Red-legged kittiwake feathers link food availability to environmental changes in the Bering Sea

Will, Alexis; Kitaiskaia, Evgenia V.; Kitaysky, Alexander S.

doi:10.3354/meps12509

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 72 publications

(88 reference statements)

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“…After delipidation in methanol (Will et al 2018) we analyzed feathers for δ²H at University of Alaska Anchorage's Stable Isotope Laboratory using internal standards of homogenized and lipid extracted chicken and turkey feathers, and homogenized bowhead whale baleen with all samples for in-run calibration of exchangeable H and as quality controls. Stable isotope values are reported in standard δ notation of parts per mil (‰) and are referenced to Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW).…”

Section: Stable Isotope Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Geolocators, stable isotopes, and citizen science identify migratory timing, route, and spring molt of Smith’s Longspurs

Will,

McFarland,

Latty

et al. 2024

ACE

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Climate change is having a disproportionate impact on the Arctic. For Arctic breeding birds, basic knowledge of their annual cycle, specifically the timing, route, and movement behavior of migration, is needed to understand when and where populations may experience threats. We used a combination of geolocators and stable isotope analysis to identify route and timing of migration in Smith's Longspurs (Calcarius pictus) that breed in Alaska's Brooks Range. We trapped males on their breeding grounds from 2011 to 2014 and collected head feathers for stable isotopes of hydrogen (δ²H). We deployed 22 geolocators on a subset of individuals and retrieved four, which all overwintered in southern Texas. Individual start dates for fall migration based on geolocators were more variable than for the spring, and individuals were highly mobile while on their wintering grounds. Geolocators and stable isotope values were comparable across years and indicated that birds from the Brooks Range undergo their pre-nuptial molt in central Canada. We compared geolocator and stable isotope inferred locations to observations submitted to e-Bird and found that longspurs were distributed farther south during the winter months, but farther north during the spring than most eBird observations. Concurrent deployments of geolocator tags across Smith's Longspurs' breeding range would clarify whether migratory behaviors and routes are population-specific or shared widely across breeding locations. Utilisation de géolocalisateurs, d'isotopes stables et de science citoyenne pour déterminer les périodes et les voies de migration, et la mue printanière de Plectrophanes de SmithRÉSUMÉ. Les changements climatiques affectent de façon disproportionnée l'Arctique. Pour les oiseaux qui y nichent, une connaissance de base de leur cycle annuel, en particulier les périodes et les voies de migration, ainsi que leur comportement, est nécessaire pour comprendre quand et où les populations font possiblement face à des menaces. Nous avons utilisé une combinaison de géolocalisateurs et d'analyse d'isotopes stables pour déterminer les voies et les périodes de migration chez les Plectrophanes de Smith (Calcarius pictus) qui nichent dans la cordillère de Brooks en Alaska. Nous avons capturé des mâles à leur site de nidification de 2011 à 2014 et collecté des plumes de tête pour les isotopes stables de l'hydrogène (δ²H). Nous avons fixé 22 géolocalisateurs sur un sousensemble d'individus et en avons récupéré quatre, qui étaient sur des oiseaux ayant tous hiverné dans le sud du Texas. Les dates de début de migration d'automne, basées sur les géolocalisateurs, étaient plus variables que celles du printemps, et les oiseaux étaient très mobiles lorsqu'ils se trouvaient sur leur aire d'hivernage. Les données des géolocalisateurs et les valeurs des isotopes stables étaient comparables d'une année à l'autre et indiquaient que les oiseaux de la cordillère de Brooks effectuaient leur mue prénuptiale dans le centre du Canada. Nous avons comparé les localisations tirées des géoloc...

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Section: Stable Isotope Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Geolocators, stable isotopes, and citizen science identify migratory timing, route, and spring molt of Smith’s Longspurs

Will,

McFarland,

Latty

et al. 2024

ACE

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“…Exploring how conditions experienced by red-legged kittiakes during the nonbreeding period influence their populations is an important next step to understanding what drives red-legged kittiwake population dynamics. Notably, although we documented timing of winter foraging activity, information on winter diet of red-legged kittiwakes is largely unknown [74]. Data on food availability and diet on the wintering grounds would be a valuable piece to understanding how conditions during the non-breeding period affect this endemic Bering Sea seabird species.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing non-breeding distribution and behavior of red-legged kittiwakes from two geographically distant colonies

et al. 2021

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Knowledge of non-breeding distributions is a crucial component to seabird conservation, as conditions during the non-breeding period can play an important role in regulating seabird populations. Specifically, if seabirds from different colonies share the same wintering grounds, conditions in that shared region could have a widespread impact on multiple breeding populations. Red-legged kittiwakes (Rissa brevirostris) are endemic to the Bering Sea and may be especially susceptible to effects of climate change due to a restricted breeding range, small population size, and specialized diet. To examine whether red-legged kittiwakes from different breeding colonies overlapped in winter distribution and activity patterns, we used geolocation loggers to simultaneously track individuals from the two largest red-legged kittiwake breeding colonies in Alaska (separated by over 1000 km) during two consecutive non-breeding periods. We found that non-breeding activity patterns were generally similar between birds originating from the two colonies, but birds employed different migratory strategies during the early winter. Kittiwakes from Buldir Island in the western Aleutian Islands left the colony in September and immediately headed west, spending October through December around the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kuril Islands. In contrast, birds from St. George Island in the Pribilof Islands remained in the eastern Bering Sea or around the eastern Aleutian Islands for a couple months before traveling farther west. During late winter however, from January through March, birds from both colonies converged south of Kamchatka and east of the Kuril Islands over the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench and in the Western Subarctic Gyre before returning to their respective colonies in the spring. This late winter overlap in distributions along the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench suggests the region is a winter hotspot for red-legged kittiwakes and highlights the importance of this region for the global kittiwake population.

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“…Data sets developed from museum specimens collected over extended periods and broad regions can overcome spatially and temporally limited approaches used to understand the response of ecosystem function (Delong & Thoms, 2016; Thoms & Delong, 2018; Turner et al., 2015). Studies have used museum specimens to show responses of ecosystem function to broad‐scale ecosystem stressors, including climatic effects on prey availability in pelagic seabirds (Fairhurst et al., 2015; Will et al., 2018), climate warming on body size in beetles (Tseng et al., 2018), and trophic responses to flow regulation in large rivers (Delong & Thoms, 2016). Stable isotope ratios of museum specimens of species from different functional feeding groups enable the construction of historic food webs for large rivers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem Response Through a Resilience Lens: Do Differences in the Illinois River Over 150 Y Indicate Regime Shifts?

DeBoer

Thoms

2021

JGR Biogeosciences

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Understanding the response of large river ecosystems to anthropogenic stressors, and their interactions with natural system disturbances, is challenging (Stanley et al., 2010). Ecosystems are inherently dynamic, changing both naturally and in response to anthropogenic stressors. Understanding how and why ecosystems change is central to ecosystem science (Sutherland et al., 2013), and river ecosystems-like other complex systems-are characterized by self-organization, nonlinear dynamics, and the potential for multiple stable states (Folke et al., 2010;Holling & Gunderson, 2002). Anthropogenic activities are increasingly pervasive and superimposed on the natural river template. Research that distinguishes between natural and human contributions to the "disturbance regime" of large river ecosystems has been limited to date (cf. Gupta, 2021;Hampton et al., 2019;Thoms & Sheldon, 2019). The lack of integrated conceptual frameworks (Ormerod et al., 2010) and long-term data (Hampton et al., 2019) restricts current efforts to understand the effect of multiple stressors in large river ecosystems (Craig et al., 2017).Resilience thinking is a model for examining change in ecosystems. Complex systems are conceptualized to have dynamic trajectories that may not tend toward equilibrium conditions; rather, they move through an adaptive cycle in response to resource variations. Adaptive cycles characterize change as a cycle comprised of four phases:

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Red-legged kittiwake feathers link food availability to environmental changes in the Bering Sea

Cited by 14 publications

References 72 publications

Geolocators, stable isotopes, and citizen science identify migratory timing, route, and spring molt of Smith’s Longspurs

Geolocators, stable isotopes, and citizen science identify migratory timing, route, and spring molt of Smith’s Longspurs

Comparing non-breeding distribution and behavior of red-legged kittiwakes from two geographically distant colonies

Ecosystem Response Through a Resilience Lens: Do Differences in the Illinois River Over 150 Y Indicate Regime Shifts?

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