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Migratory shearwaters integrate oceanic resources across the Pacific Ocean in an endless summer.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (2006)
  • Scott A Shaffer
  • Y Tremblay
  • H Weimerskirch
  • D Scott, University of Otago
  • D R Thompson
  • P M Sagar
  • H Moller, University of Otago
  • G A Taylor
  • D G Foley, University of Hawaii at Manoa
  • B A Block, Stanford University
  • D P Costa
Abstract
Electronic tracking tags have revolutionized our understanding of broad-scale movements and habitat use of highly mobile marine animals, but a large gap in our knowledge still remains for a wide range of small species. Here, we report the extraordinary transequatorial postbreeding migrations of a small seabird, the sooty shearwater, obtained with miniature archival tags that log data for estimating position, dive depth, and ambient temperature. Tracks (262 ± 23 days) reveal that shearwaters fly across the entire Pacific Ocean in a figure-eight pattern while traveling 64,037 ± 9,779 km roundtrip, the longest animal migration ever recorded electronically. Each shearwater made a prolonged stopover in one of three discrete regions off Japan, Alaska, or California before returning to New Zealand through a relatively narrow corridor in the central Pacific Ocean. Transit rates as high as 910 ± 186 km·day-1 were recorded, and shearwaters accessed prey resources in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere's most productive waters from the surface to 68.2 m depth. Our results indicate that sooty shearwaters integrate oceanic resources throughout the Pacific Basin on a yearly scale. Sooty shearwater populations today are declining, and because they operate on a global scale, they may serve as an important indicator of climate change and ocean health.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2006
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Citation Information
Scott A Shaffer, Y Tremblay, H Weimerskirch, D Scott, et al.. "Migratory shearwaters integrate oceanic resources across the Pacific Ocean in an endless summer." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA Vol. 103 (2006)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/scott_shaffer/25/