Abstract: Every year, billions of birds undertake extensive migrations between breeding and non-breeding areas, facing challenges that require behavioural adjustments, particularly to flight timing and duration. Such adjustments in daily activity patterns and the influence of extrinsic factors (e.g., environmental conditions, moonlight) have received much more research attention in terrestrial than marine migrants. Taking advantage of the widespread deployment in recent decades of combined light-level geolocator-immersion loggers, we investigated diel organisation and influence of the moon on flight activities during the non-breeding season of 21 migrant seabird species from a wide taxonomic range (6 families, 3 orders). Migrant seabirds regularly stopped (to either feed or rest) during migration, unlike some terrestrial and wetland birds which fly non-stop. We found an overall increase for most seabird species in time in flight and, for several species, also in flight bout duration, during migration compared to when resident at the non-breeding grounds. Additionally, several nocturnal species spent more of the day in flight during migration than at non-breeding areas, and vice versa for diurnal species. Nocturnal time in flight tended to increase during full moon, both during migration and at the non-breeding grounds, depending on species. Our study provides an extensive overview of activity patterns of migrant seabirds, paving the way for further research on the underlying mechanisms and drivers.

Abstract: Electronic tracking technologies revolutionized wildlife ecology, notably for studying the movements of elusive species such as seabirds. Those advances are key to seabird conservation, for example in guiding the design of marine protected areas for this highly threatened group. Tracking data are also boosting scientific understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics in the context of global change. To optimize future tracking efforts, we performed a global assessment of seabird tracking data. We identified and mined 689 seabird tracking studies, reporting on > 28,000 individuals of 216 species from 17 families over the last four decades. We found substantial knowledge gaps, reflecting a historical neglect of tropical seabird ecology, with biases toward species that are heavier, oceanic, and from high-latitude regions. Conservation status had little influence on seabird tracking propensity. We identified 54 threatened species for which we did not find published tracking records, and 19 with very little data. Additionally, much of the existing tracking data are not yet available to other researchers and decision-makers in online databases. We highlight priority species and regions for future tracking efforts. More broadly, we provide guidance toward an ethical, rational, and efficient global tracking program for seabirds, as a contribution to their conservation.

Abstract: Each winter, the North Atlantic Ocean is the stage for numerous cyclones, the most severe ones leading to seabird mass-mortality events called “winter wrecks.”1, 2, 3 During these, thousands of emaciated seabird carcasses are washed ashore along European and North American coasts. Winter cyclones can therefore shape seabird population dynamics4,5 by affecting survival rates as well as the body condition of surviving individuals and thus their future reproduction. However, most often the geographic origins of impacted seabirds and the causes of their deaths remain unclear.6 We performed the first ocean-basin scale assessment of cyclone exposure in a seabird community by coupling winter tracking data for ∼1,500 individuals of five key North Atlantic seabird species (Alle alle, Fratercula arctica, Uria aalge, Uria lomvia, and Rissa tridactyla) and cyclone locations. We then explored the energetic consequences of different cyclonic conditions using a mechanistic bioenergetics model7 and tested the hypothesis that cyclones dramatically increase seabird energy requirements. We demonstrated that cyclones of high intensity impacted birds from all studied species and breeding colonies during winter but especially those aggregating in the Labrador Sea, the Davis Strait, the surroundings of Iceland, and the Barents Sea. Our broad-scale analyses suggested that cyclonic conditions do not increase seabird energy requirements, implying that they die because of the unavailability of their prey and/or their inability to feed during cyclones. Our study provides essential information on seabird cyclone exposure in a context of marked cyclone regime changes due to global warming.8

Abstract: Despite the limited direct anthropogenic mercury (Hg) inputs in the circumpolar Arctic, elevated concentrations of methylmercury (MeHg) are accumulated in Arctic marine biota. However, the MeHg production and bioaccumulation pathways in these ecosystems have not been completely unraveled. We measured Hg concentrations and stable isotope ratios of Hg, carbon, and nitrogen in the feathers and blood of geolocator-tracked little auk Alle alle from five Arctic breeding colonies. The wide-range spatial mobility and tissue-specific Hg integration times of this planktivorous seabird allowed the exploration of their spatial (wintering quarters/breeding grounds) and seasonal (nonbreeding/breeding periods) MeHg exposures. An east-to-west increase of head feather Hg concentrations (1.74–3.48 μg·g–1) was accompanied by significant spatial trends of Hg isotope (particularly Δ199Hg: 0.96–1.13‰) and carbon isotope (δ13C: −20.6 to −19.4‰) ratios. These trends suggest a distinct mixing/proportion of MeHg sources between western North Atlantic and eastern Arctic regions. Higher Δ199Hg values (+0.4‰) in northern colonies indicate an accumulation of more photochemically impacted MeHg, supporting shallow MeHg production and bioaccumulation in high Arctic waters. The combination of seabird tissue isotopic analysis and spatial tracking helps in tracing the MeHg sources at various spatio-temporal scales.

Abstract: Despite expanding in-situ observations of marine ecosystems by new-generation sensors, information about intermediate trophic levels remains sparse. Indeed, mid-trophic levels, while encompassing a broad range of zooplankton and micronekton organisms that represent a key component of marine ecosystems and sustain large and diverse communities of marine predators, are challenging to sample and identify. In this study, we examined whether an animal-borne miniature active echosounder can provide information on the distribution and movements of mid-trophic level organisms. If so, such a sonar tag, harnessing the persistent diving behaviour of far-ranging marine mammals, could greatly increase the density of data on this under-studied biome. High-frequency (1.5 MHz) sonar tags were deployed simultaneously with oceanographic tags on two southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), at the Kerguelen Islands and Valdés Peninsula (Argentina), and recorded acoustic backscatter while the seals foraged respectively in the Indian and the Atlantic sectors of the Southern Ocean. The backscatter varied widely over time and space, and the seals attempted to capture only a small fraction of the insonified targets. Diel vertical migration patterns were clearly identifiable in the data, reinforcing our confidence in the ability of the sonar tags to detect living mid-trophic organisms along with possibly sinking biological detritus. Moreover, CTD tags attached to the same animals indicated how the abundance, size distribution, and diel migration behaviour of acoustic targets varied with water bodies. These preliminary results demonstrate the potential for animal-borne sonars to provide detailed in-situ information. Further validation effort will make it a valuable tool to refine the estimation of carbon export fluxes as well as for assessing the variation of mid-trophic level biomass according to oceanographic domains and seasons.