Browsing by Author "Rideout, Tyler"
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Item Prey selection for fatty acid signature analysis using the Akaike information criterion(University of New Brunswick, 2025-03) Rideout, Tyler; Stephenson, Matthew; Stewart, ConnieThe estimation of marine predator diet compositions through fatty acid signature analysis allows valuable insights into the trophic structures of marine ecosystems by comparing the fatty acid signatures of predators with a library of their potential prey. These prey libraries consist of individual fatty acid signatures grouped by species, and in order to obtain unique diet estimates the number of groups in the library must be less than the number of dietary fatty acids in the analysis. We propose a novel application of the Akaike information criterion to identify the correct subset of species from a wider set of potential prey. The estimation of true zeroes through the removal of species from the prey library may result in reduced variability and greater accuracy in the estimation of non-zero proportions. Outcomes from simulation studies as well as the analysis of real-life grey seal data are used to explore the performance of this method.