Oceanic fronts are key habitats for a diverse range of marine predators, yet how they influence fine-scale foraging behaviour is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the dive behaviour of northern gannets Morus bassanus in relation to shelf-sea fronts. We GPS (global positioning system) tracked 53 breeding birds and examined the relationship between 1901 foraging dives (from time-depth recorders) and thermal fronts (identified via Earth Observation composite front mapping) in the Celtic Sea, Northeast Atlantic. We (i) used a habitat-use availability analysis to determine whether gannets preferentially dived at fronts, and (ii) compared dive characteristics in relation to fronts to investigate the functional significance of these oceanographic features. We found that relationships between gannet dive probabilities and fronts varied by frontal metric and sex. While both sexes were more likely to dive in the presence of seasonally persistent fronts, links to more ephemeral features were less clear. Here, males were positively correlated with distance to front and cross-front gradient strength, with the reverse for females. Both sexes performed two dive strategies: shallow V-shaped plunge dives with little or no active swim phase (92% of dives) and deeper U-shaped dives with an active pursuit phase of at least 3 s (8% of dives). When foraging around fronts, gannets were half as likely to engage in U-shaped dives compared with V-shaped dives, independent of sex. Moreover, V-shaped dive durations were significantly shortened around fronts. These behavioural responses support the assertion that fronts are important foraging habitats for marine predators, and suggest a possible mechanistic link between the two in terms of dive behaviour. This research also emphasizes the importance of cross-disciplinary research when attempting to understand marine ecosystems.
Food provisioning of wildlife is a major concern for management and conservation agencies worldwide because it encourages unnatural behaviours in wild animals and increases each individual's risk for injury and death. Here we investigate the contribu...
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 8(1), 522–535
Description:
An understanding of temporal patterns of migration and spatial connectivity between home ranges and spawning sites is necessary for effective management of species that form transient spawning aggregations. The Nassau Grouper Epinephelus striatus is ...
Lomeli, Mark J. M.; Hamel, Owen S.; Wakefield, W. Waldo;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 9(1), 149–160
Description:
The limited‐entry bottom trawl fishery for groundfish along the U.S. West Coast operates under a catch share program, which is implemented with the intention of improving the economic efficiency of the fishery, maximizing fishing opportunities, and...
Leo, Jennifer P.; Minello, Thomas J.; Grant, William E.;
Published Date:
2018
Source:
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 10(3), 347–356
Description:
Brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus support a commercially important fishery in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and the juvenile shrimp use coastal estuaries as nurseries. Production of young shrimp from these nurseries, and hence commercial harvest of...
Murawski, Steven A.; Peebles, Ernst B.; Gracia, Adolfo;
Published Date:
2018
Source:
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 10(3), 325–346
Description:
We analyzed the results of the first comprehensive, systematic, fishery‐independent survey of Gulf of Mexico (GoM) continental shelves using data collected from demersal longline sampling off the United States, Mexico, and Cuba. In total, 166 speci...
Altenritter, Megan N.; Zydlewski, Gayle Barbin; Kinnison, Michael T.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 9(1), 216–230,
Description:
Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus were recently listed as threatened in the Gulf of Maine and endangered in the rest of their U.S. range. Continued research priorities include long-term population monitoring, identifying the species...
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 9(1), 1–12
Description:
While Pacific salmon are known for their extensive marine migrations, some species display much more limited alternative patterns, including residence within interior marine waters. To more clearly define the scale of movement of these residents, we ...
Tuckey, Troy D.; Fabrizio, Mary C.; Norris, Alicia J.;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 9(1), 564–572
Description:
Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus were purposefully introduced into freshwater tributaries to Chesapeake Bay in the past, and populations have subsequently spread to new areas, negatively impacting native communities and causing concern for resource ma...
McClatchie, Sam; Field, John; Thompson, Andrew R.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Royal Society Open Science, 3(3), 1-9
Description:
California sea lions increased from approximately 50 000 to 340 000 animals in the last 40 years, and their pups are starving and stranding on beaches in southern California, raising questions about the adequacy of their food supply. We investiga...
Lomeli, Mark J. M.; Wakefield, W. Waldo; Herrmann, Bent;
Published Date:
2017
Source:
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 9(1), 597–611
Description:
In the U.S. West Coast limited-entry (LE) groundfish bottom trawl fishery, catches of stocks with restrictive harvest limits (e.g., Darkblotched Rockfish Sebastes crameri, Sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria, and Pacific Halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis) con...
Assessing the movement patterns and key habitat features of breeding humpback whales is a prerequisite for the conservation management of this philopatric species. To investigate the interactions between humpback whale movements and environmental con...
Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 68(1), 1-10
Description:
GasEx-98 was the first open-ocean process study where gas transfer velocity measurements were made with several robust techniques, including airside eddy covariance of CO2 and deliberate injection of 3He and SF6. While the CO2 eddy covariance results...
Harford, W. J.; Smith, S. G.; Ault, J. S.; Babcock, E. A.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 8(1), 147–159
Description:
In the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem, delineation of reef fish distributions in relationship to habitat patterns is important for improving the design characteristics of fishery-independent surveys. Efficient survey design depends on analysis of ...
Acoustic communication is an important aspect of reproductive, foraging and social behaviours for many marine species. Northeast Pacific blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) produce three different call types—A, B and D calls. All may be produced as...
Jackson, Jennifer A.; Carroll, Emma L.; Smith, Tim D.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Royal Society Open Science, 3(3), 1-16
Description:
Accurate estimation of historical abundance provides an essential baseline for judging the recovery of the great whales. This is particularly challenging for whales hunted prior to twentieth century modern whaling, as population-level catch records a...
Sagarese, Skyler R.; Frisk, Michael G.; Cerrato, Robert M.;
Published Date:
2016
Source:
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 8(1), 244–262
Description:
This study examines the potential uncertainty in survey biomass estimates of Spiny Dogfish Squalus acanthias in the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (NES LME). Diel catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) estimates are examined from the N...
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 8(1), 1–15
Description:
The spatial and temporal extent of summer hypoxia (dissolved oxygen [DO] concentration ≤ 2 mg/L) in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries has been increasing for decades, consequently affecting fish distribution and abundance by shifting biomass to no...
Parsons, Kim M.; Everett, Meredith; Dahlheim, Marilyn;
Published Date:
2018
Source:
Royal Society Open Science, 5(8), 1-12
Description:
Determining management units for natural populations is critical for effective conservation and management. However, collecting the requisite tissue samples for population genetic analyses remains the primary limiting factor for a number of marine sp...
Arnold, Linsey M.; Smith, Wade D.; Spencer, Paul D.;
Published Date:
2018
Source:
Royal Society Open Science, 5(1), 1-11
Description:
Despite evidence of maternal age effects in a number of teleost species, there have been challenges to the assertion that maternal age intrinsically influences offspring quality. From an evolutionary perspective, maternal age effects result in young ...
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 8(1), 595–606
Description:
The Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus has declined throughout its range, and the species is now protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Information on the timing and extent of spawning migrations is essential for the development and imp...
Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary (Agency : U.S.). National Marine Sanctuary Program (U.S.).
Published Date:
2010
Description:
"This booklet reveals the pelagic birds found in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Accounts of sightings and stories are included in this compilation. Author, Rich Stallcup, is a longtime California seabird observer. Many coastal birds such as ...
United States. National Marine Fisheries Service. Southwest Fisheries Science Center (U.S.).
Published Date:
1982
Series:
NOAA technical report NMFS SSRF ; 759
Description:
The objective of this study was to define the relationships between catch (as a measure of apparent abundance), and temperature, for selected species in different geographical and environmental areas.
Apollonio, Spencer; Stevenson, David K.; Dunton, Jr., Earl E.;
Corporate Authors:
United States. National Marine Fisheries Service.
Published Date:
1986
Series:
NOAA Technical Report NMFS ; 42
Description:
Length-frequency data collected from inshore and offshore locations in the Gulf of Maine in 1966-1968 indicated that ovigerous female northern shrimp (Pandatus borealis) first appeared offshore in August and September and migrated inshore in the fall...
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