Niche partitioning between river shark species is driven by seasonal fluctuations in environmental salinity

• Published in: Functional ecology Vol. 34; no. 10; pp. 2170 - 2185
• Main Authors: Dwyer, Ross G., Campbell, Hamish A., Cramp, Rebecca L., Burke, Colin L., Micheli‐Campbell, Mariana A., Pillans, Richard D., Lyon, Barry J., Franklin, Craig E., Killen, Shaun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.10.2020
• Subjects: acoustic telemetry; acoustics; adults; Australia; blood; Body length; bull shark; Carcharhinus leucas; Diet; ecological differentiation; Electrolytes; Environmental changes; Environmental conditions; environmental factors; Estuaries; euryhaline species; Fluctuations; freshwater; glyphis; Glyphis glyphis; Habitat utilization; Habitats; Hydrophones; information; Interspecific; interspecific variation; Isotopes; Isotopic enrichment; juveniles; Leucas; maternal signal; neonates; Niche overlap; Osmolarity; Osmoregulation; Physiology; Prey; Rainy season; resource competition; Rivers; Salinity; Salinity effects; sampling; seasonal variation; Seasonal variations; shark nursery; Sharks; speartooth shark; Species; Stable isotopes; Temporal variations; Tissues; Upstream; Urea; volume; wet season; Australia

Tropical rivers and estuaries are highly dynamic environments, where environmental conditions change dramatically over spatial and temporal scales. This creates both physiological and ecological challenges for euryhaline elasmobranchs, where fluctuations in salinity can impact not only osmoregulator...