Current methods and future directions in avian diet analysis
Current methods and future directions in avian diet analysis
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DOI：
10.1093/ornithology/ukab077
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发表时间：
2021-11-24
期刊：
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Porter, Brady A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hoenig, Brandon D.;Snider, Allison M.;Porter, Brady A.
确定鸟类饮食的组成是确定鸟类在生态系统中的作用的关键一步。然而，由于鸟类是一个不同的分类群体，具有同样不同的饮食习惯，因此很难准确而全面地了解鸟类的饮食。除了克服研究鸟类的固有困难外，该领域正在迅速发展，研究人员面临着无数研究鸟类饮食的方法的挑战，随着实验室技术引入饮食研究，这项任务变得更加困难。由于方法论驱动推理，因此研究人员必须了解每种方法的能力和局限性，以确保正确解释他们的研究结果。然而，很少有评论详细介绍饮食研究中使用的传统和实验室技术，更少的是通过鸟类特定的透镜来构建这些方法。在这里，我们讨论的优势和局限性的形态猎物识别，基于DNA的技术，稳定同位素分析，并在整个食物网的饮食生物分子的跟踪。我们确定了每种方法的改进领域，提供了技术组合可以产生最全面的研究结果的实例，介绍了在统一框架内将每种技术的结果结合起来的潜在途径，并为鸟类饮食研究的未来重点提出了建议。
Identifying the composition of avian diets is a critical step in characterizing the roles of birds within ecosystems. However, because birds are a diverse taxonomic group with equally diverse dietary habits, gaining an accurate and thorough understanding of avian diet can be difficult. In addition to overcoming the inherent difficulties of studying birds, the field is advancing rapidly, and researchers are challenged with a myriad of methods to study avian diet, a task that has only become more difficult with the introduction of laboratory techniques to dietary studies. Because methodology drives inference, it is important that researchers are aware of the capabilities and limitations of each method to ensure the results of their study are interpreted correctly. However, few reviews exist which detail each of the traditional and laboratory techniques used in dietary studies, with even fewer framing these methods through a bird-specific lens. Here, we discuss the strengths and limitations of morphological prey identification, DNA-based techniques, stable isotope analysis, and the tracing of dietary biomolecules throughout food webs. We identify areas of improvement for each method, provide instances in which the combination of techniques can yield the most comprehensive findings, introduce potential avenues for combining results from each technique within a unified framework, and present recommendations for the future focus of avian dietary research.