Abstract: Difficulties quantifying in situ prey patch quality have limited our understanding of how marine predators respond to variation within and between patches, and throughout their foraging range. In the present study, animal-borne video, GPS, accelerometer and dive behaviour data loggers were used to investigate the fine-scale foraging behaviour of Macaroni penguins (Eudyptes chrysolophus) in response to prey type, patch density and temporal variation in diving behaviour. Individuals mainly dived during the day and utilised two strategies, targeting different prey types. Subantarctic krill (Euphausia vallentini) were consumed during deep dives, while small soft-bodied fish were captured on shallow dives or during the ascent phase of deep dives. Despite breeding in large colonies individuals seemed to be solitary foragers and did not engage with conspecifics in coordinated behaviour as seen in other group foraging penguin species. This potentially reflects the high abundance and low manoeuvrability of krill. Video data were used to validate prey capture signals in accelerometer data and a Support Vector Machine learning algorithm was developed to identify prey captures that occurred throughout the entire foraging trip. Prey capture rates indicated that Macaroni penguins continued to forage beyond the optimal give up time. However, bout-scale analysis revealed individuals terminated diving behaviour for reasons other than patch quality. These findings indicate that individuals make complex foraging decisions in relation to their proximate environment over multiple spatio-temporal scales.

Abstract: Satellite altimetry and gravimetry are used to determine the mean seasonal cycle in relative sea level, a quantity relevant to coastal flooding and related applications. The main harmonics (annual, semiannual, terannual) are estimated from 25 years of gridded altimetry, while several conventional altimeter “corrections” (gravitational tide, pole tide, and inverted barometer) are restored. To transform from absolute to relative sea levels, a model of vertical land motion is developed from a high-resolution seasonal mass inversion estimated from satellite gravimetry. An adjustment for annual geocenter motion accounts for use of a center-of-mass reference frame in satellite orbit determination. A set of 544 test tide gauges, from which seasonal harmonics have been estimated from hourly measurements, is used to assess how accurately each adjustment to the altimeter data helps converge the results to true relative sea levels. At these gauges, the median annual and semiannual amplitudes are 7.1 cm and 2.2 cm, respectively. The root-mean-square differences with altimetry are 3.24 and 1.17 cm, respectively, which are reduced to 1.93 and 0.86 cm after restoration of corrections and adjustment for land motion. Example outliers highlight some limitations of present-day coastal altimetry owing to inadequate spatial resolution: upwelling and currents off Oregon and wave setup at Minamitori Island.

Abstract: We re-examined the slip distribution on faults of the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman (M 9.1 according to USGS) earthquake by the inversion of tsunami data with phase-corrected Green’s functions applied to linear long waves. The correction accounts for the effects of compressibility of seawater, elasticity of solid earth, and gravitational potential variation associated with the motion of mass to reproduce the delayed arrivals and the reversed phase of the first tsunami waves. We used sea surface height (SSH) data from satellite altimetry (SA) measurements along five tracks, and the tsunami waveforms recorded at tide gauges (TGs) and ocean bottom pressure gauges (OBPGs) in and around the Indian Ocean. The inversion results for both data sets for different rupture velocities (Vr) show that the reproducibility of the spatiotemporal SSHs and tsunami waveforms is improved by the phase corrections, although the effects are not so significant within the Indian Ocean. The best slip distribution model from joint inversion of SA, TG and OBPG data with Vr of 1.3 km/s shows the largest slips of 16–25 m off Sumatra Island, large slips of 2–11 m off the Nicobar Islands, and moderate slips of 2–6 m in the Andaman Islands. The inversion results reproduce the far-field tsunami waveforms well at distant stations even more than 13,000–25,000 km from the epicenter. The total source length is about 1400 km and the seismic moment is Mw 9.2, longer and larger than that of our previous estimates based on TG records.

Abstract: Aim In migratory species, individuals often use fixed and individual-specific migration strategies, which we term individual migration strategy fidelity (IMSF). Our goal was to test if guillemots have flexible or fixed individual migration strategies (i.e. IMSF), if this behaviour is consistent across large parts of the genus’ range and if they were philopatric to geographical sites or a habitat feature. Location North Atlantic. Taxon Uria spp. Methods We quantified consistent individual differences in inter-annual spatial distribution and habitat occupied throughout the non-breeding period using a large geolocator tracking dataset of 729 adult seabirds breeding at 13 colonies across the Northeast Atlantic and repeatedly tracked up to 7 years over a 9-year period. Additionally, we used a similarity index to calculate relative fidelity to either geographical sites or habitats and linear mixed-effects models to assess persistence of spatial site fidelity over multiple years. Results Both guillemot species exhibited IMSF across a large part of the genus’ range which persisted over multiple years. Individuals of both species and almost all colonies showed fidelity to geographical sites and not to specific habitats. Main conclusions Guillemots show IMSF that is best explained by site familiarity (fidelity to specific sites) rather than habitat specialization (fidelity to specific habitats). In the context of rapidly changing environments, favourable habitats may permanently shift locations and hence species displaying IMSF driven by site familiarity—such as the genus Uria—may not be able to adjust their migration strategies sufficiently fast to sustain individual fitness and ensure population persistence.

Abstract: Sexual competition is increasingly recognized as an important selective pressure driving species distributions. However, few studies have investigated the relative importance of interpopulation versus intrapopulation competition in relation to habitat availability and selection. To explain spatial segregation between sexes that often occurs in non-territorial and central place foragers, such as seabirds, two hypotheses are commonly used. The ‘competitive exclusion’ hypothesis states that dominant individuals should exclude subordinate individuals through direct competition, whereas the ‘niche divergence’ hypothesis states that segregation occurs due to past competition and habitat specialization. We tested these hypotheses in two populations of an extreme wide-ranging and sexually dimorphic seabird, investigating the relative role of intrapopulation and interpopulation competition in influencing sex-specific distribution and habitat preferences. Using GPS loggers, we tracked 192 wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans during four consecutive years (2016–2019), from two neighbouring populations in the Southern Ocean (Prince Edward and Crozet archipelagos). We simulated pseudo-tracks to create a null spatial distribution and used Kernel Density Estimates (KDE) and Resource Selection Functions (RSF) to distinguish the relative importance of within- versus between-population competition. Kernel Density Estimates showed that only intrapopulation sexual segregation was significant for each monitoring year, and that tracks between the two colonies resulted in greater overlap than expected from the null distribution, especially for the females. RSF confirmed these results and highlighted key at-sea foraging areas, even if the estimated of at-sea densities were extremely low. These differences in selected areas between sites and sexes were, however, associated with high interannual variability in habitat preferences, with no clear specific preferences per site and sex. Our results suggest that even with low at-sea population densities, historic intrapopulation competition in wide-ranging seabirds may have led to sexual dimorphism and niche specialization, favouring the ‘niche divergence’ hypothesis. In this study, we provide a protocol to study competition within as well as between populations of central place foragers. This is relevant for understanding their distribution patterns and population regulation, which could potentially improve management of threatened populations.