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opencc-zeroAug 2020View details →

Data from: Foraging behaviour and habitat-use drives niche segregation in sibling seabird species

To mediate competition, similar sympatric species are assumed to utilise different resources, or the same but geographically separated resources. The two giant petrels (Macronectes spp.) are intriguing in that they are morphologically similar seabirds with overlapping diets and distributions. To better understand the mechanisms allowing their co-existence, we investigated intra- and interspecific niche segregation at Marion Island (Southern Indian Ocean), one of the few localities where they breed in sympatry. We used GPS tracks from 94 individuals and remote-sensed environmental data to quantify habitat-use, combined with blood carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios from 90 individuals to characterise their foraging habitat and trophic ecology. Females of both species made distant at sea foraging trips and fed at a similar trophic level. However, they used distinct pelagic habitats. In contrast, males of both species mainly foraged on or near land, resulting in significant sexual segregation, but high interspecific habitat and diet overlap. However, some males showed flexible behavioural strategies, also making distant, pelagic foraging trips. Using contemporaneous tracking, environmental and stable isotope data we provide a clear example of how sympatric sibling species can be segregated along different foraging behaviour dimensions.

opencc-zeroSep 2020View details →

Data from: How do seabirds modify their search behaviour when encountering fishing boats?

Seabirds are well known to be attracted by fishing boats to forage on offal and baits. We used recently developed loggers that record accurate GPS position and detect the presence of boats through their radar emissions to examine how albatrosses use Area Restricted Search (ARS) and if so, have specific ARS behaviours, when attending boats. As much as 78.5% of locations with a radar detection (contact with boat) during a trip occurred within ARS: 36.8% of all large-scale ARS (n=212) and 14.7% of all small-scale ARS (n=1476) were associated with the presence of a boat. During small-scale ARS, birds spent more time and had greater sinuosity during boat-associated ARS compared with other ARS that we considered natural. For, small-scale ARS associated with boats, those performed over shelves were longer in duration, had greater sinuosity, and birds spent more time sitting on water compared with oceanic ARS associated with boats. We also found that the proportion of small-scale ARS tend to be more frequently nested in larger-scale ARS was higher for birds associated with boats and that ARS behaviour differed between oceanic (tuna fisheries) and shelf-edge (mainly Patagonian toothfish fisheries) habitats. We suggest that, in seabird species attracted by boats, a significant amount of ARS behaviours are associated with boats, and that it is important to be able to separate ARS behaviours associated to boats from natural searching behaviours. Our study suggest that studying ARS characteristics should help attribute specific behaviours associated to the presence of boats and understand associated risks between fisheries.

opencc-zeroNov 2023View details →

Interspecific introgression and widespread intraspecific gene flow in a clade of tropical and subtropical seabirds

The mechanisms that restrict gene flow between populations and facilitate population differentiation and speciation vary across the tree of life. In systems where physical barriers to gene flow are dynamic over time and space, such as many marine species, genetic introgression may be a major factor in the speciation process. In sympatric species of seabirds, hybridization has been frequently observed but few studies have investigated patterns of introgression. We used whole-genome sequence data to test for interspecific introgression between five pairs of tropical and subtropical seabird species and to test for gene flow within species across major land mass barriers and ocean basins. We found evidence for introgression between: blue-footed (Sula nebouxii) and Peruvian boobies (S. variegata); masked (S. dactylatra) and Nazca boobies (S. granti); and blue-footed and Nazca boobies. We found no evidence of introgression between blue-footed and brown boobies (S. leucogaster), or masked and brown boobies, despite observed hybridization between these species. We also found evidence for gene flow across several major land masses in three pantropical species: red-footed (S. sula), brown, and masked boobies. Finally, we report mixed evidence for ancient introgression between brown boobies and the ancestor of blue-footed, Peruvian, masked, and Nazca boobies. Our work indicates (1) that interspecific introgression has shaped contemporary booby diversity in the eastern Pacific, and (2) that contemporary physical barriers to gene flow between booby colonies are not absolute. Our findings contribute novel insights to the growing body of evidence that introgression is a widespread evolutionary process.

opencc-by-4.0Oct 2023View details →

A dataset of seabird collision and displacement vulnerability factors relatively to marine wind farms in Portugal

The implementation of marine wind farms has grown considerably along northern European's northern Atlantic coasts (e.g. Baltic and North Sea) and a boom in these infrastructures is expected to take place along Europe's entire Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Accordingly, the Portuguese government has recently proposed priority sites for the construction of wind farms along the mainland coast. We used sensitivity mapping (Garthe & Hüppop, 2004) to assess which areas along the Portuguese coast are most sensitive for seabirds and to what extent the proposed sites for wind farm construction overlap with these areas.This dataset contains the base data to estimate a seabird Species Sensitivity Index (SSI) (following Bradbury et al., 2014, Certain et al., 2015), including scores for 11 species-specific ecological and behavioural factors related with seabird species' (i) vulnerability to collision with wind farms (4 factors), (ii) vulnerability to displacement due to disturbance by wind farms and associated maintenance (3 factors), and (iii) conservation status (4 factors). We reviewed the literature to mine and compile data on these factors for 34 seabird species that regularly occur along the Portuguese mainland coast. We updated factor scores, particularly for those factors that have been studied in greater detail in recent years using tracking technologies (Clairbaux & Jessopp, 2021). However, in many cases empirical data were unavailable and we used the scores presented in previous sensitivity mapping studies (Garthe & Hüppop, 2004; Bradbury et al., 2014; Certain et al., 2015; Wade et al., 2016; Serratosa & Allinson, 2022).

opencc-zeroDec 2023View details →

Stranded marine mammals, sea turtles and seabirds in Paraná and Santa Catarina from August 2018 to August 2023

To assess the potential impacts from oil and gas production in deep waters of Brazil's Santos Basin, the Brazilian environmental agency (IBAMA) required PETROBRAS, the main oil company in the basin, to implement the "Projeto de Monitoramento de Praias da Bacia de Santos" (Santos Basin Beach Monitoring Project - PMP-BS). This project has been operating along the states of Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro, since August 2015, collecting data from stranded seabirds, turtles, and marine mammals. This dataset includes records from August 2018 to August 2023, along the Paraná and Santa Catarina coastlines. During this period, 58151 animals of at least 93 species were recorded (883 unidentified animals). From this total, 88.6% were dead and 11.4% alive when first observed. This dataset complements previous ones from the same area, and is a high-intensity monitoring effort essential to understand temporal and geographical variation of stranded animals. This data will allow future works aimed at understanding the impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems and environmental changes over time.

opencc-zeroSep 2022View details →

Temporal change in the contribution of immigration to population growth in a wild seabird experiencing rapid population decline

The source-sink paradigm predicts that populations in poorer-quality habitats ("sinks") persist due to continued immigration from more-productive areas ("sources"). However, this categorisation of populations assumes that habitat quality is fixed through time. Globally, we are in an era of wide-spread habitat degradation, and consequently, there is a pressing need to examine dispersal dynamics in relation to local population change. We used an integrated population model to quantify immigration dynamics in a long-lived colonial seabird, the black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla, that is classified as globally "Vulnerable". We then used a transient life table response experiment to evaluate the contribution of temporal variation in vital rates, immigration rates, and population structure to realised population growth. Finally, we used a simulation analysis to examine the importance of immigration to population dynamics. We show that the contribution of immigration changed as the population declined. This study demonstrates that immigration is unlikely to maintain vulnerable sink populations indefinitely, emphasising the need for temporal analyses of dispersal to identify shifts that may have dramatic consequences for population viability.

Fig. 5 in New Pleistocene bird fossils in Taiwan reveal unexpected seabirds in East Asia

Fig. 5. Tibiotarsi of the fossil gaviid seabird Gavia stellata (Pontoppidan, 1763) (A) and modern Gaviidae (B–F), in cranial (A1–F1), lateral (A2–F2), caudal (A3–F3), medial (A4–F4), and distal (A5–F5) views. A. CMM 2124 from Niubu, Chiayi, Taiwan, Liuchungchi Formation, Lower Pleistocene. B. Gavia stellata (Pontoppidan, 1763) (YIO 79598). C. Gavia arctica (Linnaeus, 1758) (YIO 79597). D. Gavia pacifica (Lawrence, 1858) (YIO 60621). E. Gavia adamsii (G.R. Gray, 1859) (YIO 74354); F. Gavia immer (Brünnich, 1764) (NHMUK S/1987.13.1). Arrows on C4–F4 and C5–F5 indicate the caudomedial process present in these taxa that is lacking in G. stellata. The image order of modern Gaviidae follows the taxonomy established by Sprengelmeyer (2014) and the photos of G. immer are courtesy of Junya Watanabe.

Fig. 4 in New Pleistocene bird fossils in Taiwan reveal unexpected seabirds in East Asia

Fig. 4. The humeri of the fossil gaviid seabird Gavia sp. (A) and modern Gaviidae (B–F) in cranial (A1–F1), dorsal (A2–F2), caudal (A3–F3), ventral (A4–F4), and distal (A5–F5) views. A. CMM 2123 from Niubu, Chiayi, Taiwan, Liuchungchi Formation, Lower Pleistocene. B. Gavia stellata (Pontoppidan, 1763) (YIO 79598). C. Gavia arctica (Linnaeus, 1758) (YIO 72000). D. Gavia pacifica (Lawrence, 1858) (YIO 64763). E. Gavia adamsii (G.R. Gray, 1859) (YIO 63205). F. Gavia immer (Brünnich, 1764) (NHMUK S/1987.13.1). The images of CMM 2123 were obtained from CT. The image order of modern Gaviidae follows the taxonomy established by Sprengelmeyer (2014) and the photos of G. immer are courtesy of Junya Watanabe.

Fig. 1 in New Pleistocene bird fossils in Taiwan reveal unexpected seabirds in East Asia

Fig. 1. Geological setting of Taiwan area and Niubu area; the locality of the two bird fossils is marked with rectangle (modified after Lin et al. 2022).

Fig. 7 in New Pleistocene bird fossils in Taiwan reveal unexpected seabirds in East Asia

Fig. 7. Distribution of Pleistocene records of Gaviidae. A. The distribution around the world. Regional distribution in the Northwest Pacific (B), the Northeast Pacific (C), the Northwest Atlantic (D), and the Northeast Atlantic (E). Taxa with uncertainty are grouped into Gavia spp. See SOM 1: table S3 for details.

Fig. 3 in New Pleistocene bird fossils in Taiwan reveal unexpected seabirds in East Asia

Fig. 3. Stratigraphy of the Western Foothills of southern Taiwan (modified after Chen 2016; Lin et al. 2021). Grey block highlights the Liuchungchi Formation, wherein the bird fossils were found. Only the Early Pleistocene of southern Taiwan is shown.

Fig. 6 in New Pleistocene bird fossils in Taiwan reveal unexpected seabirds in East Asia

Fig. 6. Records of Gaviidae in Taiwan. The records are displayed as the number of occurrences (1–10) and dates (year or Ma). Records between 1861– 1862 and between 1970–1971 are not included because the accurate localities are not accessible. See SOM 1: table S2 for details.

Fig. 2 in New Pleistocene bird fossils in Taiwan reveal unexpected seabirds in East Asia

Fig. 2. The fossils of gaviid seabirds from Niubu, Chiayi, Taiwan, Liuchungchi Formation, Lower Pleistocene. A. Gavia sp., CMM 2123, distal left humerus in cranial (A1, A2), dorsal (A3), caudal (A4), ventral (A5), and distal (A6) views. B. Gavia stellata (Pontoppidan, 1763), CMM 2124, distal left tibiotarsus in cranial (B1, B2), lateral (B3), caudal (B4), medial (B5), and distal (B6) views. Arrows highlight the articular scar for the distal fibula.