Abstract
Foraging distribution of flying seabirds is constrained by environmental factors influencing individual decision-making. This must be particularly true during the breeding period, when individuals face additional limitations imposed by their central-place foraging behaviour. We used GPS data loggers and Argos PTTs to track the foraging flights of Balearic shearwaters (Puffinus mauretanicus) during the chick-rearing period of 2011–2014 in the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean). We identified main areas used by tracked birds and characterised their productivity patterns. Based on a spatial seascape approach of flight costs varying with time, shaped by environmental processes as winds, we also estimated flight costs to reach foraging grounds in outward and return trips from the colony. Individuals repeatedly used the closest areas on the Iberian continental shelf. However, sporadic and favourable wind conditions facilitated low-cost flight to more distant and equally productive areas of the western North African shelf.
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Data availability
All relevant data are publicly available in the Seabird Tracking Database: http://seabirdtracking.org/mapper/?dataset_id=879 and http://seabirdtracking.org/mapper/?dataset_id=1409.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Servei de Protecció d’Espècies i d’Espais de Natura Balear (Balearic Government) for their support in providing permits, as well as to the personnel of the Reservas Naturales d’Es Vedrà, Es Vedranell i els illots de Ponent for logistical support. We also thank Esteban Cardona for the local support, Joan Navarro, Roger Jovani, and Lluís Jover for fruitful discussions and advice, and Juan Bécares for helping with the tracking database. Fieldwork was supported by projects Interreg FAME and LIFE+INDEMARES, as well as specific funds provided by the Ibiza Preservation Fund (IPF).
Funding
Funding support was provided to LPO and SEO/BirdLife through Interreg project FAME, LIFE + project INDEMARES, and the Ibiza Preservation Fund, and to the IEO through a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (CONPELHAB; PCIG09-GA-2011-293774). ML was funded by a Juan de la Cierva (JCI-2010-07639) and a Ramón y Cajal (RYC-2012-09897) postdoctoral contract. FR was funded by a Juan de la Cierva (JCI-2015-24531) postdoctoral contract.
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IA, FR, ML, and JMA designed the work. DG, BR, JMA, ML, KD, TM, HW, and AB conducted the fieldwork. IA and ML carried out the analysis. IA wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to the final text.
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Experimental protocols were approved by the Direcció General de Biodiversitat (Conselleria de Medi Ambient i Mobilitat, Govern de les Illes Balears), permissions number CAP03/2011, CEP 26/2012, CEP 09/2013 and CEP 19/2014.
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Afán, I., Arcos, J.M., Ramírez, F. et al. Where to head: environmental conditions shape foraging destinations in a critically endangered seabird. Mar Biol 168, 23 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03830-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03830-1