Stable isotopes of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) are widely used to study the feeding ecology of cetaceans, as they provide critical insights into diet and migratory behaviors. Lipids in tissues may bias the interpretation of δ13C. Because of this, lipids need to be extracted before measuring stable isotope ratios, but their removal may alter δ15N values. Using nearly 900 skin samples of five cetacean species, this study examined the impact of lipid extraction (Folch method) on skin δ15N values and developed mathematical corrections for these effects. The mathematical corrections were then validated with three species sampled in the same or other environments. Lipid extraction increased δ15N values in all species, albeit by a variable amount. This effect was accurately predicted by both species-specific and multi-species linear relationships. The proposed mathematical corrections across species and environments offer a cost-effective alternative to analysis of separate aliquots for δ13C and δ15N determination, and a valuable tool for retrospectively correcting existing lipid-extracted samples for which raw material may no longer exist.

Age at first reproduction is an important life-history trait that marks the beginning of reproductive allocation in long-lived organisms and drives patterns of life-history strategies. Demographic factors and environmental conditions likely affect age at first reproduction through multiple pathways: food resources availability and energy storage from birth to recruitment, competition for breeding sites and mate availability. Using a unique 35-year dataset of individual-based mark–recapture data from a wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) population at Crozet (southern Indian Ocean), we investigated how demographic factors and environment influence age at first reproduction. The population experienced major fluctuations, declining by 50% in the 1970s before partially recovering in the 1980s. It was also exposed to important environmental changes, including variations in large-scale climate phenomena and changes in subtropical anticyclone systems like the Mascarene high pressure system. We used multi-event hidden Markov models to estimate age-specific survival and breeding probabilities for each sex separately. From these models, we estimated the age at first reproduction through absorbing Markov chains while accounting for imperfect detection. We investigated how demographic factors (population density at birth and mate availability at recruitment) and environmental conditions (at birth and recruitment) influenced age at first reproduction through their effects on survival and breeding probabilities. Age at first reproduction declined across cohorts for both sexes from 1970 to the mid-1980s, then stabilized. Females recruited at 9.0 years in early cohorts versus 7.5 years in later ones; males declined from 10.2 to 9.2 years. Environmental conditions at birth, particularly the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Mascarene high, influenced recruitment timing through delayed effects of natal condition on breeding probability rather than survival. Mate availability strongly facilitated earlier recruitment in both sexes, while natal population density delayed male recruitment specifically. Recruitment timing in wandering albatrosses is shaped primarily by developmental programming during the natal period rather than by immediate environmental triggers at sexual maturity, with mate availability and population density modulating these early-life effects in sex-specific ways. Given that recruitment is an important life-history event linked to population-level reproductive rates, accurate demographic projections require models accounting for cohort-specific effects under changing environments.