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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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://doaj.org/article/7e301de3316246cd990265cee8b0d795 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7e301de3316246cd990265cee8b0d795 2023-05-15T15:07:23+02:00 Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals Marie Louis Mikkel Skovrind Eva Garde Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen Paul Szpak Eline D. Lorenzen 2021-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://doaj.org/article/7e301de3316246cd990265cee8b0d795 EN eng The Royal Society https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://doaj.org/toc/2054-5703 2054-5703 doi:10.1098/rsos.202226 https://doaj.org/article/7e301de3316246cd990265cee8b0d795 Royal Society Open Science, Vol 8, Iss 2 (2021) stable isotopes arctic cetaceans carbon nitrogen Science Q article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 2022-12-31T06:18:32Z 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 δ15N 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* Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Greenland Royal Society Open Science 8 2 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
stable isotopes arctic cetaceans carbon nitrogen Science Q |
spellingShingle |
stable isotopes arctic cetaceans carbon nitrogen Science Q Marie Louis Mikkel Skovrind Eva Garde Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen Paul Szpak Eline D. Lorenzen Population-specific sex and size variation in long-term foraging ecology of belugas and narwhals |
topic_facet |
stable isotopes arctic cetaceans carbon nitrogen Science Q |
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 δ15N 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 |
Marie Louis Mikkel Skovrind Eva Garde Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen Paul Szpak Eline D. Lorenzen |
author_facet |
Marie Louis Mikkel Skovrind Eva Garde Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen Paul Szpak Eline D. Lorenzen |
author_sort |
Marie Louis |
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 |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://doaj.org/article/7e301de3316246cd990265cee8b0d795 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Beluga* East Greenland Greenland narwhal* |
genre_facet |
Arctic Beluga* East Greenland Greenland narwhal* |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science, Vol 8, Iss 2 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.202226 https://doaj.org/toc/2054-5703 2054-5703 doi:10.1098/rsos.202226 https://doaj.org/article/7e301de3316246cd990265cee8b0d795 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202226 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
2 |
_version_ |
1766338897702289408 |