Abstract: The development of a computationally efficient scheme for predicting the global distribution of total water level (TWL) is discussed. The ocean model is barotropic, has a horizontal grid spacing of 1/12°, and is based on the NEMO modeling framework. It is forced by the gravitational potential and hourly atmospheric fields for 2008. Hourly time spacing was required to resolve the S2 tide in global air pressure and wind. The predicted tide in water deeper than 400 m was nudged to TPXO8 “observations” of tidal elevation or current using a scheme called tidal nudging (Kodaira et al., 2019). The benefit of nudging horizontal velocity in the momentum equation, compared to sea level in the continuity equation, is discussed. Tidal nudging is shown to improve tidal predictions of sea level at the coast, particularly at the S2 tidal frequency. The predicted radiational S2 tide in sea level forced solely by the S2 tide in global air pressure reaches amplitudes exceeding 80 cm. Decreasing the time spacing of the air pressure forcing from 1 h to 3 h reduces the S2 amplitude in air pressure by a factor of 0.82, consistent with expectations based on Fourier analysis. This highlights the importance of using hourly atmospheric forcing when predicting the global sea level response to atmospheric forcing. The radiational S2 tide in sea level is subject to strong nonlinear interaction with the gravitational tide, leading to a pronounced attenuation of the radiational S2 tide. The attenuation is explained by an increase in effective bottom friction at the S2 frequency due to the presence of the gravitational tide. Four schemes for predicting TWL are evaluated to quantify the impact of tidal nudging and nonlinear interaction of tide and surge. Using TWLs observed by 304 coastal tide gauges, we show it is necessary to include both tidal nudging and nonlinear interaction. Plans for the further development of an operational flood forecast system for the Canadian coast, based on the above model, are discussed.

Abstract: Inferential reasoning by exclusion allows responding adaptively to various environmental stimuli when confronted with inconsistent or partial information. In the experimental context, this mechanism involves selecting correctly between an empty option and a potentially rewarded one. Recently, the increasing reports of this capacity in phylogenetically distant species have led to the assumption that reasoning by exclusion is the result of convergent evolution. Within one largely unstudied avian order, i.e. the Charadriiformes, brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica ssp lonnbergi) are highly flexible and opportunistic predators. Behavioural flexibility, along with specific aspects of skuas’ feeding ecology, may act as influencing factors in their ability to show exclusion performance. Our study aims to test whether skuas are able to choose by exclusion in a visual two-way object-choice task. Twenty-six wild birds were presented with two opaque cups, one covering a food reward. Three conditions were used: ‘full information’ (showing the content of both cups), ‘exclusion’ (showing the content of the empty cup), and ‘control’ (not showing any content). Skuas preferentially selected the rewarded cup in the full information and exclusion condition. The use of olfactory cues was excluded by results in the control condition. Our study opens new field investigations for testing further the cognition of this predatory seabird.

Abstract: Irregular urchins exclusively live in marine soft bottom habitats, dwelling either upon or inside sediments and selectively picking up sediment grains and organic particles, or swallowing bulk sediment to feed on the associated organic matter. The exact food source and dietary requirements of most irregular echinoids, however, remain incompletely understood. The schizasterid species Abatus cordatus (Verrill, 1876) is a sub-Antarctic spatangoid that is endemic to the Kerguelen. The feeding behaviour of A. cordatus was investigated using simultaneously metabarcoding and stable isotope approaches. Comparison of ingested and surrounding sediments by metabarcoding revealed a limited selective ingestion of prokaryotes and eukaryotes by the urchin. Compared to surrounding sediments, the gut content had (i) higher carbon and nitrogen concentrations potentially due to selective ingestion of organic matter and/or the sea urchin mucus secretion and (ii) δ15N enrichment due to the selective assimilation of lighter isotope in the gut. Feeding experiments were performed using 13C and 15 N-enriched sediments in aquariums. The progression of stable isotope enrichment in proximal and distal parts of the digestive track of A. cordatus revealed that all particles are not similarly transported likely due to siphon functioning. Ingestion of water with associated dissolved and particulate organic matter should play an important role in urchin nutrition. A. cordatus had a gut resident time fluctuating between 76 and 101 h and an ingestion rate of 36 mg dry sediment h−1 suggesting that dense populations of the species may play a key ecological role through bioturbation in soft bottom shallow-water habitats of the Kerguelen Islands.

Abstract: Albatrosses and other seabirds are generally highly philopatric, returning to natal colonies when they achieve breeding age. This is not universal, however, and cases of extraordinary vagrancy are rare. The Tristan Albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) breeds on Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, with a small population on Inaccessible Island, Tristan da Cunha, ca 380 km away. In 2015, we observed an adult male albatross in Gonydale, Gough Island, which had been ringed on Ile de la Possession, Crozet Islands in 2009 when it was assumed to be an immature Wandering Albatross (D. exulans). We sequenced 1109 bp of the cytochrome b mitochondrial gene from this bird, and confirmed it to be a Tristan Albatross, meaning its presence on Crozet 6 years previous, and nearly 5000 km away, was a case of prospecting behaviour in a heterospecific colony. Given the challenges in identifying immature Diomedea albatrosses, such dispersal events may be more common than thought previously.

Abstract: Interspecific feeding refers to behavior where an adult of one species feeds the young of another species, with the exclusion of brood parasitism. In birds, most of observed cases concern passerines and this behavior has so far never been described among seabirds. We report on interspecific feeding provided by an adult gentoo penguin Pygoscelis papua to an Adélie penguin P. adeliae chick on the Antarctic Peninsula.