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Regional patterns in foraging ecology between adult roseate and common terns in the Northwest Atlantic

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

Co-occurring species with similar resource requirements often partition ecological niches. In the Northwest Atlantic (NWA), endangered roseate terns (Sterna dougallii) nest almost exclusively in coastal island colonies alongside common terns (S. hirundo). Roseate terns are prey specialists compared to common terns, which are opportunistic generalists; however, the two species forage on similar resources during the breeding season. The degree to which these species overlap in their adult foraging ecologies is not well understood. We compared the isotopic niches of nesting adult roseate and common terns by analyzing stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes in eggshell membrane tissues collected in 2018 and 2019 from ten colonies that span their NWA breeding range. Our aim was to characterize multi-scale patterns in isotope values, isotopic niche breadth, and isotope niche overlap between the tern species. We additionally examine subregional differences between “cold-water” colonies in the Gulf of Maine and “warm-water” colonies in Southern New England and Long Island Sound, and interannual differences between 2018 and 2019. Our results indicate similarity in isotope values and a high degree of isotopic niche overlap among adult roseate and common terns at the range-wide scale, but variable overlap at the individual colony scale. This suggests these species generally forage in isotopically similar habitats, but local resource availability influences partitioning within colonies. The isotopic niches of roseate terns were generally narrower than those of common terns, consistent with their respective specialist/generalist tendencies. Observed subregional and interannual differences were inconclusive and may reflect isotopic baseline shifts.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/a38ed7808601abb42935d7830d755095
Identifier USGS:63dc0506d34e9fa19a98a14f
Data Last Modified 20230203
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 0d2450b1-0372-41a2-859c-fba2750b31fa
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -74.5752,39.5379,-66.2036,45.1045
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 1159b28f4bca4c0d5336463ea40980b90a9ff7da1a38873eae9d5864e3c2f2c4
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -74.5752, 39.5379, -74.5752, 45.1045, -66.2036, 45.1045, -66.2036, 39.5379, -74.5752, 39.5379}

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