Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals
Intraspecific variation in resource use by individuals of different age, sex or size may reflect differing energetic requirements and physiological constraints. Males and females often show differences in diet owing to sexual size dimorphism, different life histories and/or habitat use. Here, we inv...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.202226 2024-06-02T08:04:17+00:00 Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals Louis, Marie Skovrind, Mikkel Garde, Eva Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter Szpak, Paul Lorenzen, Eline D. Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Associate Professor Fellowship 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.202226 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 8, issue 2 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2021 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 2024-05-07T14:16:08Z Intraspecific variation in resource use by individuals of different age, sex or size may reflect differing energetic requirements and physiological constraints. Males and females often show differences in diet owing to sexual size dimorphism, different life histories and/or habitat use. Here, we investigate how sex and size influence the long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals in Greenland, using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen from bone collagen. We show that males have a higher trophic level and a larger ecological niche than females in West Greenland belugas and in East Greenland narwhals. In addition, for these two populations, we find that δ 15 N increases with size, particularly in males. We hypothesize that sexual size dimorphism together with strong maternal investment drive these differences. By contrast, we find no differences in foraging ecology between sexes in West Greenland narwhals and observe no influence of size on trophic level. This may reflect the influence of interspecific competition in West Greenland, where the distributions of belugas and narwhals overlap, and/or geographical resource partitioning among different summer aggregations of narwhals. Our results suggest that sex and size variations in diet are population dependent, and probably the result of varying ecological interactions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Beluga* East Greenland Greenland narwhal* The Royal Society Greenland Royal Society Open Science 8 2 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Intraspecific variation in resource use by individuals of different age, sex or size may reflect differing energetic requirements and physiological constraints. Males and females often show differences in diet owing to sexual size dimorphism, different life histories and/or habitat use. Here, we investigate how sex and size influence the long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals in Greenland, using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen from bone collagen. We show that males have a higher trophic level and a larger ecological niche than females in West Greenland belugas and in East Greenland narwhals. In addition, for these two populations, we find that δ 15 N increases with size, particularly in males. We hypothesize that sexual size dimorphism together with strong maternal investment drive these differences. By contrast, we find no differences in foraging ecology between sexes in West Greenland narwhals and observe no influence of size on trophic level. This may reflect the influence of interspecific competition in West Greenland, where the distributions of belugas and narwhals overlap, and/or geographical resource partitioning among different summer aggregations of narwhals. Our results suggest that sex and size variations in diet are population dependent, and probably the result of varying ecological interactions. |
author2 |
Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Associate Professor Fellowship |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Louis, Marie Skovrind, Mikkel Garde, Eva Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter Szpak, Paul Lorenzen, Eline D. |
spellingShingle |
Louis, Marie Skovrind, Mikkel Garde, Eva Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter Szpak, Paul Lorenzen, Eline D. Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals |
author_facet |
Louis, Marie Skovrind, Mikkel Garde, Eva Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter Szpak, Paul Lorenzen, Eline D. |
author_sort |
Louis, Marie |
title |
Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals |
title_short |
Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals |
title_full |
Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals |
title_fullStr |
Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals |
title_sort |
population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.202226 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Beluga* East Greenland Greenland narwhal* |
genre_facet |
Beluga* East Greenland Greenland narwhal* |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 8, issue 2 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
2 |
_version_ |
1800748913304535040 |