Spatial niche partitioning may promote coexistence of Pygoscelis penguins as climate‐induced sympatry occurs
Climate‐induced range overlap can result in novel interactions between similar species and potentially lead to competitive exclusion. The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth and is experiencing a poleward climate migration from a polar to subpolar envir...
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6202752/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4445 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6202752 2023-05-15T14:02:03+02:00 Spatial niche partitioning may promote coexistence of Pygoscelis penguins as climate‐induced sympatry occurs Pickett, Erin P. Fraser, William R. Patterson‐Fraser, Donna L. Cimino, Megan A. Torres, Leigh G. Friedlaender, Ari S. 2018-09-11 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6202752/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4445 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6202752/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4445 © 2018 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Original Research Text 2018 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4445 2018-11-04T01:45:54Z Climate‐induced range overlap can result in novel interactions between similar species and potentially lead to competitive exclusion. The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth and is experiencing a poleward climate migration from a polar to subpolar environment. This has resulted in a range expansion of the ice‐intolerant gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) and a coincident decrease in ice‐obligate Adélie penguins (P. adeliae) near Palmer Station, Anvers Island, WAP. Ecologically similar species that share a limited prey resource must occupy disparate foraging niches in order to co‐exist. Therefore, we determined the extent of foraging and dietary niche segregation between Adélie and gentoo penguins during the austral breeding season near Palmer Station. This research was conducted across six breeding seasons, from 2009 to 2014, which allowed us to investigate niche overlap in the context of interannual resource variability. Using biotelemetry and diet sampling, we found substantial overlap in the diets of Adélie and gentoo penguins, who primarily consumed Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba); however, our results showed that Adélie and gentoo penguins partitioned this shared prey resource through horizontal segregation of their core foraging areas. We did not find evidence that Antarctic krill were a limiting resource during the breeding season or that climate‐induced sympatry of Adélie and gentoo penguins resulted in competition for prey or caused the subsequent differing population trajectories. This apparent absence of resource competition between Adélie and gentoo penguins throughout this study implies that current population trends in this region are governed by other biological and physical factors. Our results highlight the importance of understanding the mechanistic processes that influence top predator populations in the context of climate‐driven ecosystem shifts. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Krill Antarctic Peninsula Anvers Island Euphausia superba Pygoscelis papua PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Anvers ENVELOPE(-63.500,-63.500,-64.600,-64.600) Anvers Island ENVELOPE(-63.500,-63.500,-64.600,-64.600) Austral Palmer Station ENVELOPE(-64.050,-64.050,-64.770,-64.770) Palmer-Station ENVELOPE(-64.050,-64.050,-64.770,-64.770) Ecology and Evolution 8 19 9764 9778 |
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English |
topic |
Original Research |
spellingShingle |
Original Research Pickett, Erin P. Fraser, William R. Patterson‐Fraser, Donna L. Cimino, Megan A. Torres, Leigh G. Friedlaender, Ari S. Spatial niche partitioning may promote coexistence of Pygoscelis penguins as climate‐induced sympatry occurs |
topic_facet |
Original Research |
description |
Climate‐induced range overlap can result in novel interactions between similar species and potentially lead to competitive exclusion. The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth and is experiencing a poleward climate migration from a polar to subpolar environment. This has resulted in a range expansion of the ice‐intolerant gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) and a coincident decrease in ice‐obligate Adélie penguins (P. adeliae) near Palmer Station, Anvers Island, WAP. Ecologically similar species that share a limited prey resource must occupy disparate foraging niches in order to co‐exist. Therefore, we determined the extent of foraging and dietary niche segregation between Adélie and gentoo penguins during the austral breeding season near Palmer Station. This research was conducted across six breeding seasons, from 2009 to 2014, which allowed us to investigate niche overlap in the context of interannual resource variability. Using biotelemetry and diet sampling, we found substantial overlap in the diets of Adélie and gentoo penguins, who primarily consumed Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba); however, our results showed that Adélie and gentoo penguins partitioned this shared prey resource through horizontal segregation of their core foraging areas. We did not find evidence that Antarctic krill were a limiting resource during the breeding season or that climate‐induced sympatry of Adélie and gentoo penguins resulted in competition for prey or caused the subsequent differing population trajectories. This apparent absence of resource competition between Adélie and gentoo penguins throughout this study implies that current population trends in this region are governed by other biological and physical factors. Our results highlight the importance of understanding the mechanistic processes that influence top predator populations in the context of climate‐driven ecosystem shifts. |
format |
Text |
author |
Pickett, Erin P. Fraser, William R. Patterson‐Fraser, Donna L. Cimino, Megan A. Torres, Leigh G. Friedlaender, Ari S. |
author_facet |
Pickett, Erin P. Fraser, William R. Patterson‐Fraser, Donna L. Cimino, Megan A. Torres, Leigh G. Friedlaender, Ari S. |
author_sort |
Pickett, Erin P. |
title |
Spatial niche partitioning may promote coexistence of Pygoscelis penguins as climate‐induced sympatry occurs |
title_short |
Spatial niche partitioning may promote coexistence of Pygoscelis penguins as climate‐induced sympatry occurs |
title_full |
Spatial niche partitioning may promote coexistence of Pygoscelis penguins as climate‐induced sympatry occurs |
title_fullStr |
Spatial niche partitioning may promote coexistence of Pygoscelis penguins as climate‐induced sympatry occurs |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatial niche partitioning may promote coexistence of Pygoscelis penguins as climate‐induced sympatry occurs |
title_sort |
spatial niche partitioning may promote coexistence of pygoscelis penguins as climate‐induced sympatry occurs |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6202752/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4445 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-63.500,-63.500,-64.600,-64.600) ENVELOPE(-63.500,-63.500,-64.600,-64.600) ENVELOPE(-64.050,-64.050,-64.770,-64.770) ENVELOPE(-64.050,-64.050,-64.770,-64.770) |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Anvers Anvers Island Austral Palmer Station Palmer-Station |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Anvers Anvers Island Austral Palmer Station Palmer-Station |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Krill Antarctic Peninsula Anvers Island Euphausia superba Pygoscelis papua |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Krill Antarctic Peninsula Anvers Island Euphausia superba Pygoscelis papua |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6202752/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4445 |
op_rights |
© 2018 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4445 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
19 |
container_start_page |
9764 |
op_container_end_page |
9778 |
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1766272107295014912 |