Diving of great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis) in cold and warm water regions of the South Atlantic Ocean
BACKGROUND: Among the most widespread seabirds in the world, shearwaters of the genus Puffinus are also some of the deepest diving members of the Procellariiformes. Maximum diving depths are known for several Puffinus species, but dive depths or diving behaviour have never been recorded for great sh...
Published in: | PLoS ONE |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science
2010
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14931 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015508 |
id |
ftunivcapetownir:oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14931 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivcapetownir:oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/14931 2024-09-15T17:48:22+00:00 Diving of great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis) in cold and warm water regions of the South Atlantic Ocean Ronconi, Robert A Ryan, Peter G Ropert-Coudert, Yan 2010 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14931 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015508 eng eng Public Library of Science Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology Faculty of Science University of Cape Town http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14931 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015508 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. © 2010 Ronconi et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 PLoS One http://journals.plos.org/plosone Birds Foraging Habitats Oceanography Journal Article 2010 ftunivcapetownir https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015508 2024-06-25T03:36:35Z BACKGROUND: Among the most widespread seabirds in the world, shearwaters of the genus Puffinus are also some of the deepest diving members of the Procellariiformes. Maximum diving depths are known for several Puffinus species, but dive depths or diving behaviour have never been recorded for great shearwaters ( P. gravis ), the largest member of this genus. This study reports the first high sampling rate (2 s) of depth and diving behaviour for Puffinus shearwaters. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Time-depth recorders (TDRs) were deployed on two female great shearwaters nesting on Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, recording 10 consecutive days of diving activity. Remote sensing imagery and movement patterns of 8 males tracked by satellite telemetry over the same period were used to identify probable foraging areas used by TDR-equipped females. The deepest and longest dive was to 18.9 m and lasted 40 s, but most (>50%) dives were <2 m deep. Diving was most frequent near dawn and dusk, with <0.5% of dives occurring at night. The two individuals foraged in contrasting oceanographic conditions, one in cold (8 to 10°C) water of the Sub-Antarctic Front, likely 1000 km south of the breeding colony, and the other in warmer (10 to 16°C) water of the Sub-tropical Frontal Zone, at the same latitude as the colony, possibly on the Patagonian Shelf, 4000 km away. The cold water bird spent fewer days commuting, conducted four times as many dives as the warm water bird, dived deeper on average, and had a greater proportion of bottom time during dives. Conclusions/Significance General patterns of diving activity were consistent with those of other shearwaters foraging in cold and warm water habitats. Great shearwaters are likely adapted to forage in a wide range of oceanographic conditions, foraging mostly with shallow dives but capable of deep diving. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Inaccessible Island South Atlantic Ocean University of Cape Town: OpenUCT PLoS ONE 5 11 e15508 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Cape Town: OpenUCT |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcapetownir |
language |
English |
topic |
Birds Foraging Habitats Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Birds Foraging Habitats Oceanography Ronconi, Robert A Ryan, Peter G Ropert-Coudert, Yan Diving of great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis) in cold and warm water regions of the South Atlantic Ocean |
topic_facet |
Birds Foraging Habitats Oceanography |
description |
BACKGROUND: Among the most widespread seabirds in the world, shearwaters of the genus Puffinus are also some of the deepest diving members of the Procellariiformes. Maximum diving depths are known for several Puffinus species, but dive depths or diving behaviour have never been recorded for great shearwaters ( P. gravis ), the largest member of this genus. This study reports the first high sampling rate (2 s) of depth and diving behaviour for Puffinus shearwaters. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Time-depth recorders (TDRs) were deployed on two female great shearwaters nesting on Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, recording 10 consecutive days of diving activity. Remote sensing imagery and movement patterns of 8 males tracked by satellite telemetry over the same period were used to identify probable foraging areas used by TDR-equipped females. The deepest and longest dive was to 18.9 m and lasted 40 s, but most (>50%) dives were <2 m deep. Diving was most frequent near dawn and dusk, with <0.5% of dives occurring at night. The two individuals foraged in contrasting oceanographic conditions, one in cold (8 to 10°C) water of the Sub-Antarctic Front, likely 1000 km south of the breeding colony, and the other in warmer (10 to 16°C) water of the Sub-tropical Frontal Zone, at the same latitude as the colony, possibly on the Patagonian Shelf, 4000 km away. The cold water bird spent fewer days commuting, conducted four times as many dives as the warm water bird, dived deeper on average, and had a greater proportion of bottom time during dives. Conclusions/Significance General patterns of diving activity were consistent with those of other shearwaters foraging in cold and warm water habitats. Great shearwaters are likely adapted to forage in a wide range of oceanographic conditions, foraging mostly with shallow dives but capable of deep diving. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ronconi, Robert A Ryan, Peter G Ropert-Coudert, Yan |
author_facet |
Ronconi, Robert A Ryan, Peter G Ropert-Coudert, Yan |
author_sort |
Ronconi, Robert A |
title |
Diving of great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis) in cold and warm water regions of the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
Diving of great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis) in cold and warm water regions of the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
Diving of great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis) in cold and warm water regions of the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Diving of great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis) in cold and warm water regions of the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diving of great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis) in cold and warm water regions of the South Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
diving of great shearwaters (puffinus gravis) in cold and warm water regions of the south atlantic ocean |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14931 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015508 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Inaccessible Island South Atlantic Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Inaccessible Island South Atlantic Ocean |
op_source |
PLoS One http://journals.plos.org/plosone |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/14931 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015508 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. © 2010 Ronconi et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015508 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
e15508 |
_version_ |
1810289521050255360 |