Diving seabirds share foraging space and time within and among species ...

• Main Authors: Masello, Juan F., Mundry, Roger, Poisbleau, Maud, Demongin, Laurent, Voigt, Christian C., Wikelski, Martin, Quillfeldt, Petra, Justus Liebig University Giessen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universitätsbibliothek Gießen 2010
• Subjects: colonial seabirds; diving seabirds; ecological segregation; foraging ecology; Gentoo Penguin, Pygoscelis papua; GPS-temperature-depth loggers; Imperial Shag, Phalacrocorax atriceps albiventer; Magellanic Penguin, Spheniscus magellanicus; optimal foraging; Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome; space segregation; time segregation; ddc570; ddc590; Gentoo penguin; Imperial Shag; Phalacrocorax atriceps; Pygoscelis papua; Rockhopper penguin
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.22029/jlupub-186; https://jlupub.ub.uni-giessen.de//handle/jlupub/239

Ecological theory predicts that animals with similar foraging strategies should not be able to coexist without segregating either in space, time or diet. In communities, intra-specific competition is thought to be more intense than the competition among species, because of the lack of niche partitioning between conspecifics. Hence, while different seabird species can overlap in their foraging distribution, intra-specific competition can drive the neighboring populations of the same species to spatial segregation of foraging areas. To investigate ecological segregation within and among species of diving seabirds, we used a multispecies GPS-tracking approach of seabirds of four species on a small island in the Southwest Atlantic. The present study goes beyond previous work by analyzing simultaneous effects of species and colonies. We observed strikingly strong spatial foraging segregation among birds of the same species, breeding in colonies as close as 2 km from each other. Conspecifics from neighboring ...