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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2021
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Online Access: | https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/populationspecific-sex-and-size-variation-in-longterm-foraging-ecology-of-belugas-and-narwhals(53240ae8-9c8e-480d-b1f3-f7bebe58e088).html https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/273075879/Population_specific_sex_and_size_variation_in_long_term_foraging_ecology_of_belugas_and_narwhals.pdf |
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ftcopenhagenunip:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/53240ae8-9c8e-480d-b1f3-f7bebe58e088 2024-06-09T07:44:13+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. 2021 application/pdf https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/populationspecific-sex-and-size-variation-in-longterm-foraging-ecology-of-belugas-and-narwhals(53240ae8-9c8e-480d-b1f3-f7bebe58e088).html https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/273075879/Population_specific_sex_and_size_variation_in_long_term_foraging_ecology_of_belugas_and_narwhals.pdf eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Louis , M , Skovrind , M , Garde , E , Heide-Jørgensen , M P , Szpak , P & Lorenzen , E D 2021 , ' Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals ' , Royal Society Open Science , vol. 8 , no. 2 , 202226 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 Arctic cetaceans carbon nitrogen stable isotopes article 2021 ftcopenhagenunip https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 2024-05-16T11:29:20Z 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 Arctic Beluga* East Greenland Greenland narwhal* University of Copenhagen: Research Arctic Greenland Royal Society Open Science 8 2 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Copenhagen: Research |
op_collection_id |
ftcopenhagenunip |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic cetaceans carbon nitrogen stable isotopes |
spellingShingle |
Arctic cetaceans carbon nitrogen stable isotopes 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 |
topic_facet |
Arctic cetaceans carbon nitrogen stable isotopes |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Louis, Marie Skovrind, Mikkel Garde, Eva Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter Szpak, Paul Lorenzen, Eline D. |
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 |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/populationspecific-sex-and-size-variation-in-longterm-foraging-ecology-of-belugas-and-narwhals(53240ae8-9c8e-480d-b1f3-f7bebe58e088).html https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/273075879/Population_specific_sex_and_size_variation_in_long_term_foraging_ecology_of_belugas_and_narwhals.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Beluga* East Greenland Greenland narwhal* |
genre_facet |
Arctic Beluga* East Greenland Greenland narwhal* |
op_source |
Louis , M , Skovrind , M , Garde , E , Heide-Jørgensen , M P , Szpak , P & Lorenzen , E D 2021 , ' Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals ' , Royal Society Open Science , vol. 8 , no. 2 , 202226 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
2 |
_version_ |
1801373009367269376 |