Bethany L. Clark
Northern Gannet foraging trip length increases with colony size and decreases with latitude
Clark, Bethany L.; Vigfúsdóttir, Freydís; Wanless, Sarah; Hamer, Keith C.; Bodey, Thomas W.; Bearhop, Stuart; Bennison, Ashley; Blackburn, Jez; Cox, Sam L.; d’Entremont, Kyle J. N.; Garthe, Stefan; Grémillet, David; Jessopp, Mark; Lane, Jude; Lescroël, Amélie; Montevecchi, William A.; Pascall, David J.; Provost, Pascal; Wakefield, Ewan D.; Warwick‐Evans, Victoria; Wischnewski, Saskia; Wright, Lucy J.; Votier, Stephen C.
Authors
Freydís Vigfúsdóttir
Sarah Wanless
Keith C. Hamer
Thomas W. Bodey
Stuart Bearhop
Ashley Bennison
Jez Blackburn
Sam L. Cox
Kyle J. N. d’Entremont
Stefan Garthe
David Grémillet
Mark Jessopp
Jude Lane
Amélie Lescroël
William A. Montevecchi
David J. Pascall
Pascal Provost
Dr Ewan Wakefield ewan.wakefield@durham.ac.uk
Post Doctoral Research Associate
Victoria Warwick‐Evans
Saskia Wischnewski
Lucy J. Wright
Stephen C. Votier
Abstract
Density-dependent competition for food influences the foraging behaviour and demography of colonial animals, but how this influence varies across a species’ latitudinal range is poorly understood. Here we used satellite tracking from 21 Northern Gannet Morus bassanus colonies (39% of colonies worldwide, supporting 73% of the global population) during chick-rearing to test how foraging trip characteristics (distance and duration) covary with colony size (138–60 953 breeding pairs) and latitude across 89% of their latitudinal range (46.81–71.23° N). Tracking data for 1118 individuals showed that foraging trip duration and maximum distance both increased with square-root colony size. Foraging effort also varied between years for the same colony, consistent with a link to environmental variability. Trip duration and maximum distance also decreased with latitude, after controlling for colony size. Our results are consistent with density-dependent reduction in prey availability influencing colony size and reveal reduced competition at the poleward range margin. This provides a mechanism for rapid population growth at northern colonies and, therefore, a poleward shift in response to environmental change. Further work is required to understand when and how colonial animals deplete nearby prey, along with the positive and negative effects of social foraging behaviour.
Citation
Clark, B. L., Vigfúsdóttir, F., Wanless, S., Hamer, K. C., Bodey, T. W., Bearhop, S., Bennison, A., Blackburn, J., Cox, S. L., d’Entremont, K. J. N., Garthe, S., Grémillet, D., Jessopp, M., Lane, J., Lescroël, A., Montevecchi, W. A., Pascall, D. J., Provost, P., Wakefield, E. D., Warwick‐Evans, V., …Votier, S. C. (2024). Northern Gannet foraging trip length increases with colony size and decreases with latitude. Royal Society Open Science, 11(9), Article 240708. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240708
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jul 26, 2024 |
Online Publication Date | Sep 4, 2024 |
Publication Date | 2024-09 |
Deposit Date | Sep 13, 2024 |
Publicly Available Date | Sep 13, 2024 |
Journal | Royal Society Open Science |
Electronic ISSN | 2054-5703 |
Publisher | The Royal Society |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 11 |
Issue | 9 |
Article Number | 240708 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240708 |
Keywords | species distributions, predator–prey, central place foraging, seabird, bio-logging, coloniality |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2820355 |
Files
Published Journal Article
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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