Acid washing effect on elemental and isotopic composition of whole beach arthropods: implications for food web studies using stables isotopes
Inorganic carbon removal through acidification is a common practice prior to isotopic analysis of macroinvertebrate samples. We have experimentally tested the effect of acidification on the elemental and isotopic composition of a range of beach arthropod species. Acidification resulted in a signific...
| Autores: | , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2008 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/7712 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/7712 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Acidification Carbon Nitrogen Carbonates Isotopic ratios Macroinvertebrates |
| Resumo: | Inorganic carbon removal through acidification is a common practice prior to isotopic analysis of macroinvertebrate samples. We have experimentally tested the effect of acidification on the elemental and isotopic composition of a range of beach arthropod species. Acidification resulted in a significant depletion of 7.7 % and 1.2 % in average for carbon and nitrogen, respectively. This highlights that acid washing affects other body compounds apart from carbonates. With a few exceptions, 13C and 15N showed no changes following the 1N HCl attack. Our results strongly suggest that samples with a presumable high CaCO3 content, result impoverished in 13C as a consequence of acidification, while those suspected to be carbonate-free are not significantly affected. Regarding 15N values, it seemed that only high carbonate species may be 15N impoverished when treated with HCl. It is recommended to acidify only carbonate-rich samples prior 13C analyses as a standard protocol. |
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