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Ecological and isotopic discrimination of syntopic rodents in a neotropical rain forest of French Guiana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2003

Jean-François Mauffrey
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Paléobiologie et Phylogénie, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, UMR 5554 CNRS, Université Montpellier II, cc 64, Place Eugéne Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, France
François Catzeflis
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Paléobiologie et Phylogénie, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, UMR 5554 CNRS, Université Montpellier II, cc 64, Place Eugéne Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, France

Abstract

Stable isotopes are commonly used in ecological studies to infer food resources (Ambrose & DeNiro 1986, Bocherens et al. 1990,1991,1994;Yoshinaga et al. 1991) since isotopic composition is conserved during the feeding process. Moreover,for herbivorous (sensu lato) species, it is often possible to identify the main resource because different photosynthetic pathways generate different values of carbon isotope ratios (Park & Epstein 1961, Sternberg et al. 1984). This allows the characterization of broad biota such as savannas or forest and discrimination of grazers from sympatric folivorous species (DeNiro & Epstein 1978).

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
2003 Cambridge University Press

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