Darby Jamie, Phillips Richard A, Weimerskirch Henri, Wakefield Ewan D, Xavier José C, Pereira Jorge M, Patrick Samantha C
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L3 5DA, UK; School of Biological, Environmental and Earth Sciences, University College Cork, Cork T23 N73K, Ireland.
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environmental Research Council, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK.
Curr Biol. 2024 Dec 2;34(23):5615-5621.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.018. Epub 2024 Nov 1.
Knowledge of how animals respond to weather and changes in their physical environment is increasingly important, given the higher frequency of extreme weather recorded in recent years and its forecasted increase globally. Even species considered to be highly adapted to extremes of weather, as albatrosses are to strong winds, may be disadvantaged by shifts in those extremes. Tracked albatrosses were shown recently to avoid storms and the strongest associated winds. The drivers of this response are so far unknown, though we hypothesize that turbulent storm conditions restrict foraging success, possibly by reducing the detectability or accessibility of food, and albatrosses divert toward more profitable conditions where possible. We tested the impact of the physical environment-wind speed, rainfall, water clarity, and time of day-on feeding activity and success of two species of albatrosses with contrasting foraging strategies. We tracked 33 wandering and 48 black-browed albatrosses from Bird Island (South Georgia) with GPS and immersion loggers, and 19 and 7 individuals, respectively, with stomach-temperature loggers to record ingestions, providing an in-depth picture of foraging behavior. Reduced foraging profitability (probability of prey capture and overall mass) was associated with stormy conditions, specifically strong winds and heavy rain in surface-seizing wandering albatrosses, and the probability of prey capture was reduced in strong winds in black-browed albatrosses. We show that even highly wind-adapted species may frequently encounter conditions that make foraging difficult, giving context to storm avoidance in albatrosses. VIDEO ABSTRACT.
鉴于近年来极端天气出现的频率更高，且全球范围内预计还会增加，了解动物如何应对天气及其物理环境的变化变得越来越重要。即使是被认为高度适应极端天气的物种，比如信天翁适应强风，也可能会因这些极端情况的变化而处于不利地位。最近的研究表明，被追踪的信天翁会避开风暴和与之相关的最强风力。尽管我们推测动荡的风暴条件可能会限制觅食成功率，可能是通过降低食物的可探测性或可获取性，信天翁会尽可能转向更有利可图的条件，但这种反应的驱动因素目前尚不清楚。我们测试了物理环境——风速、降雨量、水的清澈度和一天中的时间——对两种觅食策略不同的信天翁的觅食活动和成功率的影响。我们用GPS和浸水记录仪追踪了来自南乔治亚岛鸟岛的33只漂泊信天翁和48只黑眉信天翁，并用胃温记录仪分别追踪了19只和7只个体以记录摄食情况，从而深入了解觅食行为。觅食盈利能力降低（捕获猎物的概率和总体质量）与暴风雨天气有关，具体而言，对于在水面捕食的漂泊信天翁来说，强风和暴雨会导致这种情况，而对于黑眉信天翁来说，强风会降低捕获猎物的概率。我们表明，即使是高度适应风力的物种也可能经常遇到觅食困难的情况，这为信天翁避开风暴提供了背景信息。视频摘要。
