Northern gannets, Les Etacs, Alderney-reference-data

Warwick-Evans V, Soanes LM, Gauvain RD, Atkinson JPY, Arnould JPY, Green JA. 2017. Northern gannets, Les Etacs, Alderney-reference-data. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.30r98tb3/2

Abstract

The at-sea distribution of seabirds primarily depends on the distance from their breeding colony, and the abundance, distribution and predictability of their prey, which are subject to strong spatial and temporal variation. Many seabirds have developed flexible foraging strategies to deal with this variation, such as increasing their foraging effort or switching to more predictable, less energy dense, prey, in poor conditions. These responses may vary both within and between individuals, and understanding this variability is vital to predict the population-level impacts of spatially explicit environmental disturbances, such as offshore windfarms. We conducted a multi-year tracking study in order to investigate the inter-annual variation in the foraging behaviour and location of a population of northern gannets breeding on Alderney in the English Channel. To do so, we investigated the link between individual-level behaviour and population-level behaviour. We found that a sample of gannets tracked in 2015 had longer trip durations, travelled further from the colony and had larger core foraging areas and home range areas than gannets tracked in previous years. This inter-annual variation may be associated with oceanographic conditions indexed by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Our findings suggest that this inter-annual variation was driven by individuals visiting larger areas in all of their trips rather than individuals diversifying to visit more, distinct areas. These findings suggest that, for gannets at least, if prey becomes less abundant or more widely distributed, more individuals may be required to forage further from the colony, thus increasing their likelihood of encountering pressures from spatially explicit anthropogenic disturbances.

Keywords

animal foraging,animal movement,animal tracking,avian migration,collision risk,English Channel,environmental impact assessment,evidence-based decision making,GPS logger,home range,Morus bassanus,northern gannet,offshore development,predictive modelling,windfarms

DOIs of related Publications

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-016-2922-y

https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12996

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2012.08.006

URI

https://datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.699

BibTex

@misc{001/1_30r98tb3/2,
  title = {Northern gannets, Les Etacs, Alderney-reference-data},
  author = {Warwick-Evans, V and Soanes, LM and Gauvain, RD and Atkinson, JPY and Arnould, JPY and Green, JA},
  year = {2017},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.30r98tb3/2},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.30r98tb3/2},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.30r98tb3/2
T1  - Northern gannets, Les Etacs, Alderney-reference-data
AU  - Warwick-Evans, Victoria
AU  - Soanes, Louise M.
AU  - Gauvain, Roland D.
AU  - Atkinson, John P.Y.
AU  - Arnould, John P.Y.
AU  - Green, Jon A.
Y1  - 2017/08/01
KW  - animal foraging
KW  - animal movement
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - avian migration
KW  - collision risk
KW  - English Channel
KW  - environmental impact assessment
KW  - evidence-based decision making
KW  - GPS logger
KW  - home range
KW  - Morus bassanus
KW  - northern gannet
KW  - offshore development
KW  - predictive modelling
KW  - windfarms
KW  - Morus bassanus
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.30r98tb3/2
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.30r98tb3/2
ER  -

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