Sexual and individual foraging segregation in Gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua from the Southern Ocean during an abnormal winter
Knowledge about sexual segregation and gender-specific, or indeed individual specialization, in marine organisms has improved considerably in the past decade. In this context, we tested the "Intersexual Competition Hypothesis" for penguins by investigating the feeding ecology of Gentoo pen...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108317 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0174850 |
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ftunivcoimbra:oai:estudogeral.uc.pt:10316/108317 2023-09-26T15:10:45+02:00 Sexual and individual foraging segregation in Gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua from the Southern Ocean during an abnormal winter Xavier, José C. Trathan, Philip N. Ceia, Filipe R. Tarling, Geraint A. Adlard, Stacey Fox, Derren Edwards, Ewan W. J. Vieira, Rui P. Medeiros, Renata De Broyer, Claude Cherel, Yves 2017 http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108317 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0174850 en eng Public Library of Science #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE# Investigator FCT program (IF/00616/2013) SFRH/BPD/95372/2013 SFRH/BD/84030/2012 UID/MAR/04292/ 2013 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108317 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0174850 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Animals Antarctic Regions Ecosystem Feeding Behavior Female Fishes Food Chain Gastrointestinal Contents Male Seasons Sexual Behavior Spheniscidae Temperature info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2017 ftunivcoimbra https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0174850 2023-08-30T00:03:07Z Knowledge about sexual segregation and gender-specific, or indeed individual specialization, in marine organisms has improved considerably in the past decade. In this context, we tested the "Intersexual Competition Hypothesis" for penguins by investigating the feeding ecology of Gentoo penguins during their austral winter non-breeding season. We considered this during unusual environmental conditions (i.e. the year 2009 had observations of high sea surface and air temperatures) in comparison with the long term average at Bird Island, South Georgia. Through conventional (i.e. stomach contents) and stable isotopic values from red blood cells, plasma and feathers of both male and female Gentoo penguins, we showed that there were significant differences between sexes, with males feeding mainly on fish (54% by mass) followed by crustaceans (38%) whereas females fed mainly on crustaceans (89% by mass) followed by fish (4%). Themisto gaudichaudii was the most important crustacean prey for males (64% by mass; 82% by number; 53% by frequency of occurrence) and females (63% by mass; 77% by number; 89% by frequency of occurrence), contrasting with all previous studies that found Antarctic krill Euphausia superba were generally the main prey. Stable isotopic data showed that, in terms of habitat use (based on δ 13C), there were significant differences in short-term carbon signatures between males and females (based on plasma and red blood cells), suggesting that both sexes explored different habitats, with females exploring more offshore pelagic waters and males feeding more in coastal benthic waters. Based on δ 15N, males fed on significantly higher trophic level than females (based on plasma and red blood cells), in agreement with our diet results., Thus, Gentoo penguins behave in a similar manner to other non-breeding penguins species (e.g. king, macaroni and rockhopper penguins), albeit at a smaller spatial scale (as they do not disperse as these other penguins do), in that they have a wider habitat and trophic niche ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Krill Bird Island Euphausia superba Pygoscelis papua Southern Ocean Universidade de Coimbra: Estudo Geral Antarctic Southern Ocean Austral Bird Island ENVELOPE(-38.060,-38.060,-54.004,-54.004) PLOS ONE 12 3 e0174850 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Universidade de Coimbra: Estudo Geral |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcoimbra |
language |
English |
topic |
Animals Antarctic Regions Ecosystem Feeding Behavior Female Fishes Food Chain Gastrointestinal Contents Male Seasons Sexual Behavior Spheniscidae Temperature |
spellingShingle |
Animals Antarctic Regions Ecosystem Feeding Behavior Female Fishes Food Chain Gastrointestinal Contents Male Seasons Sexual Behavior Spheniscidae Temperature Xavier, José C. Trathan, Philip N. Ceia, Filipe R. Tarling, Geraint A. Adlard, Stacey Fox, Derren Edwards, Ewan W. J. Vieira, Rui P. Medeiros, Renata De Broyer, Claude Cherel, Yves Sexual and individual foraging segregation in Gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua from the Southern Ocean during an abnormal winter |
topic_facet |
Animals Antarctic Regions Ecosystem Feeding Behavior Female Fishes Food Chain Gastrointestinal Contents Male Seasons Sexual Behavior Spheniscidae Temperature |
description |
Knowledge about sexual segregation and gender-specific, or indeed individual specialization, in marine organisms has improved considerably in the past decade. In this context, we tested the "Intersexual Competition Hypothesis" for penguins by investigating the feeding ecology of Gentoo penguins during their austral winter non-breeding season. We considered this during unusual environmental conditions (i.e. the year 2009 had observations of high sea surface and air temperatures) in comparison with the long term average at Bird Island, South Georgia. Through conventional (i.e. stomach contents) and stable isotopic values from red blood cells, plasma and feathers of both male and female Gentoo penguins, we showed that there were significant differences between sexes, with males feeding mainly on fish (54% by mass) followed by crustaceans (38%) whereas females fed mainly on crustaceans (89% by mass) followed by fish (4%). Themisto gaudichaudii was the most important crustacean prey for males (64% by mass; 82% by number; 53% by frequency of occurrence) and females (63% by mass; 77% by number; 89% by frequency of occurrence), contrasting with all previous studies that found Antarctic krill Euphausia superba were generally the main prey. Stable isotopic data showed that, in terms of habitat use (based on δ 13C), there were significant differences in short-term carbon signatures between males and females (based on plasma and red blood cells), suggesting that both sexes explored different habitats, with females exploring more offshore pelagic waters and males feeding more in coastal benthic waters. Based on δ 15N, males fed on significantly higher trophic level than females (based on plasma and red blood cells), in agreement with our diet results., Thus, Gentoo penguins behave in a similar manner to other non-breeding penguins species (e.g. king, macaroni and rockhopper penguins), albeit at a smaller spatial scale (as they do not disperse as these other penguins do), in that they have a wider habitat and trophic niche ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Xavier, José C. Trathan, Philip N. Ceia, Filipe R. Tarling, Geraint A. Adlard, Stacey Fox, Derren Edwards, Ewan W. J. Vieira, Rui P. Medeiros, Renata De Broyer, Claude Cherel, Yves |
author_facet |
Xavier, José C. Trathan, Philip N. Ceia, Filipe R. Tarling, Geraint A. Adlard, Stacey Fox, Derren Edwards, Ewan W. J. Vieira, Rui P. Medeiros, Renata De Broyer, Claude Cherel, Yves |
author_sort |
Xavier, José C. |
title |
Sexual and individual foraging segregation in Gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua from the Southern Ocean during an abnormal winter |
title_short |
Sexual and individual foraging segregation in Gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua from the Southern Ocean during an abnormal winter |
title_full |
Sexual and individual foraging segregation in Gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua from the Southern Ocean during an abnormal winter |
title_fullStr |
Sexual and individual foraging segregation in Gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua from the Southern Ocean during an abnormal winter |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sexual and individual foraging segregation in Gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua from the Southern Ocean during an abnormal winter |
title_sort |
sexual and individual foraging segregation in gentoo penguins pygoscelis papua from the southern ocean during an abnormal winter |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108317 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0174850 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-38.060,-38.060,-54.004,-54.004) |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Austral Bird Island |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Austral Bird Island |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Krill Bird Island Euphausia superba Pygoscelis papua Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Krill Bird Island Euphausia superba Pygoscelis papua Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
#PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE# Investigator FCT program (IF/00616/2013) SFRH/BPD/95372/2013 SFRH/BD/84030/2012 UID/MAR/04292/ 2013 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108317 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0174850 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0174850 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
e0174850 |
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1778147992108269568 |