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Spitz, Jerome; Trites, Andrew W.; Becquet, Vanessa; Brind'Amour, Anik; Cherel, Yves; Galois, Robert; Ridoux, Vincent. |
Understanding the mechanisms that drive prey selection is a major challenge in foraging ecology. Most studies of foraging strategies have focused on behavioural costs, and have generally failed to recognize that differences in the quality of prey may be as important to predators as the costs of acquisition. Here, we tested whether there is a relationship between the quality of diets (kJ.g(-1)) consumed by cetaceans in the North Atlantic and their metabolic costs of living as estimated by indicators of muscle performance (mitochondrial density, n = 60, and lipid content, n = 37). We found that the cost of living of 11 cetacean species is tightly coupled with the quality of prey they consume. This relationship between diet quality and cost of living appears... |
Tipo: Text |
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Ano: 2012 |
URL: http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00116/22749/20551.pdf |
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