Migratory movements of Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica naumanni from high Arctic Greenland

Abstract

Although the Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica is well studied throughout its temperate and low Arctic breeding range, few have studied the species in its far northern distribution. This study is the first to present data on the migratory movements of the “large-billed” subspecies, F. a. naumanni, that breeds in the high Arctic and which has significantly larger body size than those farther south. During 2013–2015, migration tracks were collected from nine adult puffins (6 males and 3 females) tagged with geolocators in northwest Greenland. Overall, female puffins traveled farther than males on their annual migration, with one female puffin traveling over 13,600 km, which was nearly a third farther than any tagged male in our study. Differential migration was observed in migratory phenology and route, with males using a form of chain migration with acute synchrony between individuals while females appeared to largely use leap-frog migration and showed little synchrony between individuals. Extreme sexual segregation in wintering areas was evidenced by two females that migrated to the southern limit of the species’ range while the six males remained at the northern limit, and wintered along the sea ice edge during portions of the non-breeding season. Male puffins thus wintered in regions with sea surface temperatures up to 10° C cooler than female puffins, and in areas with generally colder sea surface temperatures when compared to previously known wintering areas of temperate and low Arctic puffin breeding populations. The degree to which body size enables male F. a. naumanni to remain in colder waters likely reflects differing life history constraints between sexes and populations (i.e., subspecies). Further study is warranted to investigate how recent changes in climate have further exacerbated the observed differences between sexes in high Arctic puffins and possibly other marine avian species.

Light-level geolocation reveals the short-distance non-breeding movements and distribution of tufted puffins throughout the Northeast Pacific Ocean

“…Geolocator data from 42 complete migration routes revealed that tufted puffins were short-distance migrants, wintering in the deep GOA and Northeast Pacific waters ~615 km south and southeast of the Middleton Island breeding colony. Similar to Atlantic puffins (Burnham et al, 2021) and Cassin's auklets of British Columbia, Canada (Studholme et al, 2019), our study population of tufted puffins shifted southwards throughout the non-breeding season, ranging from ~560 km from the colony in early winter to ~716 km from the colony during late winter. These results are in contrast to previous evidence suggesting tufted puffins winter south of 40°N and in the central North Pacific Ocean (see International North Pacific Fisheries Commission, 1992, noted in Piatt andKitaysky, 2002).…”

“…The timing of seasons was determined by a change point analysis for each tracked puffin. breeding colony during throughout the winter (Burnham et al, 2021).…”

“…For larger bodied thick-billed murres (Uria lomvia) of the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, a GLS study reported return rates >90% (Orben et al, 2015). For the congeneric Atlantic puffin, GLS studies have reported similarly high recapture rates ranging from 70-100% (Fayet et al, 2016;Fayet et al, 2017a;Fayet et al, 2017b;Burnham et al, 2021). The high breeding site fidelity of our tufted puffin study population along with their larger body size, relatively small weight of the GLS tags, and environmental conditions favorable for survival and breeding are all key factors that contributed to the high GLS tag return rates during this study.…”

Sympatry of genetically distinct Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) in the High Arctic

“…The high genetic similarity to these genetic clusters and lack of detectable admixture with the large Thule birds suggests that these are dispersed individuals from southern natal colonies. Their overwintering areas support a southern origin (Burnham et al 2021), corresponding to their respective genetic clusters and not the regions used by the larger Thule individuals (Fayet et al 2017, Burnham et al 2021, Kersten et al 2021. Specifically, the female from the West Atlantic ESU (ID: 8408 in Burnham et al 2021) overwintered in the Labrador Sea and North Atlantic, corresponding with colonies from Canada (Fayet et al 2017).…”

“…Though our limited sample size probably impacts differentiation estimate accuracy, Thule and Spitsbergen are c. 5300 km apart (over water) and the observed patterns align with previous findings of isolation by distance within Puffin Evolutionary Significant Units (ESUs; Kersten et al 2021). Moreover, available tracking data indicate no non-breeding season distribution overlap between birds from these High Arctic colonies (Fayet et al 2017, Burnham et al 2021, Kersten et al 2021 genetically most similar to the Spitsbergen F. a. naumanni, but the two populations should be managed separately given the lack of non-breeding distribution overlap and observed genetic differentiation (Moritz 1994).…”