Fish tissue lipid-C:N relationships for correcting C-13 values and estimating lipid content in aquatic food-web studies

摘要

RationaleNormalizing C-13 values of animal tissue for lipid content is necessary to accurately interpret food-web relationships from stable isotope analysis. To reduce the effort and expense associated with chemical extraction of lipids, various studies have tested arithmetic mass balance to mathematically normalize C-13 values for lipid content; however, the approach assumes that lipid content is related to the tissue C:N ratio.