Isotopic partitioning by small mammals in the subnivium.

• Published in: Ecology and Evolution
• Main Authors: Calandra, Ivan, Labonne, Gaëlle, Mathieu, Olivier, Henttonen, Heikki, Lévêque, Jean, Milloux, Marie-Jeanne, Renvoisé, Élodie, Montuire, Sophie, Navarro, Nicolas
• Other Authors: Groupe d'Étude sur les Géomatériaux et Environnements Naturels, Anthropiques et Archéologiques - EA 3795 (GEGENAA), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)-Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap)-Maison des Sciences Humaines de Champagne-Ardenne (MSH-URCA), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)-Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA), Laboratoire Paléobiodiversité et Evolution (PALEVO), École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), Biogéosciences UMR 6282 (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), Evo-Devo Lab
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2015
• Subjects: Arvicolinae; carbon isotopes; foraging behavior; Lapland; nitrogen isotopes; seasonality; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDU.STU.GC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geochemistry; Arctic; Northern Finland
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01208534; https://hal.science/hal-01208534/document; https://hal.science/hal-01208534/file/ECE3-5-4132.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1653

9 pages International audience In the Arctic, food limitation is one of the driving factors behind small mammal population fluctuations. Active throughout the year, voles and lemmings (arvicoline rodents) are central prey in arctic food webs. Snow cover, however, makes the estimation of their winter diet challenging. We analyzed the isotopic composition of ever-growing incisors from species of voles and lemmings in northern Finland trapped in the spring and autumn. We found that resources appear to be reasonably partitioned and largely congruent with phylogeny. Our results reveal that winter resource use can be inferred from the tooth isotopic composition of rodents sampled in the spring, when trapping can be conducted, and that resources appear to be partitioned via competition under the snow.