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Tracing the origins, migrations, and other movements of fishes using stable isotopes
Citation:
Hoffman, J. Tracing the origins, migrations, and other movements of fishes using stable isotopes. Chapter 10, An Introduction to Fish Migration. CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, Boca Raton, FL, , 169-196, (2016).
Impact/Purpose:
This book chapter describes the state of the science for using stable isotope analysis of soft tissues for tracking the origin and migration patterns in fish. Studies of origin, migration, and movement are undertaken to better understand the ecology of a fish, to provide habitat use information for conservation, to assess potential ecotoxicological threats, and to support environmental assessments. This chapter provides the necessary information to design a stable isotope study and includes methods and examples for freshwater, estuarine, and marine fishes. The chapter is intended for graduate students and scientists who wish to learn more about the approach or who wish to design a migration study using stable isotope analysis.
Description:
Although stable isotope studies are increasingly used to trace fish origin, migration, and movement, the approach has not been as widely adopted as extrinsic marking and tagging. This is, at least in part, because many fishery scientists do not have a background in biogeochemistry or access to the analytical instrumentation required for stable isotope analysis. In the past decade, stable isotope analysis has become more accessible to fishery scientists and ecologists as the number of commercial laboratories performing this analytical service has increased, analytical throughput has improved, and analytical costs have declined. The purpose of this chapter is to provide some basic terminology in stable isotope science, describe sample analysis and preparation, discuss environmental distributions in those stable isotopes that can be utilized tostudy fish migration and movement, and provide a set of case studies that demonstrate how stable isotope analysis can be used to study fish migration and movement.