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Tracking through life stages: adult, immature and juvenile autumn migration in a long-lived seabird
Citation
Peron, C and Gremillet, D, Tracking through life stages: adult, immature and juvenile autumn migration in a long-lived seabird, Plos One, 8, (8) Article e72713. ISSN 1932-6203 (2013) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2013 The Authors-This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,(CC BY 3.0 AU) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
DOI: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072713
Abstract
Seasonal long-distance migration is likely to be experienced in a contrasted manner by juvenile, immature and adult
birds, leading to variations in migratory routes, timing and behaviour. We provide the first analysis of late summer
movements and autumn migration in these three life stages, which were tracked concurrently using satellite tags,
geolocators or GPS recorders in a long-ranging migratory seabird, the Scopoli’s shearwater (formerly named Cory’s
shearwater, Calonectris diomedea) breeding on two French Mediterranean islands. During the late breeding season,
immatures foraged around their colony like breeding adults, but they were the only group showing potential
prospecting movements around non-natal colonies. Global migration routes were broadly comparable between the
two populations and the three life stages, with all individuals heading towards the Atlantic Ocean through the strait of
Gibraltar and travelling along the West African coast, up to 8000 km from their colony. However, detailed comparison
of timing, trajectory and oceanographic conditions experienced by the birds revealed remarkable age-related
differences. Compared to adults and immatures, juveniles made a longer stop-over in the Balearic Sea (10 days vs 4
days in average), showed lower synchrony in crossing the Gibraltar strait, had more sinuous pathways and covered
longer daily distances (240 km.d-1 vs 170 km.d-1). Analysis of oceanographic habitats along migratory routes revealed
funnelling selection of habitat towards coastal and more productive waters with increasing age. Younger birds may
have reduced navigational ability and learn progressively fine-scale migration routes towards the more profitable
travelling and wintering areas. Our study demonstrates the importance of tracking long-lived species through the
stages, to better understand migratory behavior and assess differential exposure to at-sea threats. Shared
distribution between life stages and populations make Scopoli’s shearwaters particularly vulnerable to extreme
mortality events in autumn and winter. Such knowledge is key for the conservation of critical marine habitats.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
---|---|
Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
Research Group: | Ecology |
Research Field: | Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences |
UTAS Author: | Peron, C (Dr Clara Peron) |
ID Code: | 92462 |
Year Published: | 2013 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 73 |
Deposited By: | Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration |
Deposited On: | 2014-06-18 |
Last Modified: | 2014-07-15 |
Downloads: | 326 View Download Statistics |
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