Metabarcoding fecal samples to investigate spatiotemporal variation in the diet of the endangered Westland Petrel ( Procellaria westlandica )
| Autor: | Marie-Caroline Lefort, Stephane Boyer, Marina Querejeta, Vincent Bretagnolle |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Institut de recherche sur la biologie de l'insecte UMR7261 (IRBI), Université de Tours-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Tours (UT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
| Rok vydání: | 2023 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
biology Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Foraging Biodiversity Endangered species Procellaria 15. Life on land biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Predation Abundance (ecology) Westland petrel Animal Science and Zoology 14. Life underwater [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Apex predator Nature and Landscape Conservation |
| Zdroj: | Peer Community in Ecology Peer Community in Ecology, Peer Community In, 2021, ⟨10.1101/2020.10.30.360289⟩ |
| ISSN: | 1712-6568 2606-4979 |
| Popis: | As top predators, seabirds can be indirectly impacted by climate variability and commercial fishing activities through changes in marine communities. However, high mobility and foraging behaviour enables seabirds to exploit prey distributed patchily in time and space. This capacity to adapt to environmental change can be described through the study of their diet. Traditionally, the diet of seabirds is assessed through the morphological identification of prey remains in regurgitates. This sampling method is invasive for the bird and limited in terms of taxonomic resolution. However, the recent progress in DNA-based approaches is now providing a non-invasive means to more comprehensively and accurately characterize animal diets. Here, we used a non-invasive metabarcoding approach to characterize the diet of the Westland petrel (Procellaria westlandica), which is an endangered burrowing species, endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. We collected 99 fresh faecal samples at two different seasons and in two different sub-colonies. Our aims were to describe the diet of the Westland petrel, investigate seasonal and spatial variation in the petrels’ diet, and assess potential impacts of the New Zealand fishery industry. We found that amphipods were the most common prey, followed by cephalopods and fish. Our results could be the result of natural foraging behaviour, but also suggest a close link between the composition of prey items and New Zealand’s commercial fishing activities. In particular, the high abundance of amphipods could be the result of Westland petrels feeding on discarded fisheries waste (fish guts). Our results also showed significant differences in diet between seasons (before hatching vs chick-rearing season) and between sampling sites (two sub-colonies 1.5 km apart), indicating plasticity in the foraging strategy of the Westland petrel. Due to its non-invasive nature, metabarcoding of faecal samples can be applied to large numbers of samples to help describe dietary variation in seabirds and indicate their ecological requirements. In our example, dietary DNA (dDNA) provided valuable information regarding the dietary preferences of an iconic species in New Zealand’s unique biodiversity. dDNA can thus inform the conservation of endangered or at-risk species that have elusive foraging behaviours. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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