Top predator reveals the stability of prey community in the western subarctic Pacific
The stability of the ecosystems depends on the dynamics of the prey community, but changes in the composition and abundance of prey species are poorly understood, especially in open ocean ecosystems. We used neon flying squid Ommastrephes bartramii, an active top predator, as a biological sampler to...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7304915 2023-05-15T18:28:15+02:00 Top predator reveals the stability of prey community in the western subarctic Pacific Lin, Dongming Chen, Xinjun 2020-06-19 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7304915/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32559216 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234905 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7304915/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32559216 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234905 © 2020 Lin, Chen http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY PLoS One Research Article Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234905 2020-06-28T00:26:49Z The stability of the ecosystems depends on the dynamics of the prey community, but changes in the composition and abundance of prey species are poorly understood, especially in open ocean ecosystems. We used neon flying squid Ommastrephes bartramii, an active top predator, as a biological sampler to investigate the dynamics of the prey community in the southwestern part of the Western Subarctic Gyre in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Squid were collected monthly from July to November 2016. There were no significant differences among months in stable isotopes (δ(13)C and δ(15)N) in the digestive gland, a fast turnover organ reflecting recent dietary information. Similar findings were obtained from analyses of isotopic niche width and fatty acid profiles. The potential influence of the environment (monthly mean sea surface temperature, SST, and chlorophyll-a, Chl-a) on the prey community was examined with SST and Chl-a both varying significantly among sampling months. We found little evidence for significant effects of SST and Chl-a on the isotopic values, nor on the fatty acid profiles except for 20:4n6 and 24:1n9. These lines of evidence indicate that the prey community in the southwestern part of the gyre remains stable, with little evidence for systematic changes at the community level. This study provides a novel understanding of the dynamics of the prey community and highlights the use of top predators to study the trophic dynamics of an oceanic system where a long-term scientific survey is unavailable. Text Subarctic PubMed Central (PMC) Pacific PLOS ONE 15 6 e0234905 |
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Research Article Lin, Dongming Chen, Xinjun Top predator reveals the stability of prey community in the western subarctic Pacific |
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Research Article |
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The stability of the ecosystems depends on the dynamics of the prey community, but changes in the composition and abundance of prey species are poorly understood, especially in open ocean ecosystems. We used neon flying squid Ommastrephes bartramii, an active top predator, as a biological sampler to investigate the dynamics of the prey community in the southwestern part of the Western Subarctic Gyre in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Squid were collected monthly from July to November 2016. There were no significant differences among months in stable isotopes (δ(13)C and δ(15)N) in the digestive gland, a fast turnover organ reflecting recent dietary information. Similar findings were obtained from analyses of isotopic niche width and fatty acid profiles. The potential influence of the environment (monthly mean sea surface temperature, SST, and chlorophyll-a, Chl-a) on the prey community was examined with SST and Chl-a both varying significantly among sampling months. We found little evidence for significant effects of SST and Chl-a on the isotopic values, nor on the fatty acid profiles except for 20:4n6 and 24:1n9. These lines of evidence indicate that the prey community in the southwestern part of the gyre remains stable, with little evidence for systematic changes at the community level. This study provides a novel understanding of the dynamics of the prey community and highlights the use of top predators to study the trophic dynamics of an oceanic system where a long-term scientific survey is unavailable. |
format |
Text |
author |
Lin, Dongming Chen, Xinjun |
author_facet |
Lin, Dongming Chen, Xinjun |
author_sort |
Lin, Dongming |
title |
Top predator reveals the stability of prey community in the western subarctic Pacific |
title_short |
Top predator reveals the stability of prey community in the western subarctic Pacific |
title_full |
Top predator reveals the stability of prey community in the western subarctic Pacific |
title_fullStr |
Top predator reveals the stability of prey community in the western subarctic Pacific |
title_full_unstemmed |
Top predator reveals the stability of prey community in the western subarctic Pacific |
title_sort |
top predator reveals the stability of prey community in the western subarctic pacific |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7304915/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32559216 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234905 |
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Pacific |
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Pacific |
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Subarctic |
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Subarctic |
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PLoS One |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7304915/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32559216 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234905 |
op_rights |
© 2020 Lin, Chen http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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CC-BY |
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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234905 |
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PLOS ONE |
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