Search results for " Seabird"
showing 10 items of 14 documents
A risk assessment of the effects of mercury on Baltic Sea, Greater North Sea and North Atlantic wildlife, fish and bivalves
2021
Abstract: A wide range of species, including marine mammals, seabirds, birds of prey, fish and bivalves, were investigated for potential population health risks resulting from contemporary (post 2000) mercury (Hg) exposure, using novel risk thresholds based on literature and de novo contamination data. The main geographic focus is on the Baltic Sea, while data from the same species in adjacent waters, such as the Greater North Sea and North Atlantic, were included for comparative purposes. For marine mammals, 23% of the groups, each composing individuals of a specific sex and maturity from the same species in a specific study region, showed Hg-concentrations within the High Risk Category (H…
Trans-equatorial migration routes, staging sites and wintering areas of a High-Arctic avian predator: the Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus).
2013
The Long-tailed Skua, a small (,300 g) Arctic-breeding predator and seabird, is a functionally very important component of the Arctic vertebrate communities in summer, but little is known about its migration and winter distribution. We used lightlevel geolocators to track the annual movements of eight adult birds breeding in north-east Greenland (n = 3) and Svalbard (n = 5). All birds wintered in the Southern Hemisphere (mean arrival-departure dates on wintering grounds: 24 October-21 March): five along the south-west coast of Africa (0–40uS, 0–15uE), in the productive Benguela upwelling, and three further south (30–40uS, 0–50uE), in an area extending into the south-west Indian Ocean. Diffe…
Comparative host–parasite population structures: disentangling prospecting and dispersal in the black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla
2005
Although much insight is to be gained through the comparison of the population genetic structures of parasites and hosts, there are, at present, few studies that take advantage of the information on vertebrate life histories available through the consideration of their parasites. Here, we examined the genetic structure of a colonial seabird, the black-legged kittiwake ( Rissa tridactyla ) using seven polymorphic microsatellite markers to make inferences about population functioning and intercolony dispersal. We sampled kittiwakes from 22 colonies across the species’ range and, at the same time, collected individuals of one of its common ectoparasites, the tick Ixodes uriae . Parasites were …
Multispecies tracking reveals a major seabird hotspot in the North Atlantic
2021
The conservation of migratory marine species, including pelagic seabirds, is challenging because their movements span vast distances frequently beyond national jurisdictions. Here, we aim to identify important aggregations of seabirds in the North Atlantic to inform ongoing regional conservation efforts. Using tracking, phenology, and population data, we mapped the abundance and diversity of 21 seabird species. This revealed a major hotspot associated with a discrete area of the subpolar frontal zone, used annually by 2.9–5 million seabirds from ≥56 colonies in the Atlantic: the first time this magnitude of seabird concentrations has been documented in the high seas. The hotspot is temporal…
Flexibility in otherwise consistent non-breeding movements of a long-distance migratory seabird, the long-tailed skua
2017
Quantifying within- and between-individual variation in animal migration strategies is a first step towards our understanding of the ability of migrants to adjust to changes in the en - vironment. We studied consistency (or, conversely, flexibility) in movement patterns at large (>1000 km) to meso-scales (100−1000 km) during the non-breeding season of the long-tailed skua Stercorarius longicaudus, a long-distance migratory Arctic seabird, using light-based geolocation. We obtained 97 annual tracks of 38 individuals and quantified similarity between routes. Overall, tracks of the same individual were generally within about 200 to 300 km of their previous year’s route, and more similar than t…
Olfactory foraging in temperate waters: sensitivity to dimethylsulphide of shearwaters in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
2014
AbstractMany procellariiforms use olfactory cues to locate food patches over the seemingly featureless ocean surface. In particular, some of them are able to detect and are attracted by dimethylsulfide (DMS), a volatile compound naturally occurring over worldwide oceans in correspondence with productive feeding areas. However, current knowledge is restricted to sub-Antarctic species, and to only one study realized under natural conditions at sea. Here, for the first time, we investigated the response to DMS in parallel in two different environments in temperate waters, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, employing Cory's (Calonectris borealis) and Scopoli's shearwaters (Calonectri…
Global distributions of diazotrophs abundance and biomass - Depth integrated values computed from a collection of source datasets - Contribution to t…
2013
The MAREDAT atlas covers 11 types of plankton, ranging in size from bacteria to jellyfish. Together, these plankton groups determine the health and productivity of the global ocean and play a vital role in the global carbon cycle. Working within a uniform and consistent spatial and depth grid (map) of the global ocean, the researchers compiled thousands and tens of thousands of data points to identify regions of plankton abundance and scarcity as well as areas of data abundance and scarcity. At many of the grid points, the MAREDAT team accomplished the difficult conversion from abundance (numbers of organisms) to biomass (carbon mass of organisms). The MAREDAT atlas provides an unprecedente…
Global distributions of diazotrophs Gamma-A nifH genes abundance - Depth integrated values computed from a collection of source datasets - Contributi…
2013
The MAREDAT atlas covers 11 types of plankton, ranging in size from bacteria to jellyfish. Together, these plankton groups determine the health and productivity of the global ocean and play a vital role in the global carbon cycle. Working within a uniform and consistent spatial and depth grid (map) of the global ocean, the researchers compiled thousands and tens of thousands of data points to identify regions of plankton abundance and scarcity as well as areas of data abundance and scarcity. At many of the grid points, the MAREDAT team accomplished the difficult conversion from abundance (numbers of organisms) to biomass (carbon mass of organisms). The MAREDAT atlas provides an unprecedente…
Individual variation of persistent organic pollutants in relation to stable isotope ratios, sex, reproductive phase and oxidative status in Scopoli's…
2017
Abstract: Little is known about the accumulation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and its consequences for seabirds in the Mediterranean basin. We characterised the plasma contaminant profile (polychlorinated biphenyls ΣPCBs; organochlorine pesticides ΣOCPs; polybrominated diphenyl ethers ΣPBDEs) of a population of the seabird Scopoli's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) that breeds in the southern Mediterranean (Linosa Island) and investigated (i) whether sex, stable isotope ratios (related to diet), reproductive phase (early incubation vs. late breeding season) and body mass explained variation in contaminant burden and (ii) whether they predict health-related variables. The predomi…
Effects of human disturbance on cave-nesting seabirds: The case of the storm petrel
2015
We tested the effects of human disturbance in two sub-colonies of Mediterranean storm petrel. We conducted three experiments to measure the capacity of the storm petrels to respond to stress. The part of the colony exposed to human disturbance resulted to be habituated and did not show chronic stress related to anthropogenic disturbance.