Taking a trip to the shelf: Behavioral decisions are mediated by the proximity to foraging habitats in the black-legged kittiwake
For marine top predators like seabirds, the oceans represent a multitude of habitats regarding oceanographic conditions and food availability. Worldwide, these marine habitats are being altered by changes in climate and increased anthropogenic impact. This is causing a growing concern on how seabird...
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ftntnutrondheimi:oai:ntnuopen.ntnu.no:11250/2470543 2023-05-15T15:44:59+02:00 Taking a trip to the shelf: Behavioral decisions are mediated by the proximity to foraging habitats in the black-legged kittiwake Christensen-Dalsgaard, Signe May, Roelof Frans Lorentsen, Svein Håkon 2017 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2470543 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3700 eng eng Wiley Open Access Andre: Seapop Andre: Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate Andre: CEDREN Ecology and Evolution. 2017, . urn:issn:2045-7758 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2470543 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3700 cristin:1525675 Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no CC-BY 13 Ecology and Evolution Journal article Peer reviewed 2017 ftntnutrondheimi https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3700 2019-09-17T06:53:20Z For marine top predators like seabirds, the oceans represent a multitude of habitats regarding oceanographic conditions and food availability. Worldwide, these marine habitats are being altered by changes in climate and increased anthropogenic impact. This is causing a growing concern on how seabird populations might adapt to these changes. Understanding how seabird populations respond to fluctuating environmental conditions and to what extent behavioral flexibility can buffer variations in food availability can help predict how seabirds may cope with changes in the marine environment. Such knowledge is important to implement proper long-term conservation measures intended to protect marine predators. We explored behavioral flexibility in choice of foraging habitat of chick-rearing black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla during multiple years. By comparing foraging behavior of individuals from two colonies with large differences in oceanographic conditions and distances to predictable feeding areas at the Norwegian shelf break, we investigated how foraging decisions are related to intrinsic and extrinsic factors. We found that proximity to the shelf break determined which factors drove the decision to forage there. At the colony near the shelf break, time of departure from the colony and wind speed were most important in driving the choice of habitat. At the colony farther from the shelf break, the decision to forage there was driven by adult body condition. Birds furthermore adjusted foraging behavior metrics according to time of the day, weather conditions, body condition, and the age of the chicks. The study shows that kittiwakes have high degree of flexibility in their behavioral response to a variable marine environment, which might help them buffer changes in prey distribution around the colonies. The flexibility is, however, dependent on the availability of foraging habitats near the colony. central-place foragers, foraging decisions, GPS tracking, resource allocation, seabird publishedVersion This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.© 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Article in Journal/Newspaper Black-legged Kittiwake rissa tridactyla NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Ecology and Evolution 8 2 866 878 |
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Open Polar |
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NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
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ftntnutrondheimi |
language |
English |
description |
For marine top predators like seabirds, the oceans represent a multitude of habitats regarding oceanographic conditions and food availability. Worldwide, these marine habitats are being altered by changes in climate and increased anthropogenic impact. This is causing a growing concern on how seabird populations might adapt to these changes. Understanding how seabird populations respond to fluctuating environmental conditions and to what extent behavioral flexibility can buffer variations in food availability can help predict how seabirds may cope with changes in the marine environment. Such knowledge is important to implement proper long-term conservation measures intended to protect marine predators. We explored behavioral flexibility in choice of foraging habitat of chick-rearing black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla during multiple years. By comparing foraging behavior of individuals from two colonies with large differences in oceanographic conditions and distances to predictable feeding areas at the Norwegian shelf break, we investigated how foraging decisions are related to intrinsic and extrinsic factors. We found that proximity to the shelf break determined which factors drove the decision to forage there. At the colony near the shelf break, time of departure from the colony and wind speed were most important in driving the choice of habitat. At the colony farther from the shelf break, the decision to forage there was driven by adult body condition. Birds furthermore adjusted foraging behavior metrics according to time of the day, weather conditions, body condition, and the age of the chicks. The study shows that kittiwakes have high degree of flexibility in their behavioral response to a variable marine environment, which might help them buffer changes in prey distribution around the colonies. The flexibility is, however, dependent on the availability of foraging habitats near the colony. central-place foragers, foraging decisions, GPS tracking, resource allocation, seabird publishedVersion This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.© 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Christensen-Dalsgaard, Signe May, Roelof Frans Lorentsen, Svein Håkon |
spellingShingle |
Christensen-Dalsgaard, Signe May, Roelof Frans Lorentsen, Svein Håkon Taking a trip to the shelf: Behavioral decisions are mediated by the proximity to foraging habitats in the black-legged kittiwake |
author_facet |
Christensen-Dalsgaard, Signe May, Roelof Frans Lorentsen, Svein Håkon |
author_sort |
Christensen-Dalsgaard, Signe |
title |
Taking a trip to the shelf: Behavioral decisions are mediated by the proximity to foraging habitats in the black-legged kittiwake |
title_short |
Taking a trip to the shelf: Behavioral decisions are mediated by the proximity to foraging habitats in the black-legged kittiwake |
title_full |
Taking a trip to the shelf: Behavioral decisions are mediated by the proximity to foraging habitats in the black-legged kittiwake |
title_fullStr |
Taking a trip to the shelf: Behavioral decisions are mediated by the proximity to foraging habitats in the black-legged kittiwake |
title_full_unstemmed |
Taking a trip to the shelf: Behavioral decisions are mediated by the proximity to foraging habitats in the black-legged kittiwake |
title_sort |
taking a trip to the shelf: behavioral decisions are mediated by the proximity to foraging habitats in the black-legged kittiwake |
publisher |
Wiley Open Access |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2470543 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3700 |
genre |
Black-legged Kittiwake rissa tridactyla |
genre_facet |
Black-legged Kittiwake rissa tridactyla |
op_source |
13 Ecology and Evolution |
op_relation |
Andre: Seapop Andre: Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate Andre: CEDREN Ecology and Evolution. 2017, . urn:issn:2045-7758 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2470543 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3700 cristin:1525675 |
op_rights |
Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3700 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
866 |
op_container_end_page |
878 |
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1766379344812310528 |