Durán Brenda, Álvarez Fernando
Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
Colección Nacional de Crustáceos, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 3;20(1):e0315821. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0315821. eCollection 2025.
The analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) has been widely used in ecology since it allows to identify the circulation of energy in a trophic network. The anchialine ecosystem is one of the less explored aquatic ecosystems in the world and stable isotope analysis represents a useful tool to identify the routes through which energy flows and to define the trophic niches of species. Sampling and data recording was conducted in one anchialine cave, Cenote Vaca Ha, near the town of Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico, where seven stygobitic species endemic to the anchialine caves of the Yucatan Peninsula, plus sediment, water and vegetation samples were analyzed to determine what the main nutrient sources are. We compared our results with two previous studies, one conducted in the same cave and another one from a cave in the same area, both based on the same seven species which are widely distributed in the area. Our study revealed: a) that despite a certain amount of variation in the δ13C and δ15N values of the species through time, both seasonally and interannually, the anchialine isotopic niche is much conserved; b) through contribution models we propose what are the most probable food sources for the studied species and the results confirm previous trophic classifications; and c) that the shrimp Typhlatya pearsei presents very negative δ13C values, suggesting their consumption of bacterial sources consistent with a chemosynthetic origin of organic matter. The implications of the new findings show a very stable ecosystem with the shrimp Typhlatya pearsei, as the key species to link chemosynthetic microbial production of organic matter to the anchialine trophic web.
碳和氮稳定同位素（δ13C和δ15N）分析在生态学中已被广泛应用，因为它能够识别营养网络中的能量循环。内陆水体生态系统是世界上较少被探索的水生生态系统之一，稳定同位素分析是一种有用的工具，可用于识别能量流动的途径并确定物种的营养生态位。采样和数据记录在墨西哥金塔纳罗奥州图卢姆镇附近的一个内陆水体洞穴——瓦卡哈天然井中进行，对七种尤卡坦半岛内陆水体洞穴特有的穴居物种以及沉积物、水和植被样本进行了分析，以确定主要营养来源是什么。我们将我们的结果与之前的两项研究进行了比较，一项在同一个洞穴中进行，另一项来自同一地区的一个洞穴，两项研究均基于在该地区广泛分布的相同七种物种。我们的研究表明：a）尽管物种的δ13C和δ15N值随时间（季节性和年际间）存在一定程度的变化，但内陆水体同位素生态位非常保守；b）通过贡献模型，我们提出了所研究物种最可能的食物来源，结果证实了先前的营养分类；c）虾类皮尔氏盲糠虾的δ13C值非常负，表明它们以细菌源为食，这与有机物的化学合成起源一致。新发现的意义表明，内陆水体生态系统非常稳定，虾类皮尔氏盲糠虾是将化学合成微生物产生的有机物与内陆水体营养网络联系起来的关键物种。
