Abstract
Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus) are distributed in eastern and western North Atlantic breeding populations. The species’ colonies in Iceland lie between the European and North American colonies. To better understand their migratory patterns and to explore potential connections between the western and eastern populations, geo-location devices were used to track the migrations of Northern Gannets from Iceland. Findings support ringing records in demonstrating a primarily south-eastward movement following the breeding season, with no tracked birds wintering in western Atlantic waters. Fifteen successfully tracked adult birds wintered over a range of about 5000 km on continental shelf seas from NW Scotland to NW Africa with areas of concentration off Africa and in the Celtic Sea. Direct distance from the colony to the most distant point reached ranged from 1200 to 6100 km. Trips amounted to 16,100–33,500 km over the entire migration/winter period. While birds heading for NW Africa mostly showed a relatively straight migration direction, several round trips were recorded in (N)W Europe. Migration trips and over-winter colony absence lasted between 126 and 189 days. Birds departed from the colony from 9 to 24 September and returned from 19 January to 27 March. Timing and duration of migration and wintering periods varied substantially among individuals. Gannets staying in the waters of NW Africa experienced much higher sea surface temperatures than birds wintering further north, suggesting higher thermostatic costs for the latter.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barbaro A, Einarsson B, Birnir B, Sigurðsson S, Valdimarsson H, Pálsson ÓK, Sveinbjörnsson S, Sigurðsson Þ (2009) Modelling and simulations of the migration of pelagic fish. ICES J Mar Sci 66:826–838
Barrett RT (2008) Recent establishments and extinctions of Northern Gannet Morus bassanus colonies in North Norway, 1995–2008. Ornis Nor 31:172–182
Barrett RT, Folkestad AO (1996) The status of the North Atlantic Gannet Morus bassanus after 50 years in Norway. Seabird 18:30–37
Berthold P (2001) Bird migration: a general survey. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Burger AE, Shaffer SA (2008) Application of tracking and data-logging technology in research and conservation of seabirds. Auk 125:253–264
Fifield DA, Montevecchi WA, Garthe S, Robertson GJ, Kubetzki U, Rail JF (2014) Migratory tactics and wintering areas of Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus) breeding in North America. Ornithol Monogr 79:1–63
Fort J, Pettex E, Tremblay Y, Lorentsen SH, Garthe S, Votier S, Pons JB, Siorat F, Furness RW, Grecian WJ, Bearhop S, Montevecchi WA, Grémillet D (2012) Meta-population evidence of oriented chain migration in Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus). Front Ecol Environ 10:237–242
Furness RW, Wanless S (2014) Quantifying the impact of offshore wind farms on gannet populations: a strategic ringing project. Ring Migr 29:81–85
Furness RW, Wade H, Masden EA (2013) Assessing vulnerability of seabird populations to offshore wind farms. J Environ Manag 119:56–66
Garthe S, Benvenuti S, Montevecchi WA (2003) Temporal patterns of foraging activities of northern gannets Morus bassanus in the north-west Atlantic. Can J Zool 81:453–461
Garthe S, Montevecchi WA, Davoren GK (2011) Inter-annual changes in prey fields trigger different foraging tactics in a large marine predator. Limnol Oceanogr 56:802–812
Garthe S, Ludynia K, Hüppop O, Kubetzki U, Meraz JF, Furness RW (2012) Energy budgets reveal equal benefits of varied migration strategies in northern gannets. Mar Biol 159:1907–1915
Gaston AJ, Brewer D, Diamond AW, Woodsworth EJ, Collins BT (2008) Canadian Atlas of Bird Banding. Volume 2: Seabirds, 1921–1995. Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa
Gremillet D, Peron C, Provost P, Lescroel A (2015) Adult and juvenile European seabirds at risk from marine plundering off West Africa. Biol Conserv 182:143–147
Guilford T, Meade J, Willis J, Phillips RA, Boyle D, Roberts S, Collett M, Freeman R, Perrins CM (2009) Migration and stopover in a small pelagic seabird, the Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus: insights from machine learning. Proc R Soc B 276:1215–1223
Hamer KC, Humphreys EM, Garthe S, Hennicke J, Peters G, Phillips RA, Harris MP, Wanless S (2007) Annual variations in diet, feeding locations and foraging behaviour of gannets in the North Sea: flexibility, consistency and contraint. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 338:295–305
Hammer S, Madsen JJ, Jensen J-K, Pedersen KT, Bloch D, Thorup K (2014) The Faroese Bird Migration Atlas. Faroe University Press, Torshavn
Hill RD (1994) Theory of geolocation by light levels. In: Le Boeuf BJ, Laws RM (eds) Elephant seals: population ecology, behavior, and physiology. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp 227–236
ICES (2015) Report of the North-Western Working Group (NWWG), 28 April–5 May, ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen. ICES Document CM 2015/ACOM: 07
Kubetzki U, Garthe S, Fifield DA, Mendel B, Furness RW (2009) Individual migratory schedules and wintering areas of Northern Gannets. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 391:257–265
Magnusdottir E, Leat EHK, Bourgeon S, Strøm H, Petersen A, Phillips RA, Hanssen SA, Bustnes JO, Hersteinsson P, Furness RW (2012) Wintering areas of great skuas Stercorarius skua breeding in Scotland, Iceland and Norway. Bird Study 59:1–9
Montevecchi WA, Benvenuti S, Garthe S, Davoren GK, Fifield D (2009) Flexible foraging tactics by a large opportunistic seabird preying on forage- and large pelagic fishes. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 385:295–306
Montevecchi WA, Fifield DA, Burke CM, Garthe S, Hedd A, Rail J-F, Robertson GJ, Phillips RA (2011) Tracking long-distance migration to assess marine pollution impact. Biol Lett 8:218–221
Nelson B (2002) The Atlantic Gannet. Felix Books, Norfolk
Óskarsson GJ, Gudmundsdottir A, Sigurdsson T (2009) Variation in spatial distribution and migration of Icelandic summer-spawning herring. ICES J Mar Sci 66:1762–1767
Pálsson ÓK, Sveinbjörnsson S, Valdimarsson H, Gíslason Á, Vilhjálmsson H (2012) Capelin life-history traits in the Icelandic Sea. Mar Res Inst Icel Rep 164:119–132
Petersen A (1998) Íslenskir fuglar [Icelandic Birds]. Vaka-Helgafell, Reykjavik
Phillips RA, Silk JRD, Croxall JP, Afanasyev V, Briggs DR (2004) Accuracy of geolocation estimates for flying seabirds. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 266:265–272
Shaffer SA, Tremblay Y, Awkerman JA, Henry RW, Teo SLH, Anderson DJ, Croll DA, Block BA, Costa DP (2005) Comparison of light- and SST-based geolocation with satellite telemetry in free-ranging albatrosses. Mar Biol 147:833–843
Taylor SA, Friesen VL (2012) Use of molecular genetics for understanding seabird evolution, ecology and conservation. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 451:285–304
Teo SLH, Boustany A, Blackwell SB, Walli A, Weng KC, Block BA (2004) Validation of geolocation estimates based on light level and sea surface temperature from electronic tags. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 283:81–98
Thaxter CB, Lascelles B, Sugar K, Cook ASCP, Roos S, Bolton M, Langston RHW, Burton NHK (2012) Seabird foraging ranges as a preliminary tool for identifying candidate Marine Protected Areas. Biol Conserv 156:53–61
Vigfusdottir F, Lilliendahl K, Garðarsson A (2009) Diets of Northern Gannets in Iceland. Bliki 30:55–60
Wernham CV, Toms MP, Marchant JH, Clark JA, Siriwardena GM, Baillie SR (2002) The Migration Atlas: movements of the birds of Britain and Ireland. Poyser, London
Wilson RP, Vandenabeele SP (2012) Technological innovation in archival tags used in seabird research. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 451:245–262
Wilson RP, Ducamp JJ, Rees WG, Culik BM, Niekamp K (1992) Estimation of location: global coverage using light intensity. In: Priede IG, Swift SM (eds) Wildlife telemetry: remote monitoring and tracking of animals. Ellis Horwood, New York, pp 131–134
Wilson RP, Weimerskirch H, Lys P (1995) A device for measuring seabird activity at sea. J Avian Biol 26:172–175
Acknowledgments
H. Gunnarsson, F. Vigfusdottir and O. Torfason helped with fieldwork on Skrúður Island. A.-M. Corman assisted with data analysis; B. Mendel helped with GIS products. G. Peters provided technical support for data loggers. A. Petersen and A. Garðarsson provided information on gannets in Iceland.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical standards
All applicable international, national and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: V.H. Paiva.
Reviewed by undisclosed experts.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Garthe, S., Hallgrimsson, G.T., Montevecchi, W.A. et al. East or west? Migration routes and wintering sites of Northern Gannets Morus bassanus from south-eastern Iceland. Mar Biol 163, 151 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-016-2918-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-016-2918-7