Effects of decomposition on carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values of muscle tissue of varying lipid content from three aquatic vertebrate species

Abstract

Freezing for extended time periods (up to 700 days) is a viable storage technique for stable isotope analysis of aquatic animal muscle tissue across a range of lipid contents. Muscle tissue left to decompose at room temperature showed no significant change in δ¹³ C and δ¹⁵ N values after 8 days, and such tissues would still be reliable for ecological interpretations. However, caution should be used for decomposed tissue for >8 days as the δ¹³ C and δ¹⁵ N values will probably be artificially high. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.