To understand consumer dietary requirements and resource use across ecosystems, researchers have employed a variety of methods, including bulk stable isotope and fatty acid composition analyses. Compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) of fatty acids combines both of these tools into an even more powerful method with the capacity to broaden our understanding of food web ecology and nutritional dynamics. Here, we provide an overview of the potential that CSIA studies hold and their constraints. We first review the use of fatty acid CSIA in ecology at the natural abundance level as well as enriched physiological tracers, and highlight the unique insights that CSIA of fatty acids can provide. Next, we evaluate methodological best practices when generating and interpreting CSIA data. We then introduce three cutting-edge methods: hydrogen CSIA of fatty acids, and fatty acid isotopomer and isotopologue analyses, which are not yet widely used in ecological studies, but hold the potential to address some of the limitations of current techniques. Finally, we address future priorities in the field of CSIA including: generating more data across a wider range of taxa; lowering costs and increasing laboratory availability; working across disciplinary and methodological boundaries; and combining approaches to answer macroevolutionary questions.This article is part of the theme issue ‘The next horizons for lipids as ‘trophic biomarkers’: evidence and significance of consumer modification of dietary fatty acids’.

中文翻译：

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脂肪酸的稳定同位素：推进营养生态学的当前和未来前景


为了了解消费者的饮食需求和整个生态系统的资源使用情况，研究人员采用了多种方法，包括批量稳定同位素和脂肪酸成分分析。脂肪酸的化合物特异性稳定同位素分析 (CSIA) 将这两种工具结合成一种更强大的方法，能够扩大我们对食物网生态和营养动态的理解。在这里，我们概述了 CSIA 研究的潜力及其局限性。我们首先回顾了脂肪酸 CSIA 在自然丰度水平以及丰富的生理示踪剂在生态学中的应用，并强调了脂肪酸 CSIA 可以提供的独特见解。接下来，我们评估生成和解释 CSIA 数据时的方法最佳实践。然后，我们介绍了三种前沿方法：脂肪酸的氢 CSIA 以及脂肪酸同位素异构体和同位素异构体分析，这些方法尚未在生态研究中广泛使用，但有可能解决当前技术的一些局限性。最后，我们讨论了 CSIA 领域未来的优先事项，包括：在更广泛的分类群中生成更多数据；降低成本并提高实验室可用性；跨越学科和方法论界限开展工作；并结合方法来回答宏观进化问题。本文是主题“脂质作为‘营养生物标志物’的下一个前景：消费者改变膳食脂肪酸的证据和意义”的一部分。