Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2017

Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V2

Drivers of Atlantic puffins’ migratory strategies across their breeding range, and implications for colony productivity

Höfundar / Authors: Fayet, Annette L.(1) , Freeman, Robin (2) , Anker-Nilssen, Tycho (3) , Diamond, Antony (4) , Erikstad, Kjell E. (3) , Fifield, Dave (5) , Fitzsimmons, Michelle G (6) , Hansen, Erpur S. (7) , Harris, Mike P. (8) , Jessopp, Mark (9) , Kouwenberg, Amy-Lee (5 , Kress, Steve (10) , Mowat, Stephen (2), Perrins, Chris M. (1) , Petersen, Ævar (11) , Petersen, Ib K. (12) , Þórarinsson, Þorkell Lindi (13) , Reiertsen, Tone K. (3), Robertson, Gregory J. (5) , Sigurðsson, Ingvar A. (7) , Shoji, Akiko (14) , Wanless, Sarah (8) & Guilford, Tim (1)

Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1 Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK , 2 Institute of Zoology London, UK, 3 Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway, 4 University of New Brunswick, Canada, 5 Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada, 6 Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, 7 Náttúrustofa Suðurlands, 8 Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Edinburgh, UK, 9 University of Cork, Ireland, 10 Cornell University & National Audubon Society, US, 11 Náttúrfufræðistofnun Íslands, 12 National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark, 13. Náttúrustofa Norðausturlands, 14 Hokkaido University, Japan.

Kynnir / Presenter: Erpur Snær Hansen

The non-breeding movements and behaviour of Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica are poorlyknown, but may affect their reproductive performance and survival during breeding, and as such their knowledge is critical to the conservation of the species. Furthermore, the extent to which factors such as intra-specific competition or environmental conditions shape population-specific winter distribution is unknown; and whether and how these factors can affect migratory behaviour, and ultimately fitness, remains to be understood. Here we present a large collaborative study using a large dataset of 259 geolocator tracks of puffins collected at 13 colonies across their whole breeding range to address these questions on a global population scale. We reveal the non-breeding distribution of puffins across the North Atlantic, show that there is substantial overlap between colonies’ winter distributions, and identify important hotspots, such as the entrance of the Labrador Sea and an area around the Charlie Gibbs fracture zone. Migratory strategies vary greatly between colonies, in terms of total distance covered, distance from the colony, but also daily activity budgets and energy expenditure (estimated using immersion data). We find that some of these differences are in fact ocean-wide patterns which can be driven by environmental variables, colony size and wintering latitude, and that they are also reflected in colony breeding productivity. Our results may not only have important implications for the conservation of puffins but may also help understand the drivers of seabird colony distribution on large oceanic scales.