Nocturnal Foraging by Red-Legged Kittiwakes, a Surface Feeding Seabird That Relies on Deep Water Prey During Reproduction.
Narrow foraging specialization may increase the vulnerability of marine predators to climate change. The red-legged kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris) is endemic to the Bering Sea and has experienced drastic population fluctuations in recent decades, presumably due to climate-driven changes in food reso...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:b46f1ccffc48471fbe8797166aa3120b 2023-05-15T15:43:41+02:00 Nocturnal Foraging by Red-Legged Kittiwakes, a Surface Feeding Seabird That Relies on Deep Water Prey During Reproduction. Nobuo Kokubun Takashi Yamamoto Dale M Kikuchi Alexander Kitaysky Akinori Takahashi 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138850 https://doaj.org/article/b46f1ccffc48471fbe8797166aa3120b EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4605634?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138850 https://doaj.org/article/b46f1ccffc48471fbe8797166aa3120b PLoS ONE, Vol 10, Iss 10, p e0138850 (2015) Medicine R Science Q article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138850 2023-01-08T01:40:44Z Narrow foraging specialization may increase the vulnerability of marine predators to climate change. The red-legged kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris) is endemic to the Bering Sea and has experienced drastic population fluctuations in recent decades, presumably due to climate-driven changes in food resources. Red-legged kittiwakes are presumed to be a nocturnal surface-foraging seabird that feed almost entirely on deep water Myctophidae fishes. However, there is little empirical evidence confirming their nocturnal foraging activity during the breeding season. This study investigated the foraging behavior of red-legged kittiwakes by combining GPS tracking, accelerometry, and dietary analyses at the world's largest breeding colony of red-legged kittiwakes on St. George I. GPS tracking of 5 individuals revealed that 82.5% of non-flight behavior (including foraging and resting) occurred over the ocean basin (bottom depth >1,000 m). Acceleration data from 4 birds showed three types of behaviors during foraging trips: (1) flight, characterized by regular wing flapping, (2) resting on water, characterized by non-active behavior, and (3) foraging, when wing flapping was irregular. The proportions of both foraging and resting behaviors were higher at night (14.1 ± 7.1% and 20.8 ± 14.3%) compared to those during the day (6.5 ± 3.0% and 1.7 ± 2.7%). The mean duration of foraging (2.4 ± 2.9 min) was shorter than that of flight between prey patches (24.2 ± 53.1 min). Dietary analyses confirmed myctophids as the dominant prey (100% by occurrence and 98.4 ± 2.4% by wet-weight). Although the sample size was limited, these results suggest that breeding red-legged kittiwakes concentrated their foraging on myctophids available at the surface during nighttime in deep water regions. We propose that the diel patterns and ephemeral nature of their foraging activity reflected the availability of myctophids. Such foraging specialization may exacerbate the vulnerability of red-legged kittiwakes to climate change in the Bering Sea. Article in Journal/Newspaper Bering Sea Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Bering Sea PLOS ONE 10 10 e0138850 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Nobuo Kokubun Takashi Yamamoto Dale M Kikuchi Alexander Kitaysky Akinori Takahashi Nocturnal Foraging by Red-Legged Kittiwakes, a Surface Feeding Seabird That Relies on Deep Water Prey During Reproduction. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Narrow foraging specialization may increase the vulnerability of marine predators to climate change. The red-legged kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris) is endemic to the Bering Sea and has experienced drastic population fluctuations in recent decades, presumably due to climate-driven changes in food resources. Red-legged kittiwakes are presumed to be a nocturnal surface-foraging seabird that feed almost entirely on deep water Myctophidae fishes. However, there is little empirical evidence confirming their nocturnal foraging activity during the breeding season. This study investigated the foraging behavior of red-legged kittiwakes by combining GPS tracking, accelerometry, and dietary analyses at the world's largest breeding colony of red-legged kittiwakes on St. George I. GPS tracking of 5 individuals revealed that 82.5% of non-flight behavior (including foraging and resting) occurred over the ocean basin (bottom depth >1,000 m). Acceleration data from 4 birds showed three types of behaviors during foraging trips: (1) flight, characterized by regular wing flapping, (2) resting on water, characterized by non-active behavior, and (3) foraging, when wing flapping was irregular. The proportions of both foraging and resting behaviors were higher at night (14.1 ± 7.1% and 20.8 ± 14.3%) compared to those during the day (6.5 ± 3.0% and 1.7 ± 2.7%). The mean duration of foraging (2.4 ± 2.9 min) was shorter than that of flight between prey patches (24.2 ± 53.1 min). Dietary analyses confirmed myctophids as the dominant prey (100% by occurrence and 98.4 ± 2.4% by wet-weight). Although the sample size was limited, these results suggest that breeding red-legged kittiwakes concentrated their foraging on myctophids available at the surface during nighttime in deep water regions. We propose that the diel patterns and ephemeral nature of their foraging activity reflected the availability of myctophids. Such foraging specialization may exacerbate the vulnerability of red-legged kittiwakes to climate change in the Bering Sea. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nobuo Kokubun Takashi Yamamoto Dale M Kikuchi Alexander Kitaysky Akinori Takahashi |
author_facet |
Nobuo Kokubun Takashi Yamamoto Dale M Kikuchi Alexander Kitaysky Akinori Takahashi |
author_sort |
Nobuo Kokubun |
title |
Nocturnal Foraging by Red-Legged Kittiwakes, a Surface Feeding Seabird That Relies on Deep Water Prey During Reproduction. |
title_short |
Nocturnal Foraging by Red-Legged Kittiwakes, a Surface Feeding Seabird That Relies on Deep Water Prey During Reproduction. |
title_full |
Nocturnal Foraging by Red-Legged Kittiwakes, a Surface Feeding Seabird That Relies on Deep Water Prey During Reproduction. |
title_fullStr |
Nocturnal Foraging by Red-Legged Kittiwakes, a Surface Feeding Seabird That Relies on Deep Water Prey During Reproduction. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Nocturnal Foraging by Red-Legged Kittiwakes, a Surface Feeding Seabird That Relies on Deep Water Prey During Reproduction. |
title_sort |
nocturnal foraging by red-legged kittiwakes, a surface feeding seabird that relies on deep water prey during reproduction. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138850 https://doaj.org/article/b46f1ccffc48471fbe8797166aa3120b |
geographic |
Bering Sea |
geographic_facet |
Bering Sea |
genre |
Bering Sea |
genre_facet |
Bering Sea |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 10, Iss 10, p e0138850 (2015) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4605634?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138850 https://doaj.org/article/b46f1ccffc48471fbe8797166aa3120b |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138850 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
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10 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
e0138850 |
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1766377881799229440 |