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Revealing the foraging movements and diet of the White-faced Storm Petrel Pelagodroma marina in the NE Atlantic

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Abstract

The White-faced Storm Petrel (WFSP) Pelagodroma marina has a widespread distribution, although virtually nothing is known about their feeding ecology and distributions at-sea. To describe their foraging areas, a total of 77 birds were equipped with 1 g-GPS loggers on Selvagem Grande, Madeira, Portugal (30° 09′ N, 15° 52′ W), during the 2018 and 2019 breeding seasons. We also assessed the diet of WFSP by analysing 17 faecal samples from chicks and 1 regurgitation from an adult using DNA metabarcoding techniques. Additionally, we collected body feathers from ten WFSP chicks to determine mercury concentration. WFSP fed mainly in deep oceanic waters, travelling up to 400 km from the colony, and did not concentrate in any well-defined, population-level foraging hotspots. Some individuals foraged along the edge of the shelf, near the African coast and the Canary Islands, especially during chick rearing. The duration of foraging trips and the total distance travelled, were, on average, 5.1 days and 723 km during the incubation period and 3.0 days and 578 km during chick rearing. The diet of WFSP was dominated by fish and cephalopods (crustacean prey were not detected), with Myctophidae (FO = 71%) representing the main fish family. WFSP often consume mesopelagic fish, in line with their preference for deep oceanic waters and with a small difference in at sea behavior (i.e., travel speed) between the diurnal and nocturnal period. The relatively high concentrations of mercury accumulated in body feathers of WFSP chicks (3.45 ± 1.44 mg kg−1 dry weight; range 1.68–6.01 mg kg−1) support the idea that WFSP raise their chicks mostly on mesopelagic prey from deep pelagic areas.

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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financial supported by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT; Portugal) through projects granted to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020 + LA/P/0094/2020), MARE (UIDB/04292/2020 and UIDP/04292/2020), cE3c (UIDB/BIA/00329/2020), by the project PTDC/BIA-EVL/28565/2017 and to a doctoral grant SFRH/BD/133561/2017 awarded to MA. MCS is funded by FCT through a contract foreseen in DL 57/2016, changed by Law 57/2017. We would like to acknowledge Instituto das Florestas e Conservação da Natureza, especially Dília Menezes, Carolina Santos, and Paulo Oliveira, for providing permissions to carry out the work in Selvagens Nature Reserve and for logistical support. We would like to thank Filipe Moniz, Daniel Lopes, Maria Dias, Edna Correia, Marie Claire, and Francesco Ventura for helping during field work and to park-wardens of the Nature Reserve during our stays in the island. We are also grateful to Ricardo Furtado for his contribution in the laboratory analysis of mercury in the feathers of White-faced Storm Petrel chicks and to Eduarda Pereira (Department of Chemistry and CESAM/REQUIMTE, University of Aveiro) for providing the laboratory and equipment necessary for the analysis.

Funding

This work was financial supported by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT; Portugal) through projects granted to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020 + LA/P/0094/2020), MARE (UIDB/04292/2020 and UIDP/04292/2020), cE3c (UIDB/BIA/00329/2020), by the project PTDC/BIA-EVL/28565/2017 and to a doctoral grant SFRH/ BD/133561/2017 awarded to MA. MCS is funded by FCT through a contract foreseen in DL 57/2016, changed by Law 57/2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE), ISPA-Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 34, 1149-041, Lisbon, Portugal

    Maria Alho & Paulo Catry

  2. Departamento de Biologia Animal, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c), Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Mónica C. Silva & Vera L. Nunes

  3. Departamento de Biologia Animal, Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar (CESAM), Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    José P. Granadeiro

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  1. Maria Alho
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  2. Paulo Catry
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  3. Mónica C. Silva
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  4. Vera L. Nunes
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  5. José P. Granadeiro
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Contributions

All authors contributed to study conception and design. Fieldwork was performed by MA. DNA metabarcoding analysis performed by MCS and VLN. JPG and MA analysed spatial data. MA wrote the initial manuscript. All the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript, and they read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Maria Alho.

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Alho, M., Catry, P., Silva, M.C. et al. Revealing the foraging movements and diet of the White-faced Storm Petrel Pelagodroma marina in the NE Atlantic. Mar Biol 169, 91 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04078-z

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