McGill University
M.Sc. candidate
Supervisor: Kyle Elliott
Lavoie, Raphael, Environment Climate Change Canada
Start: 2020-09-01
End: 2022-04-01

Project

Niche partitioning in sympatric Auk species
Ecological theory predicts that completely competitive species sharing identical overlapping niches cannot coexist in the same habitat at the same time. In order to persist, sympatric species must sufficiently partition their limiting resources, a phenomenon known as niche differentiation. Niche differentiation implies that there is diverging and limited overlap between the ecological niche spaces of coexisting species. Niche differentiation permitting coexistence has been widely reported across a diverse range of taxa, from plankton to large carnivores. Seabirds provide a unique opportunity to understand patterns of niche segregation because they often form large island colonies of dense breeding aggregations composed of several populations of species with seemingly overlapping diets and foraging strategies. This competition may be strongest and peak during the breeding season when there are increased demands for food and individuals need to supplement themselves and their young while also being constrained to forage within a closer limited range around the colony. These constraints during the breeding season may produce the strongest resource partitioning among competing conspecifics. Biologging tools have been used to show the tactics in which breeding seabirds employ to segregate components of their foraging strategies through the exploitation of different ecological niches such as exploiting different foraging areas and diving to different depths within the water column, leading to reduced interspecific competition. We investigate how seabirds living in highly competitive may be segregating components of their foraging strategies. Particularly, examining three morphologically similar Auk species, the common murre (Uria aalge) Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica), and Razorbill (Alca torda), that are closely related, wing-propelling, pursuit-diving seabirds that feed primarily on forage fish in large colonies on islands within the Gulf of St-Lawrence in the Mingan Archipelago

Keywords

ecology, Conservation, seabirds, competition, Animal behaviour, Niche partitioning