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Year-round distribution and habitat preferences of the Bugio petrel

2012; Inter-Research; Volume: 476; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3354/meps10083

1616-1599

Iván Ramírez, Vítor H. Paiva, Dília Menezes, Isabel Marques da Silva, RA Phillips, Jaime A. Ramos, Stefan Garthe,

Marine and fisheries research

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 476:269-284 (2013) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10083 Year-round distribution and habitat preferences of the Bugio petrel Iván Ramírez1,*, Vitor H. Paiva2, Dilia Menezes3, Isamberto Silva3, Richard A. Phillips4, Jaime A. Ramos2, Stefan Garthe5 1SPEA-Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds, Avenida João Crisostomo N°18 4Dta, Lisboa 1000-179, Portugal 2Institute of Marine Research (IMAR/CMA), Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Apartado 3046, Coimbra 3001-401, Portugal 3Parque Natural da Madeira, Quinta do Bom Sucesso, Caminho do Meio, Funchal 9050-251, Madeira, Portugal 4British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, United Kingdom 5Research and Technology Centre (FTZ), University of Kiel, Hafentörn 1, 25761 Büsum, Germany *Email: ivan.ramirez@spea.pt ABSTRACT: The conservation of threatened seabirds that are highly pelagic, such as the gadfly petrels Pterodroma spp., depends on understanding the main oceanographic determinants of their movements in order to apply the necessary management regulations and to identify and protect their key marine habitats. The present work presents for the first time information on the distribution and habitat preferences of 17 Bugio petrels Pterodroma deserta from the island of Bugio, Madeira archipelago, North Atlantic Ocean. All of the birds remained in North Atlantic waters during the pre-laying exodus, incubation and chick-rearing periods, showing a clear preference for deep, productive (high chlorophyll a levels) waters north of the Azores archipelago. There was high individual variability in migration strategies. Five wintering areas were identified: two off the Brazilian coast, one around the Cape Verde archipelago, one off the southeast coast of the United States, and one in pelagic waters in the central South Atlantic. These tended to be areas of high productivity but not of a particular sea surface temperature regime. Based on saltwater immersion data, birds were more active during the breeding season and spent more time resting on the water in wintering areas. There was also a positive correlation between the time spent on the water and the progression of full to new moon, suggesting that the birds may use moonlight to search for prey. Given its highly dispersed distribution at sea throughout the year, effective conservation of this threatened species may require management at large spatial scales. KEY WORDS: Atlantic Ocean · Pelagic seabird · Petrels · Marine habitat use · Migration · Conservation management Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Ramírez I, Paiva VH, Menezes D, Silva I, Phillips RA, Ramos JA, Garthe S (2013) Year-round distribution and habitat preferences of the Bugio petrel. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 476:269-284. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10083 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 476. Online publication date: February 27, 2013 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2013 Inter-Research.