What difference does a century make? Shifts in the ecosystem structure of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as evidenced from a sentinel species, the Weddell seal
The arrival of humans to Antarctica's Ross Sea (100+ years ago) led to a slow, but sustained increase in human activities in the area. To investigate if human presence has influenced the structure of the ecosystem over the last century, we compared historical (ca 100 years old) and modern sampl...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5577480 2023-05-15T13:59:08+02:00 What difference does a century make? Shifts in the ecosystem structure of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as evidenced from a sentinel species, the Weddell seal Hückstädt, Luis A. McCarthy, Matthew D. Koch, Paul L. Costa, Daniel P. 2017-08-30 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5577480/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28855359 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0927 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5577480/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28855359 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0927 © 2017 The Author(s) http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Ecology Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0927 2018-09-02T00:19:59Z The arrival of humans to Antarctica's Ross Sea (100+ years ago) led to a slow, but sustained increase in human activities in the area. To investigate if human presence has influenced the structure of the ecosystem over the last century, we compared historical (ca 100 years old) and modern samples of a sentinel species, the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii), using both bulk tissue and compound-specific stable isotope analysis. The historical isotopic niche of Weddell seals was over five times larger than the modern niche. The isotopic values of individual amino acids showed a clear segregation between historical and modern samples, indicative of differences at the base of the trophic web. Further, we found no significant differences in the trophic position of Weddell seals between the two periods. Our study revealed that the Ross Sea has undergone detectable changes (i.e. in the primary producers community) in the last century, but the presence of humans has not disrupted trophic interactions supporting Weddell seals. Text Antarc* Antarctica Ross Sea Weddell Seal Weddell Seals PubMed Central (PMC) Ross Sea Weddell Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 284 1861 20170927 |
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ftpubmed |
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English |
topic |
Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Ecology Hückstädt, Luis A. McCarthy, Matthew D. Koch, Paul L. Costa, Daniel P. What difference does a century make? Shifts in the ecosystem structure of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as evidenced from a sentinel species, the Weddell seal |
topic_facet |
Ecology |
description |
The arrival of humans to Antarctica's Ross Sea (100+ years ago) led to a slow, but sustained increase in human activities in the area. To investigate if human presence has influenced the structure of the ecosystem over the last century, we compared historical (ca 100 years old) and modern samples of a sentinel species, the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii), using both bulk tissue and compound-specific stable isotope analysis. The historical isotopic niche of Weddell seals was over five times larger than the modern niche. The isotopic values of individual amino acids showed a clear segregation between historical and modern samples, indicative of differences at the base of the trophic web. Further, we found no significant differences in the trophic position of Weddell seals between the two periods. Our study revealed that the Ross Sea has undergone detectable changes (i.e. in the primary producers community) in the last century, but the presence of humans has not disrupted trophic interactions supporting Weddell seals. |
format |
Text |
author |
Hückstädt, Luis A. McCarthy, Matthew D. Koch, Paul L. Costa, Daniel P. |
author_facet |
Hückstädt, Luis A. McCarthy, Matthew D. Koch, Paul L. Costa, Daniel P. |
author_sort |
Hückstädt, Luis A. |
title |
What difference does a century make? Shifts in the ecosystem structure of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as evidenced from a sentinel species, the Weddell seal |
title_short |
What difference does a century make? Shifts in the ecosystem structure of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as evidenced from a sentinel species, the Weddell seal |
title_full |
What difference does a century make? Shifts in the ecosystem structure of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as evidenced from a sentinel species, the Weddell seal |
title_fullStr |
What difference does a century make? Shifts in the ecosystem structure of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as evidenced from a sentinel species, the Weddell seal |
title_full_unstemmed |
What difference does a century make? Shifts in the ecosystem structure of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as evidenced from a sentinel species, the Weddell seal |
title_sort |
what difference does a century make? shifts in the ecosystem structure of the ross sea, antarctica, as evidenced from a sentinel species, the weddell seal |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5577480/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28855359 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0927 |
geographic |
Ross Sea Weddell |
geographic_facet |
Ross Sea Weddell |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Ross Sea Weddell Seal Weddell Seals |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Ross Sea Weddell Seal Weddell Seals |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5577480/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28855359 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0927 |
op_rights |
© 2017 The Author(s) http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0927 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
284 |
container_issue |
1861 |
container_start_page |
20170927 |
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1766267548380168192 |