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Wedge-tailed shearwater adult isotope data 2016-2019

Wedge-tailed shearwaters (Ardenna pacifica) are widely distributed across tropical and subtropical oceans, with their breeding range recently extending south. For populations at their southernmost extent, habitat use, segregation, and trophic niche remain poorly understood. In this study we investigated the habitat use, segregation, and trophic niche in two disjunct populations of wedge-tailed shearwaters in eastern Australia, located at temperate and subtropical latitudes, between 2015 and 2019. Both populations exhibited consistent spatial segregation across all years of the study. Individuals from the temperate population consistently used waters off southeastern Australia, with a pre-staging detour towards the subtropical frontal zone before their winter migration to the western Pacific Ocean, in the Philippine Sea. At the same time, subtropical conspecifics exploited waters further east and north, with a proportion undertaking a pre-staging detour only in the first year. Stable isotope analysis (δ15N and δ13C) of chick feathers further revealed trophic and habitat segregation between colonies, with the subtropical population consistently occupying a smaller trophic niche area and exhibiting lower interannual variation across all years. Both populations exhibited a high degree of interannual variability in foraging strategies and trophic niches, indicating a capacity for behavioural adaptivity in response to prey availability and oceanic conditions. This adaptability may facilitate future range shifts into temperate habitats, which is important given projected climate-driven changes to ocean dynamics in southeastern Australia.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
2026-05-21T00:00:00

Identifier

Title
Information and documentation - Digital object identifier system
Citation identifier
ISO 26324:2012

Code
10.25959/3QHB-ET35
Codespace
doi.org
Description
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Principal investigator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies - Beaver, Penny
University of Tasmania
ROR ID >

ORCID >

Credit
The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage and Birdlife Australia
Status
Completed

Principal investigator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies - Beaver, Penny
University of Tasmania
Tasmania
Australia
ROR ID >

ORCID >

Topic category
  • Biota

Extent

N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
2016-01-01 2019-12-31
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned
Keywords (Theme)
  • bulk isotopic analysis
Keywords (Taxon)
  • Ardenna pacifica
Global Change Master Directory Earth Science Keywords, Version 8.5
  • BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION
AODN Geographic Extents Vocabulary
  • Coastal Cities / Towns (Australia) | Coastal Cities / Towns (Australia) | Coffs Harbour, NSW
  • Coastal Cities / Towns (Australia) | Coastal Cities / Towns (Australia) | Eden, NSW
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC): Fields of Research
  • Wildlife and Habitat Management

Resource constraints

Use limitation
Data, products and services from IMAS are provided "as is" without any warranty as to fitness for a particular purpose.

Resource constraints

Other constraints
This dataset is the intellectual property of the University of Tasmania (UTAS) through the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).

Resource constraints

Linkage
https://licensebuttons.net/l/by-nc/4.0/88x31.png

License Graphic

Title
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Alternate title
CC-BY-NC
Edition
4.0


>

Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

License Text

Other constraints
Cite data as: Beaver, P. E. (2026). Wedge-tailed shearwater adult isotope data 2016-2019 [Data set]. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. https://doi.org/10.25959/3QHB-ET35
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • CSV

OnLine resource
DATA ACCESS - Wedge-tailed shearwater (adult) isotopic data [.csv]

Resource lineage

Statement
Samples were obtained during the summer of 2016 (January–March) from Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve (-30.305ºS, 153.149ºE) and Montague Island Nature Reserve (-36.253ºS, 150.227ºE), from adults returning to the colony to feed their chicks. Sampling occurred during the early to mid-chick rearing period with a total of n = 57 samples collected (n = 16 Muttonbird, n = 41 Montague).
Hierarchy level
Dataset

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/67b12dab-5fdd-4078-93e2-c1d2962723cb

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distributor

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies - (IMAS Data Manager)
IMAS website >

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset
Name
IMAS Dataset level record
Metadata linkage
https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/67b12dab-5fdd-4078-93e2-c1d2962723cb

Point of truth URL of this metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2026-02-11T00:00:00
Date info (Revision)
2026-05-21T13:47:39

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-3:2018
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

bulk isotopic analysis
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC): Fields of Research
Wildlife and Habitat Management
Global Change Master Directory Earth Science Keywords, Version 8.5
BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION

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Read here the full details and access to the data.

Associated resources

Not available


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