Interannual measures of nutritional stress during a marine heatwave (the Blob) differ between two North Pacific seabird species.

'The Blob', a mass of anomalously warm water in the Northeast Pacific Ocean peaking from 2014 to 2016, caused a decrease in primary productivity with cascading effects on the marine ecosystem. Among the more obvious manifestations of the event were seabird breeding failures and mass mortality events. Here, we used corticosterone in breast feathers (fCort), grown in the winter period during migration, as an indicator of nutritional stress to investigate the impact of the Blob on two sentinel Pacific auk species (family Alcidae). Feathers were collected from breeding females over 8 years from 2010 to 2017, encompassing the Blob period. Since Pacific auks replace body feathers at sea during the migratory period, measures of fCort provide an accumulated measure of nutritional stress or allostatic load during this time. Changes in diet were also measured using δ15N and δ13C values from feathers. Relative to years prior to the Blob, the primarily zooplanktivorous Cassin's auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) had elevated fCort in 2014-2017, which correlated with the occurrence of the Blob and a recovery period afterwards, with relatively stable feather isotope values. In contrast, generalist rhinoceros auklets (Cerorhinca monocerata) displayed stable fCort values across years and increased δ15N values during the Blob. As marine heatwaves increase in intensity and frequency due to climate change, this study provides insight into the variable response of Pacific auks to such phenomena and suggests a means for monitoring population-level responses to climatological variation.

Exposure to persistent organic pollutants is linked to over-wintering latitude in a Pacific seabird, the rhinoceros auklet, Cerorhinca monocerata.

Seabirds are wide-ranging organisms often used to track marine pollution, yet the effect of migration on exposure over the annual cycle is often unclear. We used solar geolocation loggers and stable isotope analysis to study the effects of post breeding dispersal and diet on persistent organic pollutant (POP) and mercury (Hg) burdens in rhinoceros auklets, Cerorhinca monocerata, breeding on islands along the Pacific Coast of Canada. Hg and four classes of POPs were measured in auklet eggs: organochlorine insecticides (OCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and perfluoralkyl substances (PFASs). Stable isotope values of adult breast feathers grown during winter were used in conjunction with geolocation to elucidate adult wintering latitude. Wintering latitude was the most consistent and significant predictor of some POP and of Hg concentrations in eggs. The magnitude and pattern of exposure varied by contaminant, with ∑PCBs, ∑PBDEs and DDE decreasing with wintering latitude, and mirex, perfluoro-n-tridecanoic acid, and Hg increasing with latitude. We suggest that concentrations of these contaminants in rhinoceros auklet eggs are influenced by variation in uptake at adult wintering locations related to anthropogenic inputs and oceanic and atmospheric transport.

Geolocator tagging links distributions in the non-breeding season to population genetic structure in a sentinel North Pacific seabird.

We tested the hypothesis that segregation in wintering areas is associated with population differentiation in a sentinel North Pacific seabird, the rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata). We collected tissue samples for genetic analyses on five breeding colonies in the western Pacific Ocean (Japan) and on 13 colonies in the eastern Pacific Ocean (California to Alaska), and deployed light-level geolocator tags on 12 eastern Pacific colonies to delineate wintering areas. Geolocator tags were deployed previously on one colony in Japan. There was strong genetic differentiation between populations in the eastern vs. western Pacific Ocean, likely due to two factors. First, glaciation over the North Pacific in the late Pleistocene might have forced a southward range shift that historically isolated the eastern and western populations. And second, deep-ocean habitat along the northern continental shelf appears to act as a barrier to movement; abundant on both sides of the North Pacific, the rhinoceros auklet is virtually absent as a breeder in the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea, and no tagged birds crossed the North Pacific in the non-breeding season. While genetic differentiation was strongest between the eastern vs. western Pacific, there was also extensive differentiation within both regional groups. In pairwise comparisons among the eastern Pacific colonies, the standardized measure of genetic differentiation (FꞌST) was negatively correlated with the extent of spatial overlap in wintering areas. That result supports the hypothesis that segregation in the non-breeding season is linked to genetic structure. Philopatry and a neritic foraging habit probably also contribute to the structuring. Widely distributed, vulnerable to anthropogenic stressors, and exhibiting extensive genetic structure, the rhinoceros auklet is fully indicative of the scope of the conservation challenges posed by seabirds.

Beach-cast debris surveys on Triangle Island, British Columbia, Canada indicate the timing of arrival of 2011 Tohoku tsunami debris in North America.

We conducted beach-cast debris transect surveys on Triangle Island, British Columbia, Canada in 2012-2017 to (1) establish a baseline against which to track future changes in stranded debris on this small, uninhabited island; and (2) time the arrival in western North America of debris released by the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. Most (90%) of the six-year total of 6784 debris items tallied was composed of Styrofoam or plastic. The number of debris items peaked in 2014 (waste Styrofoam, rope) and 2015 (waste plastic, wood), and cumulative totals for all debris types were ca. 50% higher in 2014-15 than in 2012-13 and 2016-17. The peaks in 2014-15 probably represented the arrival of the bulk of the tsunami debris, based on close correspondence with forecasting models and debris surveys elsewhere. A fuller understanding of the movement of the Tohoku tsunami debris will require information from other beach monitoring programs.

Egg size is independent of variation in pre-breeding feather corticosterone in Cassin's auklets during favorable oceanographic conditions.

The measurement of corticosterone levels in feathers (fCort) is gaining recognition as an effective means for describing links between stages of the annual cycle in birds. Many seabirds are especially good models for exploring these links, or carryover effects, due to their migratory behavior and reproductive investment in a single-egg clutch. Here, we measure fCort in Cassin's auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) breast feathers at two colonies in British Columbia during 2011, a year of favorable oceanographic conditions, and examine its relationship with egg size. These feathers are grown at sea during the late winter period, 1-2 months prior to egg laying. Assuming that fCort provides some measure of nutritional stress and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity during feather growth, we predicted that fCort would be positively correlated with egg size via increased support for foraging activity during the nutritionally demanding molt stage. We also analyzed the δ13C and δ15N stable isotope content of breast feathers, measures commonly used to characterize seabird diet composition. Contrary to prediction, neither fCort nor stable isotope ratios were good predictors of egg size. Our results appear to conflict with two previous studies on alcids in which fCort and stable isotopes showed clear links with egg size; however, both studies were conducted in years when oceanographic and foraging conditions were poor. Under these conditions, upregulation of corticosterone may be needed to mediate the energetic tradeoffs between self-maintenance and reproduction, supporting increased foraging effort and thus increasing both the likelihood of reproduction and large egg size. However, when foraging conditions are favorable, we suggest that such tradeoffs and associated physiological constraints are minimized and regulation of egg size may be effectively independent of circulating corticosterone levels and diet type.

Two forage fishes as potential conduits for the vertical transfer of microfibres in Northeastern Pacific Ocean food webs.

We assessed the potential role played by two vital Northeastern Pacific Ocean forage fishes, the Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus) and Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii), as conduits for the vertical transfer of microfibres in food webs. We quantified the number of microfibres found in the stomachs of 734 sand lance and 205 herring that had been captured by an abundant seabird, the rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata). Sampling took place on six widely-dispersed breeding colonies in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington State, USA, over one to eight years. The North Pacific Ocean is a global hotspot for pollution, yet few sand lance (1.5%) or herring (2.0%) had ingested microfibres. In addition, there was no systematic relationship between the prevalence of microplastics in the fish stomachs vs. in waters around three of our study colonies (measured in an earlier study). Sampling at a single site (Protection Island, WA) in a single year (2016) yielded most (sand lance) or all (herring) of the microfibres recovered over the 30 colony-years of sampling involved in this study, yet no microfibres had been recovered there, in either species, in the previous year. We thus found no evidence that sand lance and herring currently act as major food-web conduits for microfibres along British Columbia's outer coast, nor that the local at-sea density of plastic necessarily determines how much plastic enters marine food webs via zooplanktivores. Extensive urban development around the Salish Sea probably explains the elevated microfibre loads in fishes collected on Protection Island, but we cannot account for the between-year variation. Nonetheless, the existence of such marked interannual variation indicates the importance of measuring year-to-year variation in microfibre pollution both at sea and in marine biota.