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Today albatrosses are threatened worldwide, especially by fishing activities, and many populations are currently in decline. Albatrosses breeding at the French Southern Territories in the south-western Indian Ocean, on the Crozet, Kerguelen and Saint-Paul–Amsterdam island archipelagos, are monitored regularly. This monitoring has been based on a sa...
Citations
... 'Year' refers to the timing of egg laying, although incubation/chick rearing at some colonies extends into January the following year. Population sizes from ACAP (2010a, 2010b), except for Marion Island SA (Schoombie et al., 2016), and LMA/SA from Iles Crozet (Weimerskirch et al., 2018). ...
... Conversely, the light-mantled albatross population has likely increased, or at least remained stable, at Iles Crozet in recent years (Weimerskirch et al., 2018). However, the cold-water specialism of light-mantled albatrosses may increase their vulnerability to warming seas due to climate change (Inchausti et al., 2003;Schoombie et al., 2016). ...
Aim
Competition is often proposed to drive niche segregation along multiple axes in speciose communities. Understanding spatial partitioning of foraging areas is particularly important in species that are constrained to a central place. We present a natural experiment examining variation in habitat preferences of congeneric Southern Ocean predators in sympatry and allopatry. Our aim was to ascertain consistency of habitat preferences within species, and to test whether preferences changed in the presence of the congener.
Location
Southern Hemisphere.
Taxon
Multiple colonies of both species within the genus Phoebetria (sooty albatrosses).
Methods
The two Phoebetria albatrosses breed on islands located from ~37–55°S – sooty albatrosses ( P. fusca ) in the north and light‐mantled albatrosses ( P. palpebrata ) in the south – with sympatric overlap at locations ~46–49°S. We analysed GPS and PTT tracks from 87 individuals and multiple remotely sensed environmental variables using GAMs, to determine and compare the key factors influencing habitat preference for each species at each breeding colony.
Results
While foraging habitat preferences are consistent in light‐mantled albatrosses, there is divergence of preferences in sooty albatrosses depending on whether they are in sympatry with their congener or in allopatry.
Main Conclusions
This study represents the most comprehensive work on this genus to date and highlights how habitat preferences and behavioural plasticity may influence species distributions under different competitive conditions.
... In the case of wandering albatrosses, the absence of cat impact was further supported by the strong similarities in the demographic trajectories of colonies coexisting or not with feral cats throughout the southwestern Indian Ocean (Weimerskirch et al., 2018). Yet, Barbraud et al. (2021) recently provided several lines of evidence for a major role of feral cats in wandering albatross population demography at Kerguelen. ...
... In Kerguelen, wandering albatross monitoring started in 1971 on the Courbet Peninsula. The number of breeders sharply declined from the 1970s to the mid-1980s, followed by an increase and a stabilization at a lower level than reported at the beginning of the monitoring, leading to an overall decrease of 30%-35% (Weimerskirch et al., 2018). In the 2021-2022 breeding season, 348 pairs reproduced on the Courbet Peninsula. ...
Invasive alien species are a major threat to seabird species, and the number of impacted species is still increasing. A recent study revealed for the first time that feral cats predated a large albatross species and that without cat control, some albatross populations would markedly decline. We examined this new predator–prey system by individually monitoring known‐age wandering albatross chicks with camera traps in a colony experimentally divided into zones with and without cat control. Our design allowed us to investigate how cat control influenced cat abundance and how this in turn influenced the probability for a chick to be predated by a cat. After cat controls, cat abundance was lower in controlled zones than in uncontrolled zones, while a survival analysis showed that the probability for a chick to die from cat predation depended on the zone but not on cat abundance. Our monitoring also provided a fine‐scale investigation of the various sources of chick mortality. In addition to cat predation (24% of mortality overall), our data documented predation by giant petrels, for the first time in Kerguelen, and revealed a strong and unexpected effect of nest flooding on chick mortality. Overall, our results underline the need for future studies investigating interindividual variability in cat diet and spatial ecology.
... Population declines have been reported at all sites where repeated surveys have been carried out and, consequently, the species has been uplisted to endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened species (IUCN, 2023). For example, censuses in the French Territories indicate a 75% decline of the sooty albatross during the period 1980-2017 at the Crozet Islands, and a 17% decline during the period 2003-2012 at Amsterdam Island (Weimerskirch et al., 2018). These population decreases are generally considered to be the result of low survival of adult and immature birds caused by at sea mortality associated with fisheries in the subtropics, particularly tuna longline fishing vessels (Delord et al., 2008(Delord et al., , 2013ACAP, 2012). ...
... The present article is a companion paper to a previous article on cephalopod prey of the light-mantled sooty albatross . Unlike the sooty albatross, the light-mantled sooty albatross breeds within the AZ and not in the subtropics, but both species co-exist within the PFZ of the southern Indian Ocean (Weimerskirch et al., 2018;Shirihai, 2002). ...
... Phoebetria albatrosses are primarily solitary foragers that are less attracted by fishing vessels than many other albatrosses (Weimerskirch et al., 1986;Banda et al., 2024). However, low exposure to the fishing boats does not preclude being killed by baited longlines (Huang and Liu, 2010;Banda et al., 2024), and this negative interaction is considered as the main driver of population decline of sooty albatross at all sites where long-term demographic surveys are carried out (ACAP, 2012;Weimerskirch et al., 2018). Consequently, more detailed information is needed on the at-sea behavior of sooty albatross in subtropical waters where Asian longlines operate (Huang and Liu, 2010). ...
... Four endangered seabird species breed on Amsterdam Island, including three albatrosses, Indian Yellow-nosed, Sooty (Phoebetria fusca), and the endemic Amsterdam Albatross (Diomedea amsterdamensis), and Northern Rockhopper Penguins (Eudyptes moseleyi) (Jaeger et al., 2018). Pasteurellosis-attributed mortality was first detected in the 1980s in Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses, and in the 2000s in Sooty and Amsterdam Albatrosses by histopathology and obtaining pure cultures of the bacterium from multiple internal organs and antemortem blood (Jaeger et al., 2018;Weimerskirch et al., 2018). Since then, and except for Amsterdam Albatrosses that have shown positive trends in recent decades, the remaining species have suffered significant breeding population reductions (exceeding 80%) associated with chick loss and dramatic declines in fledging success (below 20%). ...
... However, pasteurellosis continues to represent a threat for seabirds at Amsterdam Island. Given the relevance of this site for Indian Yellow-nosed and the Amsterdam Albatross (70% and 100% of the world's population, respectively) (Weimerskirch et al., 2018), this is a case where the combined impact of disease, fisheries, and climate change supports the value of implementing efforts to avoid extinction. ...
Health and diseases are integral parts of the life of seabirds that merit attention if we expect to truly understand, protect, and conserve them. Diseases such as avian influenza, avian pox, pasteurellosis, and paralytic shellfish poisoning have a proven history of decreasing the survival or breeding success of seabirds. However, each host-pathogen-environment system is unique, and our current knowledge about seabird health is limited and subject to biases. Thus, an exploratory mindset should be maintained, always considering that new or previously undiagnosed diseases could have substantial effects on a given seabird population. Therefore, incorporating a health monitoring component in seabird population monitoring programs, wherein data and biological samples are routinely collected for long-term pathogen surveillance and physiological analyses, would help us understand factors that limit seabird populations. Finally, the implementation of biosecurity best practices at seabird aggregations is imperative to avoid the accidental introduction or spread of pathogens.
... The scientific concerns regarding the bycatch of seabird in France emerged in the French Southern and Antarctic Territories (TAAF) with the shift from bottom trawls to longlines for the fishing of the Patagonian toothfish in the 1990s, which led to a significant increase in the bycatch of three species of albatrosses and four species of petrels (Cherel et al., 1996;Tuck et al., 2003). The strong presence of scientists on the territories since the 1960s contributed, among other factors, to the estimation of the long and short-term trends in the species populations and to the identification of the vessels responsible for bycatch (Rolland et al., 2010;Weimerskirch et al., 2018). In the Atlantic coast, the first scientific projects to study the interactions between fishing activities and protected seabird species only started around 2010, thus little is known yet about the bycatch of seabirds in the area. ...
The issue of bycatch is raising considerable political, mediatic and scientific attention. Bycatch is one of the main causes of at-sea mortality for small cetacean species and for seabirds. Scientists are raising alerts regarding the potential effects on the structure of the ecosystem, increasingly aiming for research-action. Decision-makers are facing a political trade-off, with increasing pressure from the European Commission and international nongovernmental organizations to implement mitigation measures such as space-time closure of the fisheries, which could present a risk of altering the well-being of the fishing industry in the short-term. The process of co-creation of knowledge on bycatch is key to understand better the fishers-species interactions and to develop regulations that are adapted to local specificities, towards an adaptive and inclusive socio-ecosystem-based management of the fisheries. But the knowledge co-creation process is hindered by tensions between the interests of stakeholders, the climate of mistrust, dense media coverage and power asymmetries between actors. In parallel, the fast rate of biodiversity degradation is calling for the rapid development of regulations. Understanding the complex system dynamics highlighted by these conflicts requires an analysis of the socio-political dimension of the interactions between fisheries and marine biodiversity. Based on a series of ethnographic interviews with the different stakeholders involved in the bycatch mitigation projects in the Bay of Biscay, this paper explores how co-creating knowledge through conflict and collaboration between researchers and fishers can generate collective learning for bycatch mitigation policies. We adopt an epistemological approach, with the objective to promote transparency in the exchange between researchers and fishers and to inform decision-making at various scales of governance. We argue that co-creation of knowledge on bycatch should not aim for consensus. We conclude that acknowledging the presence of conflicts between the stakeholders, and understanding their roots and their impact on the co-design process can allow identifying factors of path-dependency hindering the adaptive capacity of institutions. Moreover, we highlight the key role of the fishers’ representative bodies in knowledge co-creation, and the importance to improve our understanding of fishers’ perception of their political representation.
... We predict that Kerguelen Island will replace the Crozet Archipelago as the stronghold for king penguins in the Eastern Hemisphere, as its high chick survival rates and foraging zone stability will create good conditions for further population increase. Other marine predators associated with the Polar Front have experienced similar trends-that is, a decrease in Crozet but an increase in Kerguelen-like the black-browed albatross, but the exact reasons of the population trends are yet to be determined (Weimerskirch, Delord, et al., 2018). ...
Abstract Breeding success is often correlated with climate, but the underlying bottom‐up mechanisms remain elusive – particularly in marine environments. Consequently, conservation plans of many species often consider climate change as a unilateral threat, ignoring that even nearby populations can show contradicting trends with climate. Better understanding the relationship between climate and environment at different scales can help us interpret local differences in population trends, ultimately providing better tools to evaluate the global response of a species to threats such as global warming. We studied a growing king penguin population nesting at Kerguelen island (Southern Indian Ocean), hosting one of the largest colonies in the world. We used a unique dataset of foraging, breeding success, and climate data spanning over 25 years to examine the links between climate, marine environment, and breeding success at this colony. The results were then compared to the neighboring population of Crozet, which experienced the steepest decline for this species over the past few decades. At Crozet, penguins experienced lower breeding success in warmer years due to productive currents shifting away from the colony, affecting foraging behavior during chick rearing. At Kerguelen, while chick mass and survival experienced extreme variation from year to year, the annual variation was not associated with the position of the currents, which varied very little compared to the situation in Crozet. Rather than being affected by prey distribution shifts, we found evidence that chick provisioning in Kerguelen might be influenced by prey abundance, which seem to rather increase in warmer conditions. Furthermore, warmer air temperature in winter increased chick survival rate, likely due to reduced thermoregulation cost. Investigating the mechanisms between climate and fitness allowed us to predict two different fates for these populations regarding ongoing global warming.
... Seabirds are known to be attracted to areas with high primary productivity-chlorophyll-a (Chapman et al., 2020). However, chlorophyll-a is a proxy for their food resources-in this case crustaceans, cephalopods, and finfish (McInnes et al., 2017;ACAP, 2022), and other factors such as physiology and biological interactions are also known to influence seabird abundance at sea (Weimerskirch et al., 2018;Clay et al., 2020). ...
... Many studies have demonstrated the effect of sex, life stage, and breeding stage of birds determining distance, time spent, and success of foraging activity (Weimerskirch, 2018;Clay et al., 2020;Frankish et al., 2020). As example, Frankish et al. (2020) found that adult T. chrysostoma took longer and targeted foraging trips to a small range of SST, and young breeders of BBAL and T. chrysostoma showed improvement in foraging strategies with age. ...
Many long-term studies have reported changes in seabird abundance and distribution in response to climate change and various anthropogenic activities. However, a greater understanding of how species are responding to change over large spatial and temporal scales are required—particularly at high latitudes such as the Southern Ocean. We examined black-browed Thalassarche melanophris (BBAL) and light-mantled sooty Phoebetria palpebrata albatross (LMSA) observations spanning over 50 years. Both species have a wide-ranging distribution in a rapidly changing Southern Ocean. We used generalized additive models (GAMs) to investigate environmental drivers of their abundance and occurrence. Our results show that climate indices, sea surface temperature and sea surface height are the main drivers influencing the distribution and abundance of both species. The abundance of BBAL southeast of Australia was observed to be decreased substantially whereas no significant change was observed in the abundance of LMSA. Both species demonstrated contrasting distributions along their latitudinal gradient with BBAL showing early stages of a southward range shift. Our analyses suggest that responses to climate change are species-specific. These rare, long-term data have provided an understanding of species’ responses to past changes in the marine environment and can provide critical information for future conservation and management.
... It is also similar to the population growth rate recorded by [24], λ = 1.10, and [63], λ = 1.35, for a steadily expanding Laysan Albatross population on Guadalupe Island. Currently, this breeding population has a λ = 1.1, just barely higher than almost a decade ago, and it remains to be higher than λ observed for other species of albatross [64]. ...
The Baja California Pacific Islands (BCPI) is a seabird hotspot in the southern California Current System supporting 129 seabird breeding populations of 23 species and over one million birds annually. These islands had a history of environmental degradation because of invasive alien species, human disturbance, and contaminants that caused the extirpation of 27 seabird populations. Most of the invasive mammals have been eradicated and colonies have been restored with social attraction techniques. We have recorded the number of breeding pairs annually for most of the colonies since 2008. To assess population trends, we analyzed these data and show results for 19 seabird species on ten island groups. The maximum number of breeding pairs for each nesting season was used to estimate the population growth rate (λ) for each species at every island colony. We performed a moving block bootstrap analysis to assess whether seabird breeding populations are increasing or decreasing. San Benito, Natividad, and San Jerónimo are the top three islands in terms of abundance of breeding pairs. The most widespread species is Cassin’s Auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) with 14 colonies. Thirty-one populations of 14 species are significantly increasing while eleven populations of seven species are decreasing. We did not find statistical significance for 19 populations, however, 15 have λ>1 which suggest they are growing. Twelve of the 18 species for which we estimated a regional population trend are significantly increasing, including seven surface-nesting species: Brandt’s Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus), Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia), Double-crested Cormorant (P. auritus), Elegant Tern (Thalasseus elegans), Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) and Western Gull (Larus occidentalis), and five burrow-nesting species: Ainley’s (Hydrobates cheimomnestes), Ashy (H. homochroa) and Townsend’s (H. socorroensis) Storm-Petrels, and Craveri’s (Synthliboramphus craveri) and Guadalupe (S. hypoleucus) Murrelets. The BCPI support between 400,000 and 1.4 million breeding individuals annually. Our results suggest that these islands support healthy and growing populations of seabirds that have shown to be resilient to extreme environmental conditions such as the “Blob”, and that such resilience has been strengthen from conservation and restoration actions such as the eradication of invasive mammals, social attraction techniques and island biosecurity.
... Vertical dashed line indicates separation between retrospective analysis and future projections. for D. exulans, Weimerskirch et al., 2018). We show that combining this adult survival with an increased breeding success associated with a successful mouse eradication could result in a slow recovery of the Tristan albatross population, as has been observed for wandering albatross (D. exulans) populations in the Indian Ocean, which showed signs of recovery after strong decreases in the 1970s . ...
Invasive species are one of the greatest drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide, and the eradication of invasive species from islands is a highly efficient management strategy. Because eradication operations require large financial investments, uncertainty over the magnitude of impacts of both invasive species and their removal can impede the willingness of decision makers to invest in eradication. Such uncertainty is prevalent for long‐lived species that display an inherent lag between life stages affected by invasive species and those used for population status assessments.
Albatrosses are amongst the longest‐living bird species and are threatened on land by invasive species and at sea by industrial fisheries. As in many seabird species, usually only a segment of the population (breeding adults) is used for status assessments, making it difficult to assess albatross population trends and the potential benefit of conservation action, such as the management of predatory invasive species.
We used population monitoring and mark‐recapture data to estimate the past population trajectory of the critically endangered Tristan albatross Diomedea dabbenena by accounting for unobservable birds at sea in an integrated population model. We then projected the future population trajectory of Tristan albatrosses for scenarios with or without predation by invasive house mice Mus musculus on their main breeding site, Gough Island.
The adult breeding population remained stable between 2004 and 2021, but breeding success was low (31%) and our model indicated that the total population (including unobservable immature birds) decreased from a median estimate of 9,795 to 7,752 birds. Eradicating invasive mice leading to a two‐fold increase in breeding success would result in a 1.8–7.6 times higher albatross population by 2050 (median estimate 10,352 individuals) than without this intervention.
Low reproductive output for long‐lived species may lead to a cryptic population decrease, which can be obscured from readily available counts of breeding pairs by changes in the population structure. Mouse eradication is necessary to halt the ongoing population decrease of the Tristan albatross, even if this decrease is not yet apparent in the breeding population size.
... Populations of wandering albatrosses have either shown a continuous decline in the last 50 years (South Georgia), or a decline until the 1980s followed by a slow recovery (Indian Ocean colonies) (Ryan et al. 2009, Poncet et al. 2017, Weimerskirch Delord et al. 2018. Although this can be attributed largely to anthropogenic factors, particularly incidental mortality (bycatch) in commercial fisheries, climate change, including ENSO also has an influence on population trends (Nel et al. 2003, Fay et al. 2017, Pardo et al. 2017, Phillips and Wood 2020. ...
