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Foraging areas of Wilson’s storm-petrel Oceanites oceanicus in the breeding and inter-breeding period determined by stable isotope analysis

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Abstract

To understand the year-round ecology of seabirds it is necessary not only to study the birds in their breeding grounds, but also to gain information about their movements during the inter-breeding period. Especially for the smaller procellariiform species, such studies are still scarce, mainly due to methodological problems. The recovery rates of banded birds are low and satellite tracking devices still far too heavy to equip these small birds. Here, we present data on foraging areas of Wilson’s storm-petrel Oceanites oceanicus inferred from stable isotope analysis. We compared ratios of δ13C and δ15N between different life-history stages and between the breeding and inter-breeding period. Samples of adult and chick feathers, chick down and egg-white were taken between 1996 and 2005 on King-George-Island, South Shetland Islands. δ13C values can be clearly distinguished between the breeding and inter-breeding period. During the inter-breeding period, most pre-breeders foraged in the same area as breeders, but four pre-breeders were found to forage in latitudes north of the Subtropical Front. In the 2002 inter-breeding period adult birds wintered further north than in 2003, which is in line with the different locations of food rich frontal systems in these years. We show that isotope ratios of both δ13C and δ15N increase from egg white, over chick down to chick feathers. We suggest that this isotopic change, due to a change in both foraging location and diet between egg production and chick feeding, may be used to trace the shift from the use of maternal resources from the egg to the uptake of nutrients from the diet.

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Acknowledgments

We like to thank Anja Nordt for contributing feather and down samples and David Gladbach for his extensive help in the laboratory. NERC funded the isotope facility. We also thank Hans-Ulrich Peter for organizing the logistics of the fieldwork over the years. We received logistic support from the Alfred-Wegner Institute of Marine and Polar Research (Bremerhaven, Germany), the National Antarctic Institute of Argentina and Hapag Lloyd Seetouristik GmbH. Peter Hodum and two anonymous referees provided helpful comments on the manuscript. This study was partly funded by a grant provided by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to PQ (Qu148).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology, Polar and Bird Ecology Group, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Anja Gladbach

  2. Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow, G75 0QF, UK

    Rona A. R. McGill

  3. Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Vogelwarte Radolfzell, Schlossallee 2, 78315, Radolfzell, Germany

    Petra Quillfeldt

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  1. Anja Gladbach
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  2. Rona A. R. McGill
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  3. Petra Quillfeldt
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Correspondence to Anja Gladbach.

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Gladbach, A., McGill, R.A.R. & Quillfeldt, P. Foraging areas of Wilson’s storm-petrel Oceanites oceanicus in the breeding and inter-breeding period determined by stable isotope analysis. Polar Biol 30, 1005–1012 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-007-0258-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-007-0258-2

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