Environmental heterogeneity and the evolution of foraging behaviour in long ranging greater albatrosses

Henri Weimerskirch (1)

1 CEBC - Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé

Habitat selection in heterogeneous environments is assumed to allow diversification. Wide-ranging species like pelagic seabirds present a paradox, in that their diversity appears difficult to reconcile with a frequent lack of geographical isolation between populations. We studied the foraging strategies of three closely related species of greater albatrosses, wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans, Amsterdam albatrosses D. amsterdamensis and royal albatross, D. epomophora, in relation to environmental heterogeneity at coarse-grained and fine-grained scales. During the incubation period the three species foraged at long distances from their colonies. We observed significant differences between the species in the duration of foraging trips and the distance travelled per day. There were significant differences in preference for habitat types in relation to bathymetric features, and in chlorophyll a concentrations in the waters traversed. Royal albatross preferred shallower waters (1500 m depth), which were rich in chlorophyll (0.5 mg/m3), while the other species spent on average 80% of their time in waters deeper than this, where chlorophyll levels were lower. Wandering albatrosses foraged in colder waters than Amsterdam albatrosses. Patterns of activity divided the species into two groups: those exploiting oceanic habitats (wandering and Amsterdam albatrosses) spent high proportions of time on the water (49%), and had on average 1.35 takeoffs and landings per hour, while royal albatross, which foraged mainly over neritic waters spent only 35% of their time sitting on the water, and made on average 2.6 takeoff per hour. Further, royal albatross showed a similar pattern of activity during all periods of the day, while wandering and Amsterdam albatrosses were mostly inactive during the night. We link these differences in activity to prey patch availability in two contrasting habitats – continental shelf areas compared to open ocean habitats. The divergent styles of foraging observed in this study suggest that these closely-related and wide-ranging species could effectively co-exist by dividing the resources available to them by different modes of exploitation.

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Henri Weimerskirch. Environmental heterogeneity and the evolution of foraging behaviour in long ranging greater albatrosses. Oikos, 2003, 103, pp.374-384. ⟨hal-00189798⟩