Seabird diving behaviour reveals the functional significance of shelf-sea fronts as foraging hotspots.

ABSTRACT: Oceanic fronts are key habitats for a diverse range of marine predators, yet how they influence fine-scale foraging behaviour is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the dive behaviour of northern gannets Morus bassanus in relation to shelf-sea fronts. We GPS (global positioning system) tracked 53 breeding birds and examined the relationship between 1901 foraging dives (from time-depth recorders) and thermal fronts (identified via Earth Observation composite front mapping) in the Celtic Sea, Northeast Atlantic. We (i) used a habitat-use availability analysis to determine whether gannets preferentially dived at fronts, and (ii) compared dive characteristics in relation to fronts to investigate the functional significance of these oceanographic features. We found that relationship

SUBMITTER: Cox SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5043317 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature