Fine-scale spatial segregation in a pelagic seabird driven by differential use of tidewater glacier fronts

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Bertrand, Philip, Bêty, Joël, Yoccoz, Nigel, Fortin, Marie-Josée, Strøm, Hallvard, Steen, Harald, Kohler, Jack, Harris, Stephanie, Patrick, Samantha, Chastel, Olivier, Blévin, P., Hop, Haakon, Moholdt, Geir, Maton, Joséphine, Descamps, Sébastien
• Other Authors: Département de biologie, chimie et géographie & Centre d’études nordiques Canada, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, University of Tromsø (UiT), Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Toronto (EEB), University of Toronto, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University New York, School of Environmental Sciences Liverpool, University of Liverpool, 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), Akvaplan-Niva Tromsø, Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Arctic; rissa tridactyla; Tidewater
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03434016; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01404-1

International audience Abstract In colonially breeding marine predators, individual movements and colonial segregation are influenced by seascape characteristics. Tidewater glacier fronts are important features of the Arctic seascape and are often described as foraging hotspots. Albeit their documented importance for wildlife, little is known about their structuring effect on Arctic predator movements and space use. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that tidewater glacier fronts can influence marine bird foraging patterns and drive spatial segregation among adjacent colonies. We analysed movements of black-legged kittiwakes ( Rissa tridactyla ) in a glacial fjord by tracking breeding individuals from five colonies. Although breeding kittiwakes were observed to travel up to ca. 280 km from the colony, individuals were more likely to use glacier fronts located closer to their colony and rarely used glacier fronts located farther away than 18 km. Such variation in the use of glacier fronts created fine-scale spatial segregation among the four closest (ca. 7 km distance on average) kittiwake colonies. Overall, our results support the hypothesis that spatially predictable foraging patches like glacier fronts can have strong structuring effects on predator movements and can modulate the magnitude of intercolonial spatial segregation in central-place foragers.