Trans-equatorial migration of Short-tailed Shearwaters revealed by geolocators

Carey, Mark J.; Phillips, Richard A.; Silk, Janet R. D.; Shaffer, Scott A.

doi:10.1071/mu13115

Cited by 36 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…The overall patterns of migratory movements by the shorttailed shearwaters in our study were broadly similar to that reported by Carey et al (2014); birds started the northward migration in the mid-late April, spent May-mid-September in areas that ranged from waters off Japan to the northern Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea, and began their return migration in late September-early October. Although the accuracy of geolocation is relatively low regardless of whether latitudes are light based or estimated using water temperatures (Phillips et al 2004;Teo et al 2004) and our data were limited to a single breeding colony, our analyses nevertheless show convincingly that the shifts in at-sea distribution of the tracked birds were related to seasonal and annual changes in the marine environment of the Pacific sub-Arctic and Arctic seas.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…The short-tailed shearwater Puffinus tenuirostris is a trans-equatorial migrant, which breeds in southern Australia from October to March and spends the non-breeding period from May to September in the northern North Pacific (Serventy 1967;Carey et al 2014). Up to 16 million birds are thought to migrate to the southern Bering Sea annually, and they represent one of the most abundant seabird species in the Pacific sub-Arctic and Arctic seas in summer and autumn (Schneider and Shuntov 1993;Gall et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As migrating seabirds are mobile and not subject to central-place reproductive constraints during the non-breeding period, their distributions may better reflect the dynamic aspect of ecosystems than those of breeding birds, providing insights into changes in habitat suitability and possible responses at the population level to ongoing environmental change. Although Carey et al (2014) used geolocators to provide the first data on the migratory behaviour of individual short-tailed shearwaters in 2008, birds were tracked for a single year, and hence, their movement patterns in response to annual changes in the marine environment were not measured and, as such, remain unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Annual and seasonal movements of migrating short-tailed shearwaters reflect environmental variation in sub-Arctic and Arctic waters

et al. 2014

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Annual and seasonal movements of migrating short-tailed shearwaters reflect environmental variation in sub-Arctic and Arctic waters

et al. 2014

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“…Similarly, the SPS wintering areas in the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are residence areas for huge numbers of seabirds, including both breeding birds from the Northern Hemisphere and migrants from the Southern Hemisphere. For example, the main wintering area of SPS from Adélie Land corresponds in space and time to the wintering grounds of the super abundant sooty and short-tailed shearwaters in the North Pacific (Shaffer et al 2006, Carey et al 2014, and wintering grounds of SPS from the Antarctic Peninsula and of some individuals from Svarthamaren overlap with a well-known hot spot for foraging seabirds (Frederiksen et al 2012), including migrating sooty shearwaters (Hedd et al 2012). Again, differences in activity patterns between the North Atlantic and North Pacific may be related to differences in seabird communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population-specific wintering distributions of adult south polar skuas over three oceans

Weimerskirch¹,

Tarroux²,

Chastel³

et al. 2015

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Migratory routes and the areas used during winter have probably been selected to maximize fitness by providing favorable environmental conditions outside the breeding season. In polar environments, because of the extreme winter weather, most breeding species migrate to encounter better conditions in areas that can differ between and also within species. Using geolocation sensors, we found that south polar skuas Catharacta maccormicki from 2 distant populations breeding on the Antarctic continent along the Atlantic and Indian Oceans migrate northward to winter in tropical Indian Ocean and in temperate North Pacific waters, respectively. Most individuals from each population winter in different environmental conditions, with water temperatures ranging from 16 to 29°C. Nevertheless, they have very similar activity patterns, spending more than 80% of their time on the water, and their feather δ 15 N values suggest that they probably feed at similar trophic levels during the molt. During overwintering, the overall and constant low activity level may be partly imposed by molting constraints, but it also suggests that trophic conditions are good for skuas. The wintering areas of the species correspond to sectors of high concentrations of breeding or wintering tropical, Northern, and Southern Hemisphere seabird species that are likely to be kleptoparasitized by skuas. A certain degree of individual variation exists within each population, which induces a spatial overlap in the wintering grounds of distant breeding populations. These results have potential important consequences in terms of fitness, genetic divergence, and susceptibility to climate change and marine pollution.

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“…Two behavioral traits are remarkable during the period. Firstly, the flight speed of TBP during the short pre-breeding migration (∼870 km/day) is an extraordinary example of flight performance, being only comparable to the flight speed of the slightly smaller Sabine's gull (Stenhouse et al, 2012) and of larger shearwaters and albatrosses (Croxall et al, 2005;Shaffer et al, 2006;Carey et al, 2014). Secondly, time spent flying (conventional analysis; Catry et al, 2009) was higher in BP than prions (81 vs. 58-61%).…”

Section: Inter-breeding Foraging Strategies and The Non-molting Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combination of At-Sea Activity, Geolocation and Feather Stable Isotopes Documents Where and When Seabirds Molt

et al. 2016

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Key facets of the foraging ecology of seabirds during the inter-breeding period still remain poorly understood because of the difficulty of studying them at sea, including during the energy-demanding molting stage. Here, the extent to which three sympatric petrels (Antarctic and thin-billed prions, and blue petrel) from the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands modify their foraging ecology during molt was investigated using a combination of complementary tools, namely miniaturized saltwater immersion geolocators (GLS) and the isotopic method. Firstly, molting behavior was first characterized in the blue petrel, a reference species that is known to renew its plumage in autumn. GLS and feather stable isotopes ( 13 δ C as a proxy of the birds' foraging habitat) indicated that the post-breeding molt of blue petrel occurred in Antarctic waters. Importantly, activity recorders showed that molt was marked by a strong peak in time spent daily sitting on water, which thereafter declined to lower values during the remaining winter months. Secondly, the peak in time spent sitting on water was used as a proxy to characterize the contrasted molt strategies of the two prion species. As blue petrels demonstrated, thin-billed prions molted during the post-breeding period in cold Antarctic waters where they fed primarily on low trophic level prey, most likely Antarctic krill ( 15 δ N as a proxy of the birds' diet). By contrast, Antarctic prions presented an unexpected pre-breeding molt of longer duration that took place further north, in warm subtropical waters. Interestingly, the two Antarctic molting species, the blue petrel and thin-billed prion, renewed their plumage at the same time and within the same oceanic zone that is likely to be a previously undescribed hot spot of seabird diversity during the Austral autumn. The study contributes to a growing body of evidence that closely-related species exhibit various foraging strategies allowing ecological segregation and sheds new light on the poorly known critical molting stage of seabirds.

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Trans-equatorial migration of Short-tailed Shearwaters revealed by geolocators

Cited by 36 publications

References 62 publications

Annual and seasonal movements of migrating short-tailed shearwaters reflect environmental variation in sub-Arctic and Arctic waters

Annual and seasonal movements of migrating short-tailed shearwaters reflect environmental variation in sub-Arctic and Arctic waters

Population-specific wintering distributions of adult south polar skuas over three oceans

Combination of At-Sea Activity, Geolocation and Feather Stable Isotopes Documents Where and When Seabirds Molt

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