Mesoscale fronts as foraging habitats: composite front mapping reveals oceanographic drivers of habitat use for a pelagic seabird

Scales, Kylie L.; Miller, Peter I.; Embling, Clare B.; Ingram, Simon; Pirotta, Enrico; Votier, Stephen C.

doi:10.1098/rsif.2014.0679

Cited by 121 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The presence of penguins in productive waters is in line with several studies that found that seabirds forage in areas of elevated levels of primary productivity (Weimerskirch et al, 2004;Ainley et al, 2005;Suryan et al, 2012). Areas with high Chl-a content are associated with sustained primary productivity and are therefore more likely to attract and aggregate planktivores that in turn provide predictable food sources for planktivorous fish and their predators (Grimes and Finucane, 1991;Ressler et al, 2005;Scales et al, 2014).…”

Section: Environmental Differences Between the Foraging Range And Nonsupporting

confidence: 59%

“…However, a key constraint in identifying fine-scale habitat preferences around estuarine plumes is the lack of data describing oceanographic processes at temporal-spatial scales that match the foraging activities of seabirds (Adams et al, 2010;Scales et al, 2014). Remotely sensed oceanographic data can be of relatively high spatial resolution, but temporal resolution is compromised by cloud cover and sun-glint masking surface waters (Shaffer et al, 2005;Wakefield et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Selective foraging within estuarine plume fronts by an inshore resident seabird

et al. 2015

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The distribution of predators relative to specific abiotic and biotic factors within estuarine plume fronts is largely unexplored due to the lack of fine-scale temporal and spatial oceanographic data. Defining preferred foraging conditions of seabirds in these areas is critical to identifying important foraging habitats. Here, we use data obtained from Ships of Opportunity to improve the way we quantify oceanographic conditions at scales that match marine animal foraging activities within these areas. Using biologgers and data from a Ship of Opportunity, we assessed the fine-scale habitat utilization of the Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) within an estuarine plume in Victoria, Australia. We assessed how environmental conditions within the home-range (transit and foraging) and core-range (subset area of intensive foraging within the home-range) of this inshore seabird differed to environmental conditions in the accessible, but non-utilized range (i.e., non-foraging range). Penguin foraging ranges occurred in waters with higher Chl-a, turbidity, temperature and lower salinity than non-foraging ranges. High Chl-a biomass was the most important explanatory variable of penguin distribution. Environmental conditions between the core-range and less used home-range also differed. Waters in the core-range were less productive, less turbid and less dynamic. We suggest penguins are foraging in these core-ranges due to the productive yet stable environmental conditions that likely offer a higher degree of prey predictability than the fluctuating conditions in the wider home-range. Furthermore, penguins may spend a greater proportion of their time in core-ranges as these waters have relatively low turbidity and may improve the ability of penguins to detect and capture their prey. Our results highlight the ability of a small-ranging, visual predator to selectively forage in waters with favorable conditions at fine-scales as a potential means to improve foraging efficiency.

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Section: Environmental Differences Between the Foraging Range And Nonsupporting

confidence: 59%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective foraging within estuarine plume fronts by an inshore resident seabird

et al. 2015

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“…Whether this is really the case in our long-tailed skua example is questionable; targeted areas include both areas where they may use wind-driven upwelling areas along shelf-edges (off Angola and Namibia) and areas with eddies and thermal fronts (Agulhas Retroflection) (Ryan 1989), and such habitats do not seem to be notably less predictable in feeding conditions than, for example, the Benguela Current during early winter. Future studies should aim to link positional data with (ephemeral) oceanographic features (Tew Kai et al 2009, Scales et al 2014, backed up by field studies of at-sea feeding behaviour and diet. Examining at what conditions individual movement patterns start to deviate offers a promising opportunity to study movement decisions of seabirds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexibility in otherwise consistent non-breeding movements of a long-distance migratory seabird, the long-tailed skua

Bemmelen¹,

Moe²,

Hanssen³

et al. 2017

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Quantifying within-and between-individual variation in animal migration strategies is a first step towards our understanding of the ability of migrants to adjust to changes in the environment. We studied consistency (or, conversely, flexibility) in movement patterns at large (>1000 km) to meso-scales (100−1000 km) during the non-breeding season of the long-tailed skua Stercorarius longicaudus, a long-distance migratory Arctic seabird, using light-based geolocation. We obtained 97 annual tracks of 38 individuals and quantified similarity between routes. Overall, tracks of the same individual were generally within about 200 to 300 km of their previous year's route, and more similar than tracks of different individuals. Some flexibility was observed during migration, but individuals were faithful to their staging areas in the North Atlantic and in the Benguela Current off Namibia and South Africa. Over the course of the winter, an increasing number of individuals started to deviate -up to 5200 km -from the previous year's route. Intriguingly, individuals could be highly consistent between 2 consecutive years and flexible between other years. Site-shifts in late winter seem to reflect responses to local conditions, but what promotes this larger flexibility remains unclear and requires further study. Our results show that individual long-tailed skuas are generally consistent in their itineraries, but can show considerable flexibility in some years. The flexibility in itineraries suggests that long-tailed skuas are able to adjust to environmental change, but the mechanisms leading to the observed within-and between-individual variation in movement patterns are still poorly understood.

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“…A promising dynamic ecosystem-based management approach would be to predict areas where suitable foraging habitat overlaps with other areas of interest, or the presence of threats (e.g., fishing) (Howell et al, 2008;Maxwell et al, 2014Maxwell et al, , 2015Scales et al, 2014). Given their enormous eastern Pacific range across swaths of unproductive warm waters, where they feed largely on things humans are not yet interested in harvesting, strategic conservation measures (e.g., protecting key nesting beaches) may enable olive ridleys to be a global warming winner.…”

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%