Common Murre Abundance, Phenology, and Productivity on the Barren Islands, Alaska: The

Author(s):  
PD Boersma ◽  
JK Parrish ◽  
AB Kettle
Keyword(s):  
2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Ainley ◽  
David N. Nettleship ◽  
Harry R. Carter ◽  
Anne E. Storey
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Petalas ◽  
Thomas Lazarus ◽  
Raphael A. Lavoie ◽  
Kyle H. Elliott ◽  
Mélanie F. Guigueno

AbstractSympatric species must sufficiently differentiate aspects of their ecological niche to alleviate complete interspecific competition and stably coexist within the same area. Seabirds provide a unique opportunity to understand patterns of niche segregation among coexisting species because they form large multi-species colonies of breeding aggregations with seemingly overlapping diets and foraging areas. Recent biologging tools have revealed that colonial seabirds can differentiate components of their foraging strategies. Specifically, small, diving birds with high wing-loading may have small foraging radii compared with larger or non-diving birds. In the Gulf of St-Lawrence in Canada, we investigated whether and how niche differentiation occurs in four incubating seabird species breeding sympatrically using GPS-tracking and direct field observations of prey items carried by adults to chicks: the Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica), razorbill (Alca torda), common murre (Uria aalge), and black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla). Although there was overlap at foraging hotspots, all species differentiated in either diet (prey species, size and number) or foraging range. Whereas puffins and razorbills consumed multiple smaller prey items that were readily available closer to the colony, murres selected larger more diverse prey that were accessible due to their deeper diving capability. Kittiwakes compensated for their surface foraging by having a large foraging range, including foraging largely at a specific distant hotspot. These foraging habitat specialisations may alleviate high interspecific competition allowing for their coexistence, providing insight on multispecies colonial living.


1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia K. Parrish ◽  
Robert T. Paine

SummarySeabird populations suffer from a variety of natural and human-induced sources of mortality and loss of lifetime reproductive output. On the outer coast of Washington State, Common Murre Uria aalge populations have been in decline for approximately the last decade and are currently reproductively active only at Tatoosh Island. These murres nest in two basic habitat types: crevices (25% of the population) and larger cliff-top subcolonies (75%). Murres in cliff-top subcolonies have suffered dramatic reductions in reproductive success in recent years relative to conspecifics nesting in the crevices, primarily due to egg predation by Glaucous-winged Gulls Larus glaucescens and Northwestern Crows Corvus caurinus, facilitated by the presence of Bald Eagles Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Because predator removal is not feasible and creation of additional crevice habitat is difficult, expensive and potentially ineffective, we have designed a temporary habitat modification (the “silk forest”) which replaces the natural vegetation cover and modifies the interaction between murres and eagles. Within the test subcolony, murres nesting under and immediately adjacent to the silk forest produced nearly twice as many eggs per square metre as their conspecifics nesting in adjacent exposed-ground areas.


Polar Biology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (9) ◽  
pp. 1215-1226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Regular ◽  
Gregory J. Robertson ◽  
William A. Montevecchi ◽  
Fyzee Shuhood ◽  
Tony Power ◽  
...  

1997 ◽  
Vol 200 (12) ◽  
pp. 1757-1763 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Hawkins ◽  
P Butler ◽  
A Woakes ◽  
G Gabrielsen

The rate of oxygen consumption (O2), respiratory quotient (RQ) and deep body temperature (TB) were recorded during a single, voluntary ingestion of Arctic cod Boreogadus saida (mean mass 18.9+/-1.1 g, s.e.m., N=13) by five postabsorptive Brunnich's guillemots (thick-billed murre, Uria lomvia). The birds were resting in air within their thermoneutral zone, and the fish were refrigerated to 0-2 degreesC. The rate of oxygen consumption increased by a factor of 1.4 during the first few minutes after ingestion, but there was no significant change in TB. Mean rate of oxygen consumption returned to preingestive levels 85 min after the birds ate the fish. The telemetered temperature of one fish reached TB within 20 min. This suggests that the persistent elevation in O2 over the next hour corresponded to the obligatory component of the heat increment of feeding (HIF) and was not related to heating the fish. Abdominal temperature increases after diving bouts in free-ranging common guillemots (common murre, Uria aalge) are possibly achieved through the HIF, since meals are processed at sea. Of the increase in O2 measured in the laboratory, it is calculated that 30 % is required to heat the fish, while 70 % is due to the HIF. In free-ranging birds, the excess heat provided by the HIF could contribute 6 % of the daily energy expenditure. This suggests that the HIF augments heat production in Uria spp. and thus reduces the energetic cost of thermoregulation.


2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Ainley ◽  
David N. Nettleship ◽  
Harry R. Carter ◽  
Anne E. Storey
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Ainley ◽  
David N. Nettleship ◽  
Anne E. Storey
Keyword(s):  

The Auk ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim R Birkhead ◽  
Jamie E Thompson ◽  
Amelia R Cox ◽  
Robert D Montgomerie

Abstract We studied the ground colors and maculations of 161 Common Murre (Uria aalge) eggs laid by 43 females in 3 small breeding groups on the cliffs of Skomer Island, Wales, in 2016–2018. Both the colors and maculations varied much more among than within females, providing quantitative evidence for the egg traits that might facilitate the parents’ ability to identify their own eggs on the crowded breeding ledges where the density is typically ~20 eggs m–2. Ground colors had a trimodal distribution of hue values (whitish to pale brown, pale blue, or vivid blue-green) and maculations ranged from none to complex squiggles and blotches. The eggs laid by each female in different years were similar to one another, and replacement eggs laid by females within years were also more similar to their first egg than to other eggs in the same breeding group. Egg appearance did not differ among the 3 breeding groups that we studied. Our findings thus support anecdotal observations that, within and between years, female Common Murres lay eggs that have similar ground colors and maculations. We do not, however, find evidence that there is much difference among the eggs laid in different parts of a colony.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 434-446
Author(s):  
MASAYUKI SENZAKI ◽  
AKIRA TERUI ◽  
NAOKI TOMITA ◽  
FUMIO SATO ◽  
YOSHIHIRO FUKUDA ◽  
...  

SummaryGlobal seabird populations are in decline, with nearly half of all seabird species currently in an extinction crisis. Understanding long-term seabird population trends is an essential first step to inform conservation actions. In this study, we assembled historical breeding records of seabirds throughout the Japanese archipelago and quantified the long-term population trends of 10 major breeding seabird species using a hierarchical Bayesian state-space model. The model revealed that six species had increasing or no detectable trends (Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus, Leach’s Storm Petrel Oceanodroma leucorhoa, Pelagic Cormorant Phalacrocorax pelagicus, Japanese Cormorant Phalacrocorax capillatus, Spectacled Guillemot Cepphus carbo, and Rhinoceros Auklet Cerorhinca monocerata). However, decreasing trends were found not only in nationally threatened species (Common Murre Uria aalge, and Tufted Puffin Fratercula cirrhata) but also common species that are often described as abundant (Black-tailed Gull Larus crassirostris and Slaty-backed Gull Larus schistisagus). These declining species have declined to 3–35% of baseline levels over the past 30 years. This study provides the first evidence of long-term declines in common and widespread seabirds in Japan.


2020 ◽  
Vol 147 (6) ◽  
pp. 4069-4074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirstin Anderson Hansen ◽  
Ariana Hernandez ◽  
T. Aran Mooney ◽  
Marianne H. Rasmussen ◽  
Kenneth Sørensen ◽  
...  

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