Poster (Scientific congresses and symposiums)
Effects of fluid preservation on sea star stable isotope compositions: Can museum collections be used for trophic ecology studies?
Le Bourg, Baptiste; Lepoint, Gilles; Balthasart, Pierre et al.
2018VLIZ Marine Scientists Day 2018
 

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Abstract :
[en] Stable isotope analyses (SIA) of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) are a common tool to investigate the trophic ecology of marine organisms. After field sampling, animal tissues are usually preserved frozen or dried before subsequent analysis. However, museum samples, or samples not initially collected for SIA, are often fixed in preservative solutions. These preservation methods may alter stable isotope ratios in tissues and these effects should be quantified. Here, we investigated long-term effects (1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months) of four preservation methods (freezing, alcohol, formaldehyde, drying) on δ13C and δ15N values of sea stars. In particular, we tried to assess the influence of preservation on the isotopic niches. We observed that only formaldehyde preservation significantly affected δ13C values, leading to strong reduction of the overlap between the isotopic niche of the fresh samples and those of the preserved samples. A correction factor was designed to manage this issue. δ15N values changed across time for all methods except freezing but this may be the result of a higher intra-individual variability of δ15N values. Bayesian estimations of the standard ellipse areas (SEAB) of preserved and fresh samples were not significantly different, except for the samples preserved 6 months in alcohol. These two results lead to reduction of the overlap between the isotopic niche of the fresh samples and those of the preserved samples across time. These preliminary results suggest that samples stored during one year in preservative fluids may be used for SIA. Future results will determine whether this can be generalised to sea stars preserved for a longer time, such as those in museum collections.
Disciplines :
Zoology
Aquatic sciences & oceanology
Author, co-author :
Le Bourg, Baptiste ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Océanographie biologique
Lepoint, Gilles  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Océanographie biologique
Balthasart, Pierre ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Collectif des enseignements de biologie en bachelier
Michel, Loïc  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Océanographie biologique
Language :
English
Title :
Effects of fluid preservation on sea star stable isotope compositions: Can museum collections be used for trophic ecology studies?
Publication date :
21 March 2018
Number of pages :
A0
Event name :
VLIZ Marine Scientists Day 2018
Event date :
21 mars 2018
Available on ORBi :
since 22 April 2018

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