Escaping the oligotrophic gyre? The year-round movements, foraging behaviour and habitat preferences of Murphy’s petrels

Ta Clay,Ra Phillips,Ha Jackson,Mdel Brooke,A Manica

doi:10.3354/meps12244

Abstract

T.A.C. was supported by a studentship funded as part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Standard Grant NE/J021083/1. This study represents a contribution to the Ecosystems component of the British Antarctic Survey Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme, funded by NERC.

Highlights

Many species traverse considerable portions of the Earth’s surface to take advantage of ephemeral food supplies (Dingle 1996)
Whilst research on tropical seabirds has increased over the last 2 decades (e.g. Ballance et al 1997, Congdon et al 2005, Jaquemet et al 2005, Le Corre et al 2012), little is known about their foraging ecology in some of the ocean’s least productive areas, the subtropical gyres, where the circulation of currents prevents upwelling of nutrients (Longhurst 2007)
This study is the first to detail the movements of a seabird that breeds in the South Pacific Gyre, an extremely remote and understudied marine environment (Claustre & Maritorena 2003)

Summary

Introduction

Many species traverse considerable portions of the Earth’s surface to take advantage of ephemeral food supplies (Dingle 1996). Mar Ecol Prog Ser 579: 139–155, 2017 As their food resources are patchily distributed, tropical seabirds have evolved specific foraging adaptations that enable them to search large areas efficiently (Ballance & Pitman 1999, Weimerskirch et al 2005a). In the eastern tropical Pacific, selection for flight proficiency in terns (Sternidae) and petrels (Procellariidae) is associated with their use of less productive waters, reducing competition with larger species such as boobies Sula spp. that gather around schools of tuna in more productive regions (Ballance et al 1997). Despite the impoverished oceanic environment, many islands support large populations of pelagic seabirds such as gadfly petrels Pterodroma spp., a large group (34 species) of small to medium sized petrels whose breeding colonies range from north temperate to subantarctic waters

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