Niche partitioning amongst northwestern Mediterranean cetaceans using stable isotopes
Ten species of cetaceans coexist in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the richest seas in biodiversity and endemisms worldwide. The conservation status of Mediterranean cetaceans has been a concern for many years, particularly due to increasing anthropogenic threats such as global warming and overfishin...
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ftubarcepubl:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/184358 2024-02-11T10:03:48+01:00 Niche partitioning amongst northwestern Mediterranean cetaceans using stable isotopes Borrell Thió, Assumpció Gazo i Pérez, Manel Aguilar, Àlex Raga, Juan A. Degollada, Eduard Gozalbes, Patricia García-Vernet, Raquel 2021-03-18 9 p. application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2445/184358 eng eng Elsevier Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2021.102559 Progress in Oceanography, 2021, vol. 193, p. 102559 Articles publicats en revistes (Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2021.102559 0079-6611 http://hdl.handle.net/2445/184358 711532 cc-by (c) Borrell Thió, Assumpció et al., 2021 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Mediterrània (Mar) Cetacis Espanya Mediterranean Sea Cetacea Spain info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2021 ftubarcepubl https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2021.102559 2024-01-24T01:17:18Z Ten species of cetaceans coexist in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the richest seas in biodiversity and endemisms worldwide. The conservation status of Mediterranean cetaceans has been a concern for many years, particularly due to increasing anthropogenic threats such as global warming and overfishing. We established the stable isotopic niches of carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur for five species of cetaceans inhabiting the northwestern Mediterranean Sea to elucidate the mechanisms of coexistence. The fin whale exploited epipelagic habitats with a low trophic level; the bottlenose dolphin was mostly neritic and had a high trophic level; the Risso's dolphin was oceanic and fed bathypelagically and at a high trophic level; finally, the common and striped dolphins displayed epipelagic distributions and similarly intermediate trophic levels. The isotopic niches of all species were exclusive except the common and striped dolphins, whose niches overlapped by 25%. These results suggest that the majority of species avoid competitive exclusion by trophic or spatial segregation with the exception of striped and common dolphins, in which interspecific competition is apparent. It is suggested that this competition brought the striped dolphin to displace the common dolphin from part of its distribution range, restricting it to the southern fringe of the western Mediterranean and, particularly, to the Alboran Sea. In this area, coexistence of the two species would be permitted by some degree of spatial segregation between them and a remarkably high productivity, all which mitigate competition. Article in Journal/Newspaper Fin whale Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona Progress in Oceanography 193 102559 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona |
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ftubarcepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Mediterrània (Mar) Cetacis Espanya Mediterranean Sea Cetacea Spain |
spellingShingle |
Mediterrània (Mar) Cetacis Espanya Mediterranean Sea Cetacea Spain Borrell Thió, Assumpció Gazo i Pérez, Manel Aguilar, Àlex Raga, Juan A. Degollada, Eduard Gozalbes, Patricia García-Vernet, Raquel Niche partitioning amongst northwestern Mediterranean cetaceans using stable isotopes |
topic_facet |
Mediterrània (Mar) Cetacis Espanya Mediterranean Sea Cetacea Spain |
description |
Ten species of cetaceans coexist in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the richest seas in biodiversity and endemisms worldwide. The conservation status of Mediterranean cetaceans has been a concern for many years, particularly due to increasing anthropogenic threats such as global warming and overfishing. We established the stable isotopic niches of carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur for five species of cetaceans inhabiting the northwestern Mediterranean Sea to elucidate the mechanisms of coexistence. The fin whale exploited epipelagic habitats with a low trophic level; the bottlenose dolphin was mostly neritic and had a high trophic level; the Risso's dolphin was oceanic and fed bathypelagically and at a high trophic level; finally, the common and striped dolphins displayed epipelagic distributions and similarly intermediate trophic levels. The isotopic niches of all species were exclusive except the common and striped dolphins, whose niches overlapped by 25%. These results suggest that the majority of species avoid competitive exclusion by trophic or spatial segregation with the exception of striped and common dolphins, in which interspecific competition is apparent. It is suggested that this competition brought the striped dolphin to displace the common dolphin from part of its distribution range, restricting it to the southern fringe of the western Mediterranean and, particularly, to the Alboran Sea. In this area, coexistence of the two species would be permitted by some degree of spatial segregation between them and a remarkably high productivity, all which mitigate competition. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Borrell Thió, Assumpció Gazo i Pérez, Manel Aguilar, Àlex Raga, Juan A. Degollada, Eduard Gozalbes, Patricia García-Vernet, Raquel |
author_facet |
Borrell Thió, Assumpció Gazo i Pérez, Manel Aguilar, Àlex Raga, Juan A. Degollada, Eduard Gozalbes, Patricia García-Vernet, Raquel |
author_sort |
Borrell Thió, Assumpció |
title |
Niche partitioning amongst northwestern Mediterranean cetaceans using stable isotopes |
title_short |
Niche partitioning amongst northwestern Mediterranean cetaceans using stable isotopes |
title_full |
Niche partitioning amongst northwestern Mediterranean cetaceans using stable isotopes |
title_fullStr |
Niche partitioning amongst northwestern Mediterranean cetaceans using stable isotopes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Niche partitioning amongst northwestern Mediterranean cetaceans using stable isotopes |
title_sort |
niche partitioning amongst northwestern mediterranean cetaceans using stable isotopes |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2445/184358 |
genre |
Fin whale |
genre_facet |
Fin whale |
op_relation |
Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2021.102559 Progress in Oceanography, 2021, vol. 193, p. 102559 Articles publicats en revistes (Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2021.102559 0079-6611 http://hdl.handle.net/2445/184358 711532 |
op_rights |
cc-by (c) Borrell Thió, Assumpció et al., 2021 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2021.102559 |
container_title |
Progress in Oceanography |
container_volume |
193 |
container_start_page |
102559 |
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1790600134124371968 |