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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Turnover of carbon isotopes in tail hair and breath CO2 of horses fed an isotopically varied diet
Oecologia, Volume 139, No. 1, Year 2004
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Description
Temporal stable isotope records derived from animal tissues are increasingly studied to determine dietary and climatic histories. Despite this, the turnover times governing rates of isotope equilibration in specific tissues following a dietary isotope change are poorly known. The dietary isotope changes recorded in the hair and blood bicarbonate of two adult horses in this study are found to be successfully described by a model having three exponential isotope pools. For horse tail hair, the carbon isotope response observed following a dietary change from a C3 to a C4 grass was consistent with a pool having a very fast turnover rate (t1/2∼0.5 days) that made up ∼41% of the isotope signal, a pool with an intermediate turnover rate (t1/2 ∼4 days) that comprised ∼15% of the isotope signal, and a pool with very slow turnover rate (t1/2 ∼140 days) that made up ∼44% of the total isotope signal. The carbon isotope signature of horse blood bicarbonate, in contrast, had a different isotopic composition, with ∼67% of the isotope signal coming from a fast turnover pool (t1/2 0.2 days), ∼17% from a pool with an intermediate turnover rate (t1/2 ∼3 days) and ∼16% from a pool with a slow turnover rate (t1/2 ∼50 days). The constituent isotope pools probably correspond to one exogenous and two endogenous sources. The exogenous source equates to our fast turnover pool, and the pools with intermediate and slow turnover rates are thought to derive from the turnover of metabolically active tissues and relatively inactive tissues within the body, respectively. It seems that a greater proportion of the amino acids available for hair synthesis come from endogenous sources compared to the compounds undergoing cellular catabolism in the body. Consequently, the isotope composition of blood bicarbonate appears to be much more responsive to dietary isotope changes, whereas the amino acids in the blood exhibit considerable isotopic inertia. © Springer-Verlag 2004.
Authors & Co-Authors
Ayliffe, Linda K.
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Cerling, Thure E.
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Robinson, Todd F.
United States, Provo
Brigham Young University
West, Adam G.
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Sponheimer, Matt
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Passey, Benjamin H.
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Roeder, Beverly L.
United States, Provo
Brigham Young University
Dearing, M. Denise
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Ehleringer, James Russell
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Statistics
Citations: 201
Authors: 9
Affiliations: 2
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1007/s00442-003-1479-x
ISSN:
00298549
Research Areas
Environmental