Honan Eleanor Maedhbh, Wakefield Ewan D, Phillips Richard A, Grecian W James, Prince Stephanie, Robert Henri, Descamps Sébastien, Rix Anna, Hoelzel A Rus, McClymont Erin L
Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE UK.
Natural Environment Research Council, British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET UK.
Mar Biol. 2025;172(7):109. doi: 10.1007/s00227-025-04657-w. Epub 2025 Jun 5.
The polar sea-ice zones are highly productive and seasonal habitats that support large populations of vertebrate predators. In the Antarctic, snow petrels () are regarded as highly ice-dependant, yet knowledge of their habitat use and foraging distribution during the breeding period comes largely from ship-based observations. Snow petrels show sexual size dimorphism, and previous studies have demonstrated a degree of sexual segregation in habitat use in East Antarctica during the incubation period. Here, we characterise the movements, behaviour and habitat use of foraging snow petrels using bird movement and remotely sensed environmental data. We tracked snow petrels from two colonies in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica during early chick rearing in January to February 2022, a period of unusually rapid sea-ice retreat in the region. During the chick-rearing period, mean foraging range was c. 395 km and did not differ between the sexes. However, we found some evidence of differing habitat use between the sexes: males foraged more in areas of higher sea-ice concentration and over the continental shelf, while females utilized deeper waters and lower sea-ice concentrations. Sexes also diverged in their behavioural responses to both sea ice and depths, with males more likely to switch to foraging in areas of higher sea-ice concentrations than females and females more likely to switch to foraging in deeper waters than males. Although both sexes were more likely to forage at higher sea-ice concentrations, they also used areas with little or no sea ice. This contrasts with previous studies and may have been due to the unusual paucity of sea-ice cover during our tracking period.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00227-025-04657-w.
极地海冰区是生产力高的季节性栖息地，养活了大量脊椎动物捕食者。在南极，南极雪海燕被认为高度依赖海冰，然而，关于它们在繁殖期的栖息地利用和觅食分布的知识很大程度上来自于船上观测。南极雪海燕存在性别体型差异，先前的研究表明，在东南极孵化期，它们在栖息地利用上存在一定程度的性别隔离。在这里，我们利用鸟类运动和遥感环境数据，描述了觅食中的南极雪海燕的运动、行为和栖息地利用情况。我们在2022年1月至2月雏鸟早期饲养期间，跟踪了来自南极东部毛德皇后地两个繁殖地的南极雪海燕，这一时期该地区海冰出现异常快速消退。在雏鸟饲养期，平均觅食范围约为395千米，两性之间没有差异。然而，我们发现了一些两性在栖息地利用上存在差异的证据：雄性在海冰浓度较高的区域和大陆架上觅食更多，而雌性利用更深的水域和更低的海冰浓度。两性在对海冰和深度的行为反应上也存在差异，雄性比雌性更有可能转向海冰浓度较高的区域觅食，而雌性比雄性更有可能转向更深的水域觅食。尽管两性都更有可能在海冰浓度较高的区域觅食，但它们也会利用几乎没有海冰或没有海冰的区域。这与先前的研究形成对比，可能是由于我们跟踪期间海冰覆盖异常稀少所致。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s00227-025-04657-w获取的补充材料。
