Divergent trophic responses of sympatric penguin species to historic anthropogenic exploitation and recent climate change.

ABSTRACT: The Southern Ocean is in an era of significant change. Historic overharvesting of marine mammals and recent climatic warming have cascading impacts on resource availability and, in turn, ecosystem structure and function. We examined trophic responses of sympatric chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica) and gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) penguins to nearly 100 y of shared environmental change in the Antarctic Peninsula region using compound-specific stable isotope analyses of museum specimens. A century ago, gentoo penguins fed almost exclusively on low-trophic level prey, such as krill, during the peak of historic overexploitation of marine mammals, which was hypothesized to have resulted in a krill surplus. In the last 40 y, gentoo penguin trophic position has increased a full level as

SUBMITTER: McMahon KW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6926073 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature