SCIENCE@home

Selective foraging behavior of seabirds in small‐scale slicks

Lilian Lieber,Cynthia Füchtencordsjürgen,Rebecca L. Hilder,Paula J. Revering,Ina Siekmann,Roland Langrock,W. Nimmo-Smith

Published 2023 in Limnology and Oceanography Letters

ABSTRACT

Marine predator foraging opportunities are often driven by dynamic physical processes enhancing prey accessibility. Surface slicks are ubiquitous yet ephemeral ocean features where convergent flows accumulate flotsam, concentrating marine organisms and pollutants. Slicks can manifest on the sea surface as meandering lines and seabirds often associate with slicks. Yet, how slicks may influence the fine‐scale foraging behavior of seabirds is only coarsely resolved. Here we show that seabirds selectively forage in small‐scale slicks. We used aerial drone technology to track surface‐foraging terns (Sternidae, 107 tracks) over evolving slicks advected by the mean flow and reshaped by localized turbulence at scales of meters and seconds. Terns were more likely to switch into high‐tortuosity foraging behavior when over slicks, with plunge‐dive events occurring significantly more often within slicks. As we demonstrate that terns select dynamic slicks for foraging, our approach will also lend itself to interaction studies with pollutants, plumes, and fronts.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-47 of 47 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-5 of 5 citing papers · Page 1 of 1