Contrasting migratory responses of two closely related seabirds to long-term climate change

Grecian, W. James; Taylor, Graeme A.; Loh, Graeme; McGill, Rona A. R.; Miskelly, Colin M.; Phillips, Richard A.; Thompson, David R.; Furness, Robert W.

doi:10.3354/meps11875

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 70 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…GLMs had a binary response, treating core-area locations as 1 and total foraging range pseudo-absences as 0, and were constructed separately for Lord Howe and Heron Island. To test the effect of different high-resolution oceanographic and tuna covariates on the likelihood of wedge-tailed shearwater foraging, we used generalized linear mixed models (GLMM), fitted in package 'lme4' (Bates et al 2015), with bird identity as the random intercept (Hamer et al 2007, Grecian et al 2016. GLMMs had a binary response, treating foraging or resting locations as 1 and transiting locations as 0, and were constructed separately for each year and colony (Lord Howe Island 2014, 2015 and Heron Island 2015).…”

Section: Statistical Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Importance of tropical tuna for seabird foraging over a marine productivity gradient

Miller¹,

Carlile²,

Phillips³

et al. 2018

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Foraging with tuna is a well-documented seabird strategy, referred to as facilitated foraging. However, despite this behaviour being considered almost obligatory in nutrient-poor tropical waters, little data exist on its relative importance to individual colonies. Therefore, to examine facilitated foraging under different patterns of nutrient availability, we tracked wedgetailed shearwaters Ardenna pacifica from 2 colonies, one tropical and one subtropical, situated in waters of contrasting productivity. Shearwater foraging behaviour was assessed relative to oceanographic covariates and predicted distributions for multiple tropical tuna species and ageclasses, simulated by an existing ecosystem model (SEAPODYM). Shearwaters from both colonies undertook long trips to deep, pelagic waters close to seamounts and foraged most often at fronts and eddies. Micronektonic and adult tuna age classes were highly correlated in space. Predation between these tuna age classes represents a likely source of facilitated foraging opportunities for shearwaters. At broad spatial scales, shearwaters consistently foraged in areas with higher predicted adult skipjack and micronektonic tuna densities and avoided adult bigeye tuna. At finer spatial scales, dynamic ocean features aggregated tuna of all sizes. Enhanced tuna density at these locations increased the likelihood of shearwater foraging activity. Long trips in the tropics targeted oligotrophic waters with higher tuna densities. Long trips in the subtropics targeted enhanced productivity, but in some years shifted to target the same oligotrophic, tuna-dense waters used by tropical conspecifics. We conclude that facilitated foraging with tuna is consistently important to the tropical breeding population and becomes increasingly important to the subtropical population in years of low marine productivity.

show abstract

Section: Statistical Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Importance of tropical tuna for seabird foraging over a marine productivity gradient

Miller¹,

Carlile²,

Phillips³

et al. 2018

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Seabirds are subject to a range of natural and anthropogenic pressures, including from incidental mortality (bycatch) in fisheries, overfishing, invasive species and exposure to pathogens and contaminants [39][40][41]. In addition, global climate change affects prey abundance and distribution at sea, increases the frequency of extreme weather (storms, high winds, rainfall or heatwaves) and possibly the likelihood or severity of disease outbreaks [42][43][44]. Numerous studies have examined levels of a range of heavy metal and other contaminants [39,[45][46][47].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protein Deimination and Extracellular Vesicle Profiles in Antarctic Seabirds

Phillips

Kraev

Lange

2020

Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pelagic seabirds are amongst the most threatened of all avian groups. They face a range of immunological challenges which seem destined to increase due to environmental changes in their breeding and foraging habitats, affecting prey resources and exposure to pollution and pathogens. Therefore, the identification of biomarkers for the assessment of their health status is of considerable importance. Peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs) post-translationally convert arginine into citrulline in target proteins in an irreversible manner. PAD-mediated deimination can cause structural and functional changes in target proteins, allowing for protein moonlighting in physiological and pathophysiological processes. PADs furthermore contribute to the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs), which play important roles in cellular communication. In the present study, post-translationally deiminated protein and EV profiles of plasma were assessed in eight seabird species from the Antarctic, representing two avian orders: Procellariiformes (albatrosses and petrels) and Charadriiformes (waders, auks, gulls and skuas). We report some differences between the species assessed, with the narrowest EV profiles of 50–200 nm in the northern giant petrel Macronectes halli, and the highest abundance of larger 250–500 nm EVs in the brown skua Stercorarius antarcticus. The seabird EVs were positive for phylogenetically conserved EV markers and showed characteristic EV morphology. Post-translational deimination was identified in a range of key plasma proteins critical for immune response and metabolic pathways in three of the bird species under study; the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans, south polar skua Stercorarius maccormicki and northern giant petrel. Some differences in Gene Ontology (GO) biological and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways for deiminated proteins were observed between these three species. This indicates that target proteins for deimination may differ, potentially contributing to a range of physiological functions relating to metabolism and immune response, as well as to key defence mechanisms. PAD protein homologues were identified in the seabird plasma by Western blotting via cross-reaction with human PAD antibodies, at an expected 75 kDa size. This is the first study to profile EVs and to identify deiminated proteins as putative novel plasma biomarkers in Antarctic seabirds. These biomarkers may be further refined to become useful indicators of physiological and immunological status in seabirds—many of which are globally threatened.

show abstract

“…Recent technological advances have reduced the size, mass and cost of bird-borne dataloggers, allowing an increasing number of studies to examine the spatial distribution and activity patterns of the smaller petrels (Procellariidae), including prions (Navarro et al 2013;Quillfeldt et al 2013;2015a;2015b;Cherel et al 2016;Grecian et al 2016b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological segregation of two superabundant, morphologically similar, sister seabird taxa breeding in sympatry

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prions Pachyptila are the most abundant seabirds in the Southern Ocean and comprise two main groups: those with and without bill lamellae to filter zooplankton. With few exceptions, each breeding location supports at most one species from each of these groups. However, Gough Island supports two morphologically very similar, filter-feeding species: broad-billed P. vittata and MacGillivray's prions P. macgillivrayi. To understand how these two species co-occur in sympatry, we compared the foraging ranges, habitat selectivity, trophic segregation and moult schedules of these species using combined geolocation-immersion loggers. After breeding, both species showed a well-defined westward migration prior to moulting. Moult lasted 11 to 19 weeks and was significantly longer in MacGillivray's than broad-billed prions. Moulting birds occurred in specific areas within the Argentine Basin, with little overlap between the two species. Habitat analysis revealed species-specific preferences, in particular sea surface temperature. Activity patterns also differed; MacGillivray's prions spent more time in flight, which indicates a more active foraging strategy, relying less on filter feeding. Stable isotope ratios (δ 15 N) in flight feathers were greater in MacGillivray's prion, which is consistent with its less specialized bill morphology resulting in feeding at a higher trophic level. Inter-specific spatial segregation was observed for most of the tracking period, in large part because broad-billed prions breed roughly 3 months earlier than MacGillivray's prions. At Tristan da Cunha, 250 km farther north, where only broad-billed prions breed, they departed, moulted and returned significantly later (15-17 days) than conspecifics from Gough Island, providing evidence for character displacement in sympatry with MacGillivray's prion.

show abstract

Contrasting migratory responses of two closely related seabirds to long-term climate change

Cited by 21 publications

References 70 publications

Importance of tropical tuna for seabird foraging over a marine productivity gradient

Importance of tropical tuna for seabird foraging over a marine productivity gradient

Protein Deimination and Extracellular Vesicle Profiles in Antarctic Seabirds

Ecological segregation of two superabundant, morphologically similar, sister seabird taxa breeding in sympatry

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About