Cephalopod prey of light-mantled sooty albatross Phoebetria palpebrata, resource partitioning amongst Kerguelen albatrosses, and teuthofauna of the southern Indian Ocean

• Published in: Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers
• Main Authors: Cherel, Yves, Trouvé, Colette, Bustamante, Paco
• Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Antarctica; Bioindication; Procellariiformes; Psychroteuthis glacialis; seabirds; Southern Ocean; squids; stable isotopes; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; [SDV.AEN]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Food and Nutrition; [SDV.EE.IEO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Symbiosis; Antarctic; Indian; Kerguelen; Kerguelen Islands; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Diomedea exulans; Wandering Albatross
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04130713; https://hal.science/hal-04130713/document; https://hal.science/hal-04130713/file/Cherel%20et%20al.%202023%20DSR.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104082

International audience The cephalopod diet of the light-mantled sooty albatross Phoebetria palpebrata was determined for the first time at the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands by sorting ∼7000 accumulated beaks from 66 regurgitated boluses. Twenty-two taxa were identified, including four dominant squid species that are all endemic to the Southern Ocean: Galiteuthis glacialis (49.8% of the lower beaks) Psychroteuthis glacialis (18.5%), Martialia hyadesi (16.2%) and Moroteuthopsis longimana (6.9%). Beak δ13C values indicated that all adult P. glacialis, almost all juvenile M. longimana, and most adult G. glacialis were caught in Antarctic waters, while albatrosses preyed upon juvenile M. hyadesi in subantarctic waters. Comparative analysis of lower beaks accumulated in food samples of Kerguelen albatrosses showed that the four main sympatric albatross species segregate primarily by species-specific foraging grounds. Light-mantled sooty albatross feed on the Antarctic P. glacialis, wandering albatross Diomedea exulans on subantarctic and subtropical histioteuthids (41.4%), and grey-headed albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma and black-browed albatross T. melanophris on subantarctic ommastrephids (69.3% and 65.7%, respectively), with black-browed albatross also preying upon neritic endemic octopuses (17.6%). Cephalopod prey of Kerguelen albatrosses highlight the abundance and importance of some squids in the functioning of the pelagic ecosystem of the southern Indian Ocean, such as ommastrephids, M. longimana, P. glacialis, Histioteuthis atlantica, H. eltaninae, and G. glacialis. Based on the diet of the light-mantled sooty albatross, P. glacialis appears common in high-Antarctic waters of the southern Indian Ocean, whereas the poorly known Psychroteuthis sp. B (Imber) is evidently present in Antarctic waters south of the Kerguelen Islands