Isotopic investigation of contemporary and historic changes in penguin trophic niches and carrying capacity of the southern Indian ocean.

• Published in: PLoS ONE
• Main Authors: Audrey Jaeger, Yves Cherel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
• Subjects: Medicine; R; Science; Q; Antarctic; Indian; Antarc*; King Penguins
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016484; https://doaj.org/article/375f77bc65fa4ad5af50ddd177c70c89

A temperature-defined regime shift occurred in the 1970s in the southern Indian Ocean, with simultaneous severe decreases in many predator populations. We tested a possible biological link between the regime shift and predator declines by measuring historic and contemporary feather isotopic signatures of seven penguin species with contrasted foraging strategies and inhabiting a large latitudinal range. We first showed that contemporary penguin isotopic variations and chlorophyll a concentration were positively correlated, suggesting the usefulness of predator δ¹³C values to track temporal changes in the ecosystem carrying capacity and its associated coupling to consumers. Having controlled for the Suess effect and for increase CO₂ in seawater, δ¹³C values of Antarctic penguins and of king penguins did not change over time, while δ¹³C of other subantarctic and subtropical species were lower in the 1970s. The data therefore suggest a decrease in ecosystem carrying capacity of the southern Indian Ocean during the temperature regime-shift in subtropical and subantarctic waters but not in the vicinity of the Polar Front and in southward high-Antarctic waters. The resulting lower secondary productivity could be the main driving force explaining the decline of subtropical and subantarctic (but not Antarctic) penguins that occurred in the 1970s. Feather δ¹⁵N values did not show a consistent temporal trend among species, suggesting no major change in penguins' diet. This study highlights the usefulness of developing long-term tissue sampling and data bases on isotopic signature of key marine organisms to track potential changes in their isotopic niches and in the carrying capacity of the environment.