Sanderlings Feed on a Diverse Spectrum of Prey Worldwide but Primarily Rely on Brown Shrimp in the Wadden Sea

Penning, Emma; Verkuil, Yvonne I.; Klunder, Lise; Reneerkens, Jeroen

doi:10.5253/arde.2022.a11

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…In this study, we illustrated differences in home range between sanderlings and red knots. Because sanderlings prefer shrimp [85] and red knots prefer shellfish [57], the differences in space-use are likely related to differences in the distribution of their preferred prey. Linking space-use of these birds with the large-scale mapping of benthic resources in collaboration with the SIBES project [59,60], will offer exciting opportunities for understanding consumer-resource interactions and space-use in intertidal ecosystems.…”

Section: Opportunities For Animal Movement Research and Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

WATLAS: high-throughput and real-time tracking of many small birds in the Dutch Wadden Sea

et al. 2022

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Tracking animal movement is important for understanding how animals interact with their (changing) environment, and crucial for predicting and explaining how animals are affected by anthropogenic activities. The Wadden Sea is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a region of global importance for millions of shorebirds. Due to climate change and anthropogenic activity, understanding and predicting movement and space-use in areas like the Wadden Sea is increasingly important. Monitoring and predicting animal movement, however, requires high-resolution tracking of many individuals. While high-resolution tracking has been made possible through GPS, trade-offs between tag weight and battery life limit its use to larger species. Here, we introduce WATLAS (the Wadden Sea deployment of the ATLAS tracking system) capable of monitoring the movements of hundreds of (small) birds simultaneously in the Dutch Wadden Sea. WATLAS employs an array of receiver stations that can detect and localize small, low-cost tags at fine spatial (metres) and temporal resolution (seconds). From 2017 to 2021, we tracked red knots, sanderlings, bar-tailed godwits, and common terns. We use parts of these data to give four use-cases revealing its performance and demonstrating how WATLAS can be used to study numerous aspects of animal behaviour, such as, space-use (both intra- and inter-specific), among-individual variation, and social networks across levels of organization: from individuals, to species, to populations, and even communities. After describing the WATLAS system, we first illustrate space-use of red knots across the study area and how the tidal environment affects their movement. Secondly, we show large among-individual differences in distances travelled per day, and thirdly illustrate how high-throughput WATLAS data allows calculating a proximity-based social network. Finally, we demonstrate that using WATLAS to monitor multiple species can reveal differential space use. For example, despite sanderlings and red knots roosting together, they foraged in different areas of the mudflats. The high-resolution tracking data collected by WATLAS offers many possibilities for research into the drivers of bird movement in the Wadden Sea. WATLAS could provide a tool for impact assessment, and thus aid nature conservation and management of the globally important Wadden Sea ecosystem.

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Section: Opportunities For Animal Movement Research and Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

WATLAS: high-throughput and real-time tracking of many small birds in the Dutch Wadden Sea

et al. 2022

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“…Although shorebirds are specialized in their prey and known to segregate into dietary niches while foraging on the same habitat (Prater 1981, Mazzochi et al 2022, their diet can vary substantially between sites (Alves et al 2013, Duijns et al 2013, Penning et al 2022, periods (Sánchez et al 2005) and habitats (Masero & Pérez-Hurtado 2001, Alves et al 2010. Understanding the causes and consequences of such dietary range and its variation can help identify how diet may influence individual condition and scale up to affect population level processes.…”

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confidence: 99%

Seasonal Variation in the Diet of Migratory Shorebirds Wintering in the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau

Coelho,

Lopes,

Rocha

et al. 2024

Ardea

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Long-term changes in seagrass and benthos at Banc d'Arguin, Mauritania, the premier intertidal system along the East Atlantic Flyway. Gobal Ecol. Conserv. 24: e01364. Ens B.J., Piersma T. & Drent R.H. 1994. The dependence of waders and waterfowl migrating along the East Atlantic Flyway on their coastal food supplies: what is the most profitable research programme? Ophelia Suppl. 6: 127-151. Goss-Custard J.D. 1977. Optimal foraging and the size selection of worms by redshank, Tringa totanus, in the field. Anim.

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DNA metabarcoding reveals high diversity of fish and macrofaunal species in diets of little auks and other Arctic seabird species in Svalbard

de Leeuw,

van den Brink,

Gabrielsen

et al. 2024

Polar Biol

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Climate change is a major concern for the future of marine Arctic food webs. Diet shifts of seabirds can be used as indicators of environmental changes such as species compositions of food webs. However, studies on diets are often laborious and costly, while research in vulnerable Arctic environments benefits from short visits for data collection that minimize disturbance to Arctic wildlife and the environment. DNA-metabarcoding techniques are rapidly developing and could be used as an effective method of monitoring diet choice of seabirds. We tested DNA-metabarcoding on seabird faeces collected during short visits of typically around 30 min at breeding colonies of black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla (3 colonies), Brünnich’s guillemot Uria lomvia (2 colonies) and little auk Alle alle (3 colonies). DNA metabarcoding based on COI and 18S of a limited number of faeces samples revealed a wide spectrum of fish species and crustaceans in the diets of these species, comparable with or even exceeding diversity in diet composition found in conventional, more invasive techniques where birds are shot or caught and handled to obtain samples. While previous studies on diet choice of little auk, a crustacean specialist, mainly report small fractions of unidentified fish remains, DNA metabarcoding of faeces revealed a large variety of pelagic and benthic fish species supplementing its diet. We conclude that DNA metabarcoding of seabird faeces can be an effective attribute to diet studies supporting our understanding of changes in numbers and distribution of Arctic seabirds and their marine environment.

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Sanderlings Feed on a Diverse Spectrum of Prey Worldwide but Primarily Rely on Brown Shrimp in the Wadden Sea

Cited by 5 publications

References 62 publications

WATLAS: high-throughput and real-time tracking of many small birds in the Dutch Wadden Sea

WATLAS: high-throughput and real-time tracking of many small birds in the Dutch Wadden Sea

Seasonal Variation in the Diet of Migratory Shorebirds Wintering in the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau

DNA metabarcoding reveals high diversity of fish and macrofaunal species in diets of little auks and other Arctic seabird species in Svalbard

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