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Wedge-tailed shearwater isotope data 2016-2018

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)
2026-02-11T00:00:00

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
  • Oceans

Extent

N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
2016-01-01 2018-05-15
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

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
The citation in a list of references is: "Citation author name/s (year metadata published), metadata title. Citation author organisation/s. File identifier and Data accessed at (add http link)."
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • CSV

OnLine resource
DATA ACCESS - WTSW isotopic data [.xlsx]

Resource lineage

Statement
Body feathers were collected from both populations, sampled from randomly chosen chicks during the chick-provisioning phase of each breeding year (2016, n = 77; 2017, n = 60; and 2018, n = 57). Between four and six feathers were plucked from the chest or dorsal area behind the wings (Cherel et al., 2000; Thompson et al., 2015). Large contaminants were removed by rinsing feathers with deionised water and placing them on an orbital shaker for 2448 hours. Feathers were then oven dried at 50°C for 2448 hours. Surface lipids were removed using a 2:1 solution of chloroform and methanol, after which feathers were air dried, placed in glass vials, and ground into a fine powder (Bontempo et al., 2014) for analysis at the Environmental Analysis Laboratory (Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia). Stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) were measured using a Thermo Fisher Delta V plus isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) coupled to an elemental analyser (Thermo Fisher Flash EA) via an interface (Thermo Fisher Conflo IV). Results are expressed in parts per thousand (‰) in the typical δ notation relative to Vienna PeeDee belemnite and atmospheric N2 for δ13C and δ15N, respectively. Internal laboratory standards were reproduced against absolute International Atomic Energy Agency standards with a precision of 0.15‰ and 0.30‰ for δ13C and δ15N, respectively.
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Hierarchy level
Dataset

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/88702d74-8da0-4f99-97ec-d31661082dc4

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/88702d74-8da0-4f99-97ec-d31661082dc4

Point of truth URL of this metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2026-02-11T00:00:00
Date info (Revision)
2026-02-11T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-3:2018
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

bulk isotopic analysis
Global Change Master Directory Earth Science Keywords, Version 8.5
BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION

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Access to the record in catalogue
Read here the full details and access to the data.

Associated resources

Not available


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