Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator

A sympatric assemblage of morphologically similar predators is expected to exhibit fine-scale habitat segregation, or resource partitioning, to reduce the effects of direct competition. This principle has been well studied for predators in terrestrial ecosystems. In the marine environment, the fine-...

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Published in:Marine Ecology Progress Series
Main Authors: Humphries, Nicolas E., Simpson, Samantha J., Wearmouth, Victoria J., Sims, David W.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/1/m561p173.pdf
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/2/Habitat_partitioning_in_benthic_predators.docx
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/3/Supplementary_Information.docx
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spelling ftsouthampton:oai:eprints.soton.ac.uk:405797 2023-07-30T04:05:42+02:00 Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator Humphries, Nicolas E. Simpson, Samantha J. Wearmouth, Victoria J. Sims, David W. 2016-12-15 text https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/ https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/1/m561p173.pdf https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/2/Habitat_partitioning_in_benthic_predators.docx https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/3/Supplementary_Information.docx en English eng https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/1/m561p173.pdf https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/2/Habitat_partitioning_in_benthic_predators.docx https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/3/Supplementary_Information.docx Humphries, Nicolas E., Simpson, Samantha J., Wearmouth, Victoria J. and Sims, David W. (2016) Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 561, 173-187. (doi:10.3354/meps11937 <http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/meps11937>). Article PeerReviewed 2016 ftsouthampton https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11937 2023-07-09T22:13:22Z A sympatric assemblage of morphologically similar predators is expected to exhibit fine-scale habitat segregation, or resource partitioning, to reduce the effects of direct competition. This principle has been well studied for predators in terrestrial ecosystems. In the marine environment, the fine-scale spatial segregation of sympatric species of large predators is poorly understood because detailed movement and behavioural data are often not available across multiple species within the same timeframe. The ways in which co-occurring congeneric predators separate spatially is even less well understood. Medium-sized species of skates (genus Raja) co-occur in temperate habitats of the north-east Atlantic Ocean, share similar morphologies and have distributional ranges that overlap significantly in the western English Channel ecosystem. In the present study, detailed depth time series retrieved from 89 electronic data storage tags attached to 4 species of skate were analysed to determine preferred depth ranges. The 4 species were found to segregate spatially into 2 groups, with one group having a significantly shallower core annual depth range than the other. To our knowledge, fine-scale segregation by depth has not been observed previously. Interestingly, the members of each species group appeared complementary, each group comprising species with different dietary preferences and with a larger and smaller body size. An understanding of how core depth ranges differ and how these species utilise vertical habitat could potentially enable geographic ranges around the coast to be predicted, with important implications for how these species interact with fisheries and Marine Protected Areas. Article in Journal/Newspaper North East Atlantic University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton Marine Ecology Progress Series 561 173 187
institution Open Polar
collection University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton
op_collection_id ftsouthampton
language English
description A sympatric assemblage of morphologically similar predators is expected to exhibit fine-scale habitat segregation, or resource partitioning, to reduce the effects of direct competition. This principle has been well studied for predators in terrestrial ecosystems. In the marine environment, the fine-scale spatial segregation of sympatric species of large predators is poorly understood because detailed movement and behavioural data are often not available across multiple species within the same timeframe. The ways in which co-occurring congeneric predators separate spatially is even less well understood. Medium-sized species of skates (genus Raja) co-occur in temperate habitats of the north-east Atlantic Ocean, share similar morphologies and have distributional ranges that overlap significantly in the western English Channel ecosystem. In the present study, detailed depth time series retrieved from 89 electronic data storage tags attached to 4 species of skate were analysed to determine preferred depth ranges. The 4 species were found to segregate spatially into 2 groups, with one group having a significantly shallower core annual depth range than the other. To our knowledge, fine-scale segregation by depth has not been observed previously. Interestingly, the members of each species group appeared complementary, each group comprising species with different dietary preferences and with a larger and smaller body size. An understanding of how core depth ranges differ and how these species utilise vertical habitat could potentially enable geographic ranges around the coast to be predicted, with important implications for how these species interact with fisheries and Marine Protected Areas.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Humphries, Nicolas E.
Simpson, Samantha J.
Wearmouth, Victoria J.
Sims, David W.
spellingShingle Humphries, Nicolas E.
Simpson, Samantha J.
Wearmouth, Victoria J.
Sims, David W.
Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator
author_facet Humphries, Nicolas E.
Simpson, Samantha J.
Wearmouth, Victoria J.
Sims, David W.
author_sort Humphries, Nicolas E.
title Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator
title_short Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator
title_full Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator
title_fullStr Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator
title_full_unstemmed Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator
title_sort two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator
publishDate 2016
url https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/1/m561p173.pdf
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/2/Habitat_partitioning_in_benthic_predators.docx
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/3/Supplementary_Information.docx
genre North East Atlantic
genre_facet North East Atlantic
op_relation https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/1/m561p173.pdf
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/2/Habitat_partitioning_in_benthic_predators.docx
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/405797/3/Supplementary_Information.docx
Humphries, Nicolas E., Simpson, Samantha J., Wearmouth, Victoria J. and Sims, David W. (2016) Two’s company, three’s a crowd: fine-scale habitat partitioning by depth among sympatric species of marine mesopredator. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 561, 173-187. (doi:10.3354/meps11937 <http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/meps11937>).
op_doi https://doi.org/10.3354/meps11937
container_title Marine Ecology Progress Series
container_volume 561
container_start_page 173
op_container_end_page 187
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