Fine-scale intraspecific niche partitioning in a highly mobile, marine megafauna species: implications for ecology and conservation.
| Autor: | Silver-Gorges I; Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32304, USA., Ceriani SA; Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, USA., Fuentes MMPB; Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32304, USA. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | Royal Society open science [R Soc Open Sci] 2023 Jun 28; Vol. 10 (6), pp. 221529. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jun 28 (Print Publication: 2023). |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.221529 |
| Abstrakt: | A species may partition its realized ecological niche along bionomic and scenopoetic axes due to intraspecific competition for limited resources. How partitioning manifests depends on resource needs and availability by and for the partitioning groups. Here we demonstrate the utility of analysing short- and long-term stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from imperiled marine megafauna to characterize realized niche partitioning in these species. We captured 113 loggerhead sea turtles ( Caretta caretta ) at a high-use area in the eastern Big Bend, Florida, between 2016 and 2022, comprising 53 subadults, 10 adult males and 50 adult females. We calculated trophic niche metrics using established and novel methods, and constructed Bayesian ellipses and hulls, to characterize loggerhead isotopic niches. These analyses indicated that loggerheads partition their realized ecological niche by lifestage, potentially along both bionomic (e.g. trophic) and/or scenopoetic (e.g. habitat, latitude or longitude) axes, and display different characteristics of resource use within their niches. Analysis of stable isotopes from tissues with different turnover rates enabled this first characterization of intraspecific niche partitioning between and within neritic lifestages in loggerhead turtles, which has direct implications for ongoing research and conservation efforts for this and other imperiled marine species. Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests (© 2023 The Authors.) |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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