Stable Isotope Analysis

Stable isotopes analysis is a tool which takes the “you are what you eat” concept quite literally. This tool can estimate the make-up of a consumers diet comparing the stable isotope signature in the tissue of a consumer and its food sources. The more similar the stable isotope signature is to that of a food source the more likely it is eating more of that food.

I am interested in developing this approach, in particular focusing on improving the estimation of required parameters such as discrimination factors.

Discrimination factors are the change in the ratio of stable isotopes due to processes such as digestion. Estimating these changes can be difficult to measure and are species specific meaning taxa level estimates are often the only available estimate. We have previously developed SIDER, a Bayesian inference approach that estimates species specific discrimination factors.

I am also interested in understanding how different physiological processes change these discrimination factors and also in using stable isotopes to infer different foraging strategies such as scavenging.