New insights on polar bear (Ursus maritimus) diet from faeces based on Next Generation Sequencing technologies
peer reviewed Practical tools to quantify range-wide dietary choices on the polar bear have not been well developed impeding the monitoring of this species in a changing climate. Here we describe our steps toward non-invasive polar bear diet determination with the optimization of 454 pyrosequencing...
Published in: | ARCTIC |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Arctic Institute of North America
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/256510 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/256510/1/Michaux%20et%20al%20Ursus%20diet%20.pdf https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic72239 |
id |
ftorbi:oai:orbi.ulg.ac.be:2268/256510 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftorbi:oai:orbi.ulg.ac.be:2268/256510 2024-04-21T07:44:46+00:00 New insights on polar bear (Ursus maritimus) diet from faeces based on Next Generation Sequencing technologies Michaux, Johan Dyck, Markus Loughed, Steven Van coeverden de Groot, Peter 2021 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/256510 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/256510/1/Michaux%20et%20al%20Ursus%20diet%20.pdf https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic72239 en eng Arctic Institute of North America urn:issn:0004-0843 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/256510 info:hdl:2268/256510 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/256510/1/Michaux%20et%20al%20Ursus%20diet%20.pdf doi:10.14430/arctic72239 scopus-id:2-s2.0-85103538307 open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Arctic, 74 (1), 87-99 (2021) Life sciences Zoology Sciences du vivant Zoologie journal article http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 info:eu-repo/semantics/article peer reviewed 2021 ftorbi https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic72239 2024-03-27T14:55:17Z peer reviewed Practical tools to quantify range-wide dietary choices on the polar bear have not been well developed impeding the monitoring of this species in a changing climate. Here we describe our steps toward non-invasive polar bear diet determination with the optimization of 454 pyrosequencing of a 136 (base pair: bp) mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytB) fragment amplified from the extracts of captive and wild polar bear faeces. We first determine the efficacy, reliability and accuracy of our method using polar bear faeces from captive polar bears fed known diets at the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat (Canada, n = 5 faeces from 1 bear) and Metro Toronto Zoo (Canada, n =19 from 3 polar bears); and from wild (unfed) polar bears from a holding facility in Churchill (Canada; n=7 from 7 polar bears). We report 91% overall success in amplifying a 136 bp cytB amplicon from the faeces of polar bears. Our DNA analyses accurately recovered the vertebrate diet profiles of captive bears fed known diets. We then characterized multiyear vertebrate prey diet choices from free-ranging polar bears from the sea ice of the M’Clintock Channel (MC) polar bear Management Unit (Canada) (n =117 from an unknown number of bears). These data point to a diet unsurprisingly dominated by ringed seal (Phoca hispidia) while including evidence of bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus), harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), muskox (Ovibos spp.), Arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus), wolves (Canis lupus), herring gull (Larus argentatus) and willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus). We found low levels pf contamination (<3% of sequences when present), suggesting specific process improvements to reduce contamination in range-wide studies. Together, these findings indicate that next generation sequencing-based diet assessments show great promise in monitoring free ranging polar bears in this time of climate change Article in Journal/Newspaper Alopex lagopus Arctic bearded seal Canis lupus Climate change Erignathus barbatus harbor seal muskox Phoca vitulina ringed seal Sea ice Ursus maritimus University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) ARCTIC 74 1 87 99 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) |
op_collection_id |
ftorbi |
language |
English |
topic |
Life sciences Zoology Sciences du vivant Zoologie |
spellingShingle |
Life sciences Zoology Sciences du vivant Zoologie Michaux, Johan Dyck, Markus Loughed, Steven Van coeverden de Groot, Peter New insights on polar bear (Ursus maritimus) diet from faeces based on Next Generation Sequencing technologies |
topic_facet |
Life sciences Zoology Sciences du vivant Zoologie |
description |
peer reviewed Practical tools to quantify range-wide dietary choices on the polar bear have not been well developed impeding the monitoring of this species in a changing climate. Here we describe our steps toward non-invasive polar bear diet determination with the optimization of 454 pyrosequencing of a 136 (base pair: bp) mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytB) fragment amplified from the extracts of captive and wild polar bear faeces. We first determine the efficacy, reliability and accuracy of our method using polar bear faeces from captive polar bears fed known diets at the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat (Canada, n = 5 faeces from 1 bear) and Metro Toronto Zoo (Canada, n =19 from 3 polar bears); and from wild (unfed) polar bears from a holding facility in Churchill (Canada; n=7 from 7 polar bears). We report 91% overall success in amplifying a 136 bp cytB amplicon from the faeces of polar bears. Our DNA analyses accurately recovered the vertebrate diet profiles of captive bears fed known diets. We then characterized multiyear vertebrate prey diet choices from free-ranging polar bears from the sea ice of the M’Clintock Channel (MC) polar bear Management Unit (Canada) (n =117 from an unknown number of bears). These data point to a diet unsurprisingly dominated by ringed seal (Phoca hispidia) while including evidence of bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus), harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), muskox (Ovibos spp.), Arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus), wolves (Canis lupus), herring gull (Larus argentatus) and willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus). We found low levels pf contamination (<3% of sequences when present), suggesting specific process improvements to reduce contamination in range-wide studies. Together, these findings indicate that next generation sequencing-based diet assessments show great promise in monitoring free ranging polar bears in this time of climate change |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Michaux, Johan Dyck, Markus Loughed, Steven Van coeverden de Groot, Peter |
author_facet |
Michaux, Johan Dyck, Markus Loughed, Steven Van coeverden de Groot, Peter |
author_sort |
Michaux, Johan |
title |
New insights on polar bear (Ursus maritimus) diet from faeces based on Next Generation Sequencing technologies |
title_short |
New insights on polar bear (Ursus maritimus) diet from faeces based on Next Generation Sequencing technologies |
title_full |
New insights on polar bear (Ursus maritimus) diet from faeces based on Next Generation Sequencing technologies |
title_fullStr |
New insights on polar bear (Ursus maritimus) diet from faeces based on Next Generation Sequencing technologies |
title_full_unstemmed |
New insights on polar bear (Ursus maritimus) diet from faeces based on Next Generation Sequencing technologies |
title_sort |
new insights on polar bear (ursus maritimus) diet from faeces based on next generation sequencing technologies |
publisher |
Arctic Institute of North America |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/256510 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/256510/1/Michaux%20et%20al%20Ursus%20diet%20.pdf https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic72239 |
genre |
Alopex lagopus Arctic bearded seal Canis lupus Climate change Erignathus barbatus harbor seal muskox Phoca vitulina ringed seal Sea ice Ursus maritimus |
genre_facet |
Alopex lagopus Arctic bearded seal Canis lupus Climate change Erignathus barbatus harbor seal muskox Phoca vitulina ringed seal Sea ice Ursus maritimus |
op_source |
Arctic, 74 (1), 87-99 (2021) |
op_relation |
urn:issn:0004-0843 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/256510 info:hdl:2268/256510 https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/256510/1/Michaux%20et%20al%20Ursus%20diet%20.pdf doi:10.14430/arctic72239 scopus-id:2-s2.0-85103538307 |
op_rights |
open access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic72239 |
container_title |
ARCTIC |
container_volume |
74 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
87 |
op_container_end_page |
99 |
_version_ |
1796937232705126400 |