in press. Ecological niche segregation among five toothed whale species off the NW Iberian Peninsula using ecological tracers as multi-approach

Abstract This study aims to assess niche segregation among the five main toothed whales that frequent the NW Iberian Peninsula waters: the common dolphin, the harbour porpoise, the bottlenose dolphin, the striped dolphin and the long-finned pilot whale. We used cadmium (Cd) and stable isotope ratios...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Paula Méndez-Fernandez, Graham J Pierce, Paco Bustamante, Tiphaine Chouvelon, Marisa Ferreira, Angel F González, Alfredo López, Fiona L Read, • M Begoñ, Santos • Jérôme Spitz, José V Vingada, Florence Caurant
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1998
Subjects:
Harbour porpoise
toothed whale
toothed whales
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1038.4833
http://www.marinemammal.org/wp-content/pdfs/Mendez-Fernandez_MarBiol2013.pdf
Description
Summary:Abstract This study aims to assess niche segregation among the five main toothed whales that frequent the NW Iberian Peninsula waters: the common dolphin, the harbour porpoise, the bottlenose dolphin, the striped dolphin and the long-finned pilot whale. We used cadmium (Cd) and stable isotope ratios (d 13 C and d 15 N) as ecological tracers to assess degree of segregation in diet/trophic level and in foraging habitat, over various time-scales. d 13 C values highlighted different habitats, while Cd concentrations highlighted feeding differences between oceanic and neritic species. Moreover, d 15 N values suggest different trophic levels of prey targeted within oceanic and neritic species. Hence, results revealed long-term ecological segregation among five toothed whales that coexist in the NWIP and demonstrated the ability of ecological tracers to discriminate ecological niches among closely related species.

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