The influence of coastal access on isotope variation in Icelandic arctic foxes

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dc.contributor.author Dalerum, Fredrik
dc.contributor.author Perbro, Anna
dc.contributor.author Magnusdottir, Rannveig
dc.contributor.author Hersteinsson, Pall
dc.contributor.author Angerbjorn, Anders
dc.date.accessioned 2012-05-02T08:39:42Z
dc.date.available 2012-05-02T08:39:42Z
dc.date.issued 2012-03-01
dc.description.abstract To quantify the ecological effects of predator populations, it is important to evaluate how population-level specializations are dictated by intra- versus inter-individual dietary variation. Coastal habitats contain prey from the terrestrial biome, the marine biome and prey confined to the coastal region. Such habitats have therefore been suggested to better support predator populations compared to habitats without coastal access. We used stable isotope data on a small generalist predator, the arctic fox, to infer dietary strategies between adult and juvenile individuals with and without coastal access on Iceland. Our results suggest that foxes in coastal habitats exhibited a broader isotope niche breadth compared to foxes in inland habitats. This broader niche was related to a greater diversity of individual strategies rather than to a uniform increase in individual niche breadth or by individuals retaining their specialization but increasing their niche differentiation. Juveniles in coastal habitats exhibited a narrower isotope niche breadth compared to both adults and juveniles in inland habitats, and juveniles in inland habitats inhabited a lower proportion of their total isotope niche compared to adults and juveniles from coastal habitats. Juveniles in both habitats exhibited lower intra-individual variation compared to adults. Based on these results, we suggest that foxes in both habitats were highly selective with respect to the resources they used to feed offspring, but that foxes in coastal habitats preferentially utilized marine resources for this purpose. We stress that coastal habitats should be regarded as high priority areas for conservation of generalist predators as they appear to offer a wide variety of dietary options that allow for greater flexibility in dietary strategies. en
dc.description.librarian nf2012 en
dc.description.sponsorship The Icelandic Science Research Fund, The Icelandic Ministry of the Environment, EU-Life foundation to the extended Swedish-Finnish Alopex project (SEFALO+), and a research fellowship from the University of Pretoria. en_US
dc.description.uri http://www.plosone.org en_US
dc.identifier.citation Dalerum F, Perbro A, Magnusdottir R, Hersteinsson P, Angerbjorn A (2012) The Influence of Coastal Access on Isotope Variation in Icelandic Arctic Foxes. PLoS ONE 7(3): e32071. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032071 en
dc.identifier.issn 1932-6203
dc.identifier.other 10.1371/journal.pone.0032071
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/18639
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Public Library of Science en_US
dc.rights © 2012 Dalerum et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. en
dc.subject Icelandic arctic foxes en
dc.subject Coastal habitats en
dc.subject Isotope variation en
dc.subject.lcsh Arctic fox -- Feeding and feeds -- Iceland en
dc.subject.lcsh Coastal ecology -- Iceland en
dc.subject.lcsh Habitat (Ecology) -- Iceland en
dc.title The influence of coastal access on isotope variation in Icelandic arctic foxes en
dc.type Article en


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