Predicting cetacean and seabird habitats across a productivity gradient in the South Pacific gyre

Abstract

Oligotrophic regions are expected to host low densities of top predators. Nevertheless, top predators with contrasting energetic costs might respond differently to the productivity of their habitats. Predators with high energetic demands might be constrained to select the most productive habitats to meet their high energetic requirements, whereas less active predators would be able to satisfy their needs by exploiting either high or low productivity habitats. Although situated in the core of the South Pacific oligotrophic gyre, French Polynesia is characterized by a fairly marked productivity gradient from the extremely oligotrophic Australs area to the more productive Marquesas area. The aim of this study was to investigate cetacean and seabird habitats in French Polynesia in light of their general energetic constraints. We collected cetacean and seabird sightings from an aerial survey across French Polynesian waters during the austral summer 2011. We classified cetaceans and seabirds into energetic guilds according to the literature. For each guild, we built generalized additive models along with static covariates and oceanographic covariates at the seasonal and climatological resolutions. We provided regional habitat predictions for Delphininae, Globicephalinae, sperm and beaked whales, tropicbirds, grey terns, noddies, white terns, boobies, petrels and shearwaters, sooty terns and frigatebirds. Explained deviances ranged from 5% to 30% for cetaceans and from 14% to 29% for seabirds. Cetaceans clearly responded to the productivity gradient, with the highest predicted densities around the productive waters of the Marquesas. However, Delphininae and Globicephalinae, characterized by higher energetic demands, depended more strongly on productivity, showing a ratio of 1–26 and 1–31 between their lowest and highest density areas respectively, compared to the less active sperm and beaked whales (showing only a ratio of 1–3.5 in predicted densities). In contrast, seabird distributions appeared more governed by the availability of nesting and roosting sites than by energetic constraints.