Analysis of Diet

Basically a diet (= food composition) analysis does not seem to be such a complicated task, we just have to sort the food according to the trophic sources it comes from. There are, however, three topics we have to think about a priori:

- Definition of trophic sources
  According to what system do we identify and separate trophic sources from each other, and what   "resolution" do we apply?

- Identification of food items
  How to proceede technically in food item identification?

- Quantification of trophic source contribution to diet
  How much does each trophic source contribute to total diet?

 
 
Lots of practical advice can be found in many fishery biology textbooks, hence only a few techniques which specifically important for invertebrate studies are introduced here: