{"id":376,"date":"2012-10-26T12:14:10","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T16:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worthy.cos.ucf.edu\/wordpress\/?page_id=376"},"modified":"2012-10-26T12:14:10","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T16:14:10","slug":"so-much-vegetation-but-what-should-i-eat","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/PEBL\/current-research\/manatee-studies\/so-much-vegetation-but-what-should-i-eat\/","title":{"rendered":"So much vegetation but what should I eat?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-size: medium\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman\">It is well know that manatees feed on aquatic vegetation, including seagrasses and some species of exotic aquatic plants. They have also <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/PEBL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2012\/10\/Blue-Spring-and-St-Johns-convergence.jpg\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-378 alignright\" title=\"Blue Spring and St Johns convergence\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/PEBL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2012\/10\/Blue-Spring-and-St-Johns-convergence-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/span><\/a>been observed to occasionally feed on terrestrial grasses and overhanging vegetation such as mangroves.\u00a0 Historically, the only ways to determine feeding habits has been to watch manatees eat, analyze the feces of living manatees, or by stomach content analysis of recently deceased animals.\u00a0 These methods all provide information on recent feeding events, however, none is an efficient method by which to look at the manatees\u2019 feeding habits over a long period of time, and it is this level of information that is important if one is trying to determine critical habitats.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-size: medium\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman\">Previous studies on a variety of species have shown that the use of naturally occurring stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen is an effective tool in the study of feeding habits.\u00a0 This technique has demonstrated that the isotope composition of the food is reflected in the body of the consumer. \u00a0Essentially this is similar to the adage \u2013 \u201cyou are what you eat\u201d.\u00a0 By <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/PEBL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2012\/10\/manatee-eating1.jpg\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-379\" title=\"manatee eating\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/PEBL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2012\/10\/manatee-eating1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/span><\/a>analyzing the amounts of these isotopes in a small skin sample, we can gain insights into what types of food were consumed over the past month.\u00a0 Carbon isotope ratios differ between C3, C4, or CAM photosynthetic plants, and between fresh, brackish, and marine systems.\u00a0 The application of this approach to manatee skin will thereby allow us to examine the recent feeding habits of manatees and gain insight into whether they were using fresh, brackish, or marine habitats.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-size: medium\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman\">Manatees in different parts of Florida eat very different mixes of vegetation.\u00a0 In some areas, sea grasses are consumed almost exclusively, while in other areas manatees eat almost all fresh water plants.\u00a0 The ability to examine both historical and current feeding preferences of manatees could provide invaluable information to those agencies responsible for defining critical habitat and help identify food resources that are most in need of protection and management.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">We were the first to calculate stable isotope turnover rate in the skin of any marine mammal.\u00a0 Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were examined over a period of more than one year in the epidermis of rescued Florida manatees that were transitioning from a diet of aquatic forage to terrestrial forage (lettuce).\u00a0 Mean half-life for <\/span><sup><span style=\"font-size: small\">13<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-size: medium\">C turnover was about 53 days for skin from manatees rescued from coastal regions and mean half-life for <\/span><sup><span style=\"font-size: small\">15<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-size: medium\">N turnover was about 70 days for skin from manatees rescued from coastal and riverine regions, respectively.\u00a0 These slow turnover rates, mean that carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis using manatee epidermis is useful in summarizing average dietary intake over a long period of time but not for assessing recent diet.\u00a0 In addition to turnover rate, a diet-tissue discrimination value of 2.7\u2030 for <\/span><sup><span style=\"font-size: small\">13<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-size: medium\">C was calculated for long-term captive manatees on a lettuce diet.\u00a0 Determining both turnover rate and diet-tissue discrimination is essential in order to accurately interpret stable isotope data.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-size: medium\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman\">These results were subsequently used to interpret carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data in epidermal samples collected from free-ranging manatees in Florida, Belize, and Puerto Rico.\u00a0 Regional differences in carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures in manatee skin were consistent with signatures in plant samples collected in those regions.\u00a0 Signatures in the skin of manatees sampled in Belize and Puerto Rico were indicative of a diet composed mainly of seagrasses, whereas those of Florida manatees exhibited greater variation suggesting possible diets of primarily freshwater, brackish, or marine vegetation.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is well know that manatees feed on aquatic vegetation, including seagrasses and some species of exotic aquatic plants. They have also been observed to occasionally feed on terrestrial grasses and overhanging vegetation such as mangroves.\u00a0 Historically, the only ways &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/PEBL\/current-research\/manatee-studies\/so-much-vegetation-but-what-should-i-eat\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"parent":311,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-376","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>So much vegetation but what should I eat? - Physiological Ecology and Bioenergetics Lab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/biology\/PEBL\/current-research\/manatee-studies\/so-much-vegetation-but-what-should-i-eat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So much vegetation but what should I eat? - Physiological Ecology and Bioenergetics Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is well know that manatees feed on aquatic vegetation, including seagrasses and some species of exotic aquatic plants. 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