Spatiotemporal habitat use by breeding sooty shearwaters Puffinus griseus

• Published in: Marine Ecology Progress Series
• Main Authors: Shaffer, Scott A., Weimerskirch, Henri, Scott, Darren, Pinaud, David, Thompson, David R., Sagar, Paul M., Moller, Henrik, Taylor, Graeme A., Foley, David G., Tremblay, Yann, Costa, Daniel P.
• Other Authors: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), University of California (UC)-University of California (UC), Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Zoology, University of Otago Dunedin, Nouvelle-Zélande, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Wellington (NIWA), National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Christchurch (NIWA), Department of Conservation, Ecosystèmes Marins Exploités (UMR EME), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Montpellier (UM), Hopkins Marine Station Stanford, Stanford University
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2009
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Antarctic; New Zealand; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00529611; https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07932

International audience Breeding sooty shearwaters Puffinus griseus cycle between long (11 to 14 d) and short (1 to 2 d) foraging bouts at sea, but no information exists on bird behavior during these trips. We tested the hypothesis that shearwaters use these long trips to travel to distant Antarctic waters compared to remaining in local waters. Patterns of habitat use of 28 breeding sooty shearwaters were studied using 6 g archival data loggers that recorded location, environmental temperature, and diving behavior. Dive activity was compared to remotely-sensed environmental data to characterize the habitats visited by shearwaters on long and short trips. Sooty shearwaters traveled predominantly (70% of all long trips) to cold oceanic waters along the Polar Front (mean ± SD, 1970 ± 930 km from colony) on long trips or remained within warmer neritic waters of the New Zealand shelf (515 ± 248 km from colony) on short trips. Diving depths (mean depth 15.9 ± 10.8 m, max depth 69.9 m, n = 2007 dives) were not significantly different between excursion types. Activity patterns suggest that shearwaters commuted between distant foraging grounds (e.g. Polar Front) and the breeding colony and that more than 95% of diving activity occurred during daylight hours. Although shearwaters traveled primarily to Antarctic waters on long trips, occasional trips around New Zealand waters were observed; all but 2 birds were from the northern-most study colony. Oceanic habitats in Antarctic waters were substantially different from neritic habitats around New Zealand, indicating that shearwaters experience dramatically different environmental conditions associated with each excursion type. The ability of sooty shearwaters to use 2 vastly different habitats provides greater flexibility for maximizing resource acquisition during breeding and reduces competition near the colony.