Mortality of seabirds migrating across the tropical Atlantic in relation to oceanographic processes

Tavares, Davi Castro; Moura, Jailson Fulgêncio de; Merico, Agostino; Siciliano, Salvatore

doi:10.1111/acv.12539

Cited by 19 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Bottom-up effects: Murres as marine predators. Reduction in primary production, and ultimately zooplankton or forage fish biomass, has been implicated in past seabird die-offs and reproductive failures (e.g., [14,27,46,61,[74][75][76][77][78], often in association with anomalous oceanographic conditions (too warm, too cold, loss of upwelling, etc.). In order to understand how murres are affected by climate-mediated bottom-up changes in their forage base, we need to first consider their foraging ecology and the types of prey they eat.…”

Section: Causal Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016

et al. 2020

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About 62,000 dead or dying common murres (Uria aalge), the trophically dominant fish-eating seabird of the North Pacific, washed ashore between summer 2015 and spring 2016 on beaches from California to Alaska. Most birds were severely emaciated and, so far, no evidence for anything other than starvation was found to explain this mass mortality. Threequarters of murres were found in the Gulf of Alaska and the remainder along the West Coast. Studies show that only a fraction of birds that die at sea typically wash ashore, and we estimate that total mortality approached 1 million birds. About two-thirds of murres killed were adults, a substantial blow to breeding populations. Additionally, 22 complete reproductive failures were observed at multiple colonies region-wide during (2015) and after (2016-2017) the mass mortality event. Die-offs and breeding failures occur sporadically in murres, but the magnitude, duration and spatial extent of this die-off, associated with multi-colony and multi-year reproductive failures, is unprecedented and astonishing. These events cooccurred with the most powerful marine heatwave on record that persisted through 2014-2016 and created an enormous volume of ocean water (the "Blob") from California to Alaska with temperatures that exceeded average by 2-3 standard deviations. Other studies PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226087 January 15, 2020 1 / 32 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Piatt JF, Parrish JK, Renner HM, Schoen SK, Jones TT, Arimitsu ML, et al. (2020) Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016. PLoS ONE 15(1):indicate that this prolonged heatwave reduced phytoplankton biomass and restructured zooplankton communities in favor of lower-calorie species, while it simultaneously increased metabolically driven food demands of ectothermic forage fish. In response, forage fish quality and quantity diminished. Similarly, large ectothermic groundfish were thought to have increased their demand for forage fish, resulting in greater top-predator demands for diminished forage fish resources. We hypothesize that these bottom-up and top-down forces created an "ectothermic vise" on forage species leading to their system-wide scarcity and resulting in mass mortality of murres and many other fish, bird and mammal species in the region during 2014-2017.

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Section: Causal Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016

et al. 2020

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“…Continued at-sea studies and systematic beach surveys for stranded individuals will help to confirm the status of these species in the south-west Atlantic. Beach surveys are regular (e.g., Valls et al 2015, Tavares et al 2020, but systematic censuses of pelagic seabirds are scarce (Mott & Clarke 2018). We recommend greater effort in systematic at-sea surveys in the south-west Atlantic with a special focus on these species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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2021

Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club

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Bill Bourne died peacefully at Keith, in Scotland, on 31 May 2021, aged 91. Bill wrote so much: papers in this Bulletin are noted below, and are illustrative of the breadth and depth of his ornithological interests and knowledge. Much has been written about him over his working life as a medic, in travel, in research and writing. Bill featured as the 12th in the series 'Personalities' in the April 1978 issue of British Birds. The authors' perception of Bill, a legend of energy, knowledge and eccentricity were shown to stand the test of time. He joined the BOC in 1956. When I first met him in 1969 at the Autumn Scientific meeting of the British Ornithologists' Union he encouraged me to do so too, and he proved to be a great friend as I forged my early contacts in the world of exploration, museums, research and societies.Bill's energy and resourcefulness are well illustrated in his 1951 solo expedition to the Cape Verdes, as a result of which he contributed to the Bannermans' History of the birds of the Cape Verde Islands. His early enthusiasm for birds and their nests was imparted by three maiden aunts. At age seven his father introduced him to egg collecting, which he pursued for ten years, then saw the error, destroyed his collection, and joined the British Trust for Ornithology. He spent most of the war in Bermuda enjoying tropicbirds and terns, and learning about boats and seabirds. From this time his particular interest was the Tubinares. David Bannerman recounts how at the hottest time of year, with little money and no transport of any kind, Bill relied entirely on his wits in his solo Cape Verde endeavour. It says much for his stamina and enthusiasm that he walked across all of São Tiago, over the roughest country, while his journeys between the islands were perforce made in local schooners. With an interest more in ecology than in specimen collecting just one was taken, an example of a Purple Heron Ardea purpurea, from a colony he discovered on São Tiago. He was struck by the paleness of their plumage and the specimen he secured was sent to Paris. After some years, a new race was named by the Abbé René de Naurois in Bill's honour, A. p. bournei.Bill read medicine and zoology at Cambridge, and completed his training at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Service in the RAF took him to Malta, Jordan and the Middle East at the time of the Suez crisis, then Cyprus, where he was co-founder and first recorder of the Cyprus Ornithological Society. His passionate interest in islands and seabirds came to the fore when, in 1961, he proposed to found the Seabird Group, which eventually formed in 1965, a timely formation ahead of the Torrey Canyon disaster in March 1967. He became its first secretary, whilst in the role of adviser to the Royal Naval Bird Watching Society (RNBWS) he codified the collection of avian data from ships at sea (Sea Swallow 13: 9-16), including ocean weather ships in the eastern Atlantic at a time when reports were pouring in. During this period, when I first met Bill, he worked at Watford Gen...

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“…In addition, we assumed that impacts from transmitter marking did not affect migration chronology and selection patterns for individuals. Although transmitter attachment can affect migrating bird's survival rates (Lameris et al., 2018 ), energy reserves (Hupp et al., 2015 ; Pennycuick et al., 2012 ), and migration chronology (Hupp et al., 2015 ), negative impacts of migration independent of carrying transmitters are relatively common in numerous bird taxa (Klaassen et al., 2014 ; Szostek & Becker, 2015 ; Tavares et al., 2020 ). We had some individuals for which we never received location data, or they “disappeared” mid‐track.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration stopover ecology of Cinnamon Teal in western North America

Mackell

Casazza

Overton

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Identifying migration routes and fall stopover sites of Cinnamon Teal (Spatula cyanoptera septentrionalium) can provide a spatial guide to management and conservation efforts, and address vulnerabilities in wetland networks that support migratory waterbirds. Using high spatiotemporal resolution GPS-GSM transmitters, we analyzed 61 fall migration tracks across western North America during our three-year study (2017)(2018)(2019). We marked Cinnamon Teal primarily during spring/summer in important breeding and molting regions across seven states (California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada). We assessed fall migration routes and timing, detected 186 fall stopover sites, and identified specific North American ecoregions where sites were located. We classified underlying land cover for each stopover site and measured habitat selection for 12 land cover types within each ecoregion. Cinnamon Teal selected a variety of flooded habitats including natural, riparian, tidal, and managed wetlands; wet agriculture (including irrigation ditches, flooded fields, and stock ponds); wastewater sites; and golf and urban ponds. Wet agriculture was the most used habitat type (29.8% of stopover locations), and over 72% of stopover locations were on private land. Relatively scarce habitats such as wastewater ponds, tidal marsh, and golf and urban ponds were highly selected in specific ecoregions. In contrast, dry non-habitat across all ecoregions, and dry agriculture in the Cold Deserts and Mediterranean California ecoregions, was consistently avoided. Resources used by Cinnamon Teal often reflected wetland availability across the west and emphasize their adaptability to dynamic resource conditions in arid landscapes. Our results provide much needed information on spatial and temporal resource use by Cinnamon Teal during migration and indicate important wetland habitats for migrating waterfowl in the western United States.

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Mortality of seabirds migrating across the tropical Atlantic in relation to oceanographic processes

Cited by 19 publications

References 78 publications

Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016

Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016

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Migration stopover ecology of Cinnamon Teal in western North America

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