title: Flexibility of habitat use in novel environments: insights from a translocation experiment with lesser black-backed gulls.
abstract: Being faced with unknown environments is a concomitant challenge of species' range expansions. Strategies to cope with this challenge include the adaptation to local conditions and a flexibility in resource exploitation. The gulls of theLarus argentatus-fuscus-cachinnansgroup form a system in which ecological flexibility might have enabled them to expand their range considerably, and to colonize urban environments. However, on a population level both flexibility and local adaptation lead to signatures of differential habitat use in different environments, and these processes are not easily distinguished. Using the lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus) as a system, we put both flexibility and local adaptation to a test. We compare habitat use between two spatially separated populations, and use a translocation experiment during which individuals were released into novel environment. The experiment revealed that on a population-level flexibility best explains the differences in habitat use between the two populations. We think that our results suggest that the range expansion and huge success of this species complex could be a result of its broad ecological niche and flexibility in the exploitation of resources. However, this also advises caution when using species distribution models to extrapolate habitat use across space.
authors.affiliation: Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Mariëlle L
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2254-5779
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: van Toor
authors.affiliation: Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology, University Complutense of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Arriero
authors.affiliation: Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany; School of Biological Sciences, University of Bangor, Bangor, UK.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4495-8061
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Holland
authors.affiliation: School of Forest Sciences , Faculty of Science and Forestry , University of Eastern Finland , Joensuu , Finland.
authors.forename: Markku J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Huttunen
authors.affiliation: North Karelia University of Applied Sciences, Joensuu, Finland (retired); Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Risto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Juvaste
authors.affiliation: Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology , Max Planck Institute for Ornithology , Radolfzell , Germany.
authors.forename: Inge
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Center for Macroecology , Evolution and Climate , University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark.
authors.forename: Kasper
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thorup
authors.affiliation: Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wikelski
authors.affiliation: Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Kamran
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8418-6759
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Safi
keywords: ecological specialization; flexibility; habitat use; niche comparison; species distributionmodel; translocation