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Transatlantic migration by post-breeding puffins: a strategy to exploit a temporarily abundant food resource?

Marine Biology volume 160, pages 2755–2762 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

The distribution of Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica) from Skellig Michael, south-west Ireland, was investigated using geolocation loggers between the 2010 and 2011 breeding seasons. All tracked birds travelled rapidly west into the North Atlantic at the end of the breeding season in August, with the majority undertaking transatlantic trips from Ireland to the Newfoundland-Labrador shelf. The furthest distance from the colony reached by each bird was not influenced by body mass or sex and was achieved in approximately 20 days. By October, all birds had moved back to the mid Atlantic where they remained resident until returning to the breeding colony. The most parsimonious explanation for the rapid, directed long-distance migration is that birds exploit the seasonally high abundance of prey [e.g., fish species such as capelin (Mallotus villosus) and sandlance (Ammodytes spp.)] off the Canadian coast, which is also utilised by large populations of North American seabirds at this time. Once the availability of this short-term prey resource has diminished, the tracked puffins moved back towards the north-east Atlantic. A relationship between relative abundance of puffins and zooplankton was found in all winter months, but after correcting for spatial autocorrelation, was only significant in November and January. Nevertheless, these results suggest a potential switch in diet from mainly fish during the breeding and early post-breeding periods to zooplankton over the remaining winter period. This study suggests that puffins from south-west Ireland have a long-distance migration strategy that is rare in breeding puffins from the UK and identifies a key non-breeding destination for puffins from Ireland. This has implications for the susceptibility of different breeding populations to the effects of possible climatic or oceanographic change.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Grellan Rourke from the Office of Public Works for facilitating access to accommodation on Skellig Michael, and Clare Heardman (NPWS) and Dave Thompson (National Trust) for assistance in the field. All puffin capture, handling and tagging procedures were reviewed and approved by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and carried out under licence Numbers 26/2010 and C051/2011 issued by National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The study was funded by a Beaufort Marine Research Award provided under the Sea Change Strategy and the Strategy for Science Technology and Innovation (2006–2013), with the support of the Marine Institute, funded under the Marine Research Sub-Programme of the National Development Plan 2007–2013. Two authors also received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) and Knowledge-based Sustainable Management for Europe’s Seas (KnowSeas-, Grant agreement No. 226675). Comments from three anonymous reviewers greatly increased the quality of the manuscript, and their contribution is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Coastal and Marine Research Centre, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Mark J. Jessopp, Michelle Cronin & Thomas K. Doyle

  2. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Mark Wilson

  3. Sir Alistair Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, Plymouth, UK

    Abigail McQuatters-Gollop

  4. Birdwatch Ireland, Kilcoole, Ireland

    Stephen Newton

  5. British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK

    Richard A. Phillips

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  1. Mark J. Jessopp
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  2. Michelle Cronin
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  3. Thomas K. Doyle
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  4. Mark Wilson
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  5. Abigail McQuatters-Gollop
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  6. Stephen Newton
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Correspondence to Mark J. Jessopp.

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Communicated by S. Garthe.

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Jessopp, M.J., Cronin, M., Doyle, T.K. et al. Transatlantic migration by post-breeding puffins: a strategy to exploit a temporarily abundant food resource?. Mar Biol 160, 2755–2762 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-013-2268-7

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