The isotopic niche of Atlantic, biting marine mammals and its relationship to skull morphology and body size.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the trophic niches of marine apex predators is necessary to understand interactions between species and to achieve sustainable, ecosystem-based fisheries management. Here, we review the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios for biting marine mammals inhabiting the Atlantic Ocean to test the hypothesis that the relative position of each species within the isospace is rather invariant and that common and predictable patterns of resource partitioning exists because of constrains imposed by body size and skull morphology. Furthermore, we analyze in detail two species-rich communities to test the hypotheses that marine mammals are gape limited and that trophic position increases with gape size. The isotopic niches of species were highly consistent across regions and the topolo

SUBMITTER: Drago M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8313526 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature