Factors affecting intraspecific diet variation of ducklings
Variability in resource use within populations of free-ranging animals can influence demographic and evolutionary processes. Yet in many systems, the extent of intra-population trophic niche variation and the environmental factors that contribute to this variance remain poorly understood. For example, dietary studies commonly group individuals and jointly classify the study population along the generalist to specialist continuum, even though diets of sub-populations and individuals can deviate significantly from the population average, particularly in heterogeneous environments. To evaluate the degree of intraspecific diet variation in a population of wild birds and to test potential linkages between dietary specialization and environmental gradients in relative resource abundance, we used hierarchical Bayesian stable isotope mixing models to estimate (i) assimilated diets of juvenile lesser scaup (Aythya affinis; hereafter scaup) and (ii) diet variation within and across lakes that harbor distinct assemblages of aquatic macroinvertebrates. We fount that lake-level variation in diet accounted for most of the variation across the study population, with little variation attributed to individual-level specialization. Although we did not detect an effect of macroinvertebrate abundance on diets of scaup ducklings, our findings indicated that they have greater dietary flexibility than previously considered. By identifying landscape and resource heterogeneity as factors generating variation in resource use within populations of a generalist consumer, our results facilitate improved predictions of which species might be best adapted to respond to changing environmental conditions.
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Additional Info
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| Last Updated | October 20, 2025, 02:50 (UTC) |
| Created | October 20, 2025, 02:50 (UTC) |
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Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
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Title
Title for the Dataset.
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Factors affecting intraspecific diet variation of ducklings |
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Description
A description of the dataset.
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Variability in resource use within populations of free-ranging animals can influence demographic and evolutionary processes. Yet in many systems, the extent of intra-population trophic niche variation and the environmental factors that contribute to this variance remain poorly understood. For example, dietary studies commonly group individuals and jointly classify the study population along the generalist to specialist continuum, even though diets of sub-populations and individuals can deviate significantly from the population average, particularly in heterogeneous environments. To evaluate the degree of intraspecific diet variation in a population of wild birds and to test potential linkages between dietary specialization and environmental gradients in relative resource abundance, we used hierarchical Bayesian stable isotope mixing models to estimate (i) assimilated diets of juvenile lesser scaup (Aythya affinis; hereafter scaup) and (ii) diet variation within and across lakes that harbor distinct assemblages of aquatic macroinvertebrates. We fount that lake-level variation in diet accounted for most of the variation across the study population, with little variation attributed to individual-level specialization. Although we did not detect an effect of macroinvertebrate abundance on diets of scaup ducklings, our findings indicated that they have greater dietary flexibility than previously considered. By identifying landscape and resource heterogeneity as factors generating variation in resource use within populations of a generalist consumer, our results facilitate improved predictions of which species might be best adapted to respond to changing environmental conditions. |
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Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
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Metadata Identifier
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Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
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2023-10-09 |
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Time Period Data Span (end date)
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GeoSpatial Area Data Span
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Access category
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License
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Open Government Licence - Canada |
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Limits on use
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Location
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https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/758d2e00-a1c5-489e-a3be-efc2939a85f6 |
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Data Service
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Owner
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Environment and Climate Change Canada | Environnement et Changement climatique Canada |
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Contact Point
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Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada, [email protected] |
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Contact Point Email
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Publisher
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Publisher Email
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[email protected] |
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Author
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Author Email
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Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
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Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
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10.18164/758d2e00-a1c5-489e-a3be-efc2939a85f6 |
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Language
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Persistent Identifier
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Globally Unique Identifier
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Yes |
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Contains data about individuals
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Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
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Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
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Platform type of the source portal.
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Version
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None |
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Source
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None |
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Version notes
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Other versions
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GeoSpatial resolution in meters
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GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
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Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
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Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
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The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
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Number of data rows
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Data quality
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Metric for data quality
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