St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Biology (School of)
  • Biology
  • Biology Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Biology (School of)
  • Biology
  • Biology Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Biology (School of)
  • Biology
  • Biology Theses
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Environmental constraints on the foraging behaviour, spatial usage and population sizes of albatrosses

Thumbnail
View/Open
Ewan D Wakefield PhD thesis.pdf (3.633Mb)
Date
2009
Author
Wakefield, Ewan D.
Supervisor
Matthiopoulos, Jason
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Abstract
Satellite-tracking of wide-ranging, apex marine predators, combined with remote-sensing, can be used to test ecological hypotheses and to estimate spatial abundance. I used this approach to quantify the habitat usage of central place foraging black-browed albatrosses (BBA) from nine colonies, modelling population-level distribution as a function of habitat accessibility, habitat preference and conspecific competition. Throughout breeding, BBA preferred neritic waters, steeper bathymetry, and, during incubation, warmer sea surface temperatures. BBA from South Georgia also preferred highly dynamic oceanic waters. Foraging areas were partially spatially segregated with respect to colony and region, presumably to reduce intraspecific competition. Although such competition is often invoked to explain observed colony sizes, by accounting for travel costs, I demonstrate a strong relationship between the sizes of regional populations and the availability, accessibility and productivity of neritic waters, supporting the hypothesis that seabird populations are constrained by breeding season food availability. In response to this constraint, albatrosses have evolved to exploit energetically efficient gliding flight, allowing them to access prey 100-1000s of km from their colonies. Hence, I used satellite tracking and activity data to quantify the effects of relative wind speed on the flight speed of four albatross species. Groundspeed was linearly related to the wind speed in the direction of flight, its effect being greatest on wandering albatrosses, followed by BBA, light-mantled and grey- headed albatrosses, and airspeeds were higher in males than females. Commuting birds tended to encounter headwinds during outward trips and tailwinds on their return, such that return trips were faster. This supports the hypothesis that foraging upwind of the colony is more efficient but could also result from wind climate and the relative location of prey. The ability to use tracking data to estimate spatial usage is timely given the acute threat currently posed to albatrosses by incidental fisheries mortality.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Collections
  • Biology Theses
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/870

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter