a powerful ecological tracer with which to examine diet, trophic position and movement, as well as more complex questions pertaining to community dynamics and feeding strategies or behaviour among aquatic organisms. With major advances in the understanding of the methodological approaches and assumptions of SIA through dedicated experimental work in the ...

Correct positioning of stem cells within their niche is essential for tissue morphogenesis and homeostasis. How stem cells acquire and maintain niche position remains largely unknown. Here, we show that a subset of brain neuroblasts (NBs) in Drosophila utilize Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) and DE-cadherin to build adhesive contact for NB niche positioning. NBs remain within their nativ...

Stable isotope analysis has emerged as one of the primary means for examining the structure and dynamics of food webs, and numerous analytical approaches are now commonly used in the field. Techniques range from simple, qualitative inferences based on the isotopic niche, to Bayesian mixing models that can be used to characterize food-web structure at multiple hierarchical levels. We provide a c...

Mercury is a pervasive environmental contaminant, the anthropogenic portion of which is increasing globally, and in northeastern North America in particular. Seabirds frequently are used as indicators of the marine environment, including mercury contamination. We analysed paired samples for total mercury (Hg) concentrations in feathers and blood from adult and chick, albumen, and lipid-free yol...

Seabirds are often advocated as biomonitors for marine contaminants such as mercury (Hg). However, contaminant levels can vary widely depending on among-individual and amongspecies variation in foraging preferences and physiology, and on tissue types used for analyses. Using stable isotope analysis (SIA), we investigated the effects of trophic position, season, and tissue type on Hg burdens in ...

Understanding the long-term behavior of radionuclides in organisms is important for estimating possible associated risks to human beings and ecosystems. As radioactive cesium (¹³⁷Cs) can be accumulated in organisms and has a long physical half-life, it is very important to understand its long-term decay in organisms; however, the underlying mechanisms determining the decay process are little kn...

Using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values, we analyzed the trophic position (TP) isotopic niche width of lanternfishes from three different areas in Southern Pacific Ocean. Fishes Perú had slightly higher δ13C values compared with fish Chilean areas. In contrast, δ15N increased latitude (North to South). Myctophids TP differed between study (highest Central Chile, lowest Peru). Peruvian f...

The trophic position and the predator–prey relationship between the sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus and the jumbo squid Dosidicus gigas were examined by measuring stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen. Skin samples of sperm whales and muscle samples of small and large jumbo squid were collected between 1996 and 1999 in the Gulf of California. Gender determination through molecular ana...

Inherent difficulties of tracking and observing organisms in the field often leave researchers with no choice but to conduct behavioral experiments under laboratory settings. However, results of laboratory experiments do not always translate accurately to natural conditions. A fundamental challenge in ecology is therefore to scale up from small area and short-duration laboratory experiments to ...

Fourteen trace elements (Ag, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, V, and Zn) were analyzed in livers and muscles from 22 fish species from the New Caledonia lagoon, which is subjected to important chemical inputs due to intense land-based mining activities (New Caledonia is the third largest world producer of Ni). The results of this baseline research indicated that livers generally conc...