Foraging in marine habitats increases mercury concentrations in a generalist seabird.

Methylmercury concentrations vary widely across geographic space and among habitat types, with marine and aquatic-feeding organisms typically exhibiting higher mercury concentrations than terrestrial-feeding organisms. However, there are few model organisms to directly compare mercury concentrations as a result of foraging in marine, estuarine, or terrestrial food webs. The ecological impacts of differential foraging may be especially important for generalist species that exhibit high plasticity in foraging habitats, locations, or diet. Here, we investigate whether foraging habitat, sex, or fidelity to a foraging area impact blood mercury concentrations in western gulls (Larus occidentalis) from three colonies on the US west coast. Cluster analyses showed that nearly 70% of western gulls foraged primarily in ocean or coastal habitats, whereas the remaining gulls foraged in terrestrial and freshwater habitats. Gulls that foraged in ocean or coastal habitats for half or more of their foraging locations had 55% higher mercury concentrations than gulls that forage in freshwater and terrestrial habitats. Ocean-foraging gulls also had lower fidelity to a specific foraging area than freshwater and terrestrial-foraging gulls, but fidelity and sex were unrelated to gull blood mercury concentrations in all models. These findings support existing research that has described elevated mercury levels in species using aquatic habitats. Our analyses also demonstrate that gulls can be used to detect differences in contaminant exposure over broad geographic scales and across coarse habitat types, a factor that may influence gull health and persistence of other populations that forage across the land-sea gradient.

Seabirds as regional biomonitors of legacy toxicants on an urbanized coastline.

Seabirds are often cited as sentinels of the marine environment, but are rarely used in traditional ocean and coastal contaminant monitoring. Four classes of persistent organic pollutants (POPs, n=68) and three trace elements (mercury, selenium, and arsenic) were measured in the eggs of California least terns (Sterna antillarum browni), caspian terns (Hydroprogne caspia), double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus), and western gulls (Larus occidentalis) that nest in the Southern California Bight. Building on a periodic five year regional monitoring program, we measured contaminant exposure and assessed the utility of seabirds as regional contaminant biomonitors. We found that the eggs of larger, more piscivorous species generally had the highest concentrations of POPs and trace elements while California least terns had the lowest concentrations, except for mercury which was higher in least terns. As expected, DDT concentrations were elevated near the Palos Verdes Superfund site. However, we also detected a previously unknown latitudinal pattern in PBDE concentrations in least terns. POP congener profiles also confirmed differences in contamination in urban least tern colonies closest to urban centers. Though toxicants were at detectable levels across species and sites, concentrations were below those known to cause adverse effects in avian taxa and are steady or declining compared to previous studies in this region. Our results suggest that regional seabird monitoring can inform site-specific remediation and support management and protection of regionally-threatened wildlife and coastal systems. Integration of seabird contaminant data with traditional sediment, water, bivalve and fish monitoring is needed to further our understanding of exposure pathways and food web contaminant transfer.

Population-level plasticity in foraging behavior of western gulls (Larus occidentalis).

BACKGROUND: Plasticity in foraging behavior among individuals, or across populations may reduce competition. As a generalist carnivore, western gulls (Larus occidentalis) consume a wide range of marine and terrestrial foods. However, the foraging patterns and habitat selection (ocean or land) of western gulls is not well understood, despite their ubiquity in coastal California. Here, we used GPS loggers to compare the foraging behavior and habitat use of western gulls breeding at two island colonies in central California. RESULTS: Gulls from offshore Southeast Farallon Island (SFI; n = 41 gulls) conducted more oceanic trips (n = 90) of shorter duration (3.8 ± 3.3 SD hours) and distance (27.1 ± 20.3 km) than trips to the mainland (n = 41) which were nearly 4 times longer and 2 times farther away. In contrast, gulls from coastal Año Nuevo Island (ANI; n = 20 gulls) foraged at sites on land more frequently (n = 103) but trip durations (3.6 ± 2.4 h) and distances (20.8 ± 9.4 km) did not differ significantly from oceanic trips (n = 42) where trip durations were only slightly shorter (2.9 ± 2.7 h) and equidistant (20.6 ± 12.1 km). Gulls from both colonies visited more sites while foraging at sea but spent significantly longer (3-5 times) durations at each site visited on land. Foraging at sea was also more random compared to foraging trips over land where gulls from both colonies visited the same sites on multiple trips. The total home range of gulls from SFI (14,230 km2) was 4.5 times larger than that of gulls from ANI, consistent with greater resource competition resulting from a larger abundance of seabirds at SFI. CONCLUSIONS: Population-level plasticity in foraging behavior was evident and dependent on habitat type. In addition, gulls from SFI were away foraging longer than gulls from ANI (22% vs. 7.5%, respectively), which impacts the defense of territories and attempts at nest predation by conspecifics. Our results can be used to explain lower chick productivity at SFI, and can provide insight into increased gull activity in urban areas.

As the egg turns: monitoring egg attendance behavior in wild birds using novel data logging technology.

Egg turning is unique to birds and critical for embryonic development in most avian species. Technology that can measure changes in egg orientation and temperature at fine temporal scales (1 Hz) was neither readily available nor small enough to fit into artificial eggs until recently. Here we show the utility of novel miniature data loggers equipped with 3-axis (i.e., triaxial) accelerometers, magnetometers, and a temperature thermistor to study egg turning behavior in free-ranging birds. Artificial eggs containing egg loggers were deployed in the nests of three seabird species for 1-7 days of continuous monitoring. These species (1) turned their eggs more frequently (up to 6.5 turns h(-1)) than previously reported for other species, but angular changes were often small (1-10° most common), (2) displayed similar mean turning rates (ca. 2 turns h(-1)) despite major differences in reproductive ecology, and (3) demonstrated distinct diurnal cycling in egg temperatures that varied between 1.4 and 2.4 °C. These novel egg loggers revealed high-resolution, three-dimensional egg turning behavior heretofore never measured in wild birds. This new form of biotechnology has broad applicability for addressing fundamental questions in avian breeding ecology, life history, and development, and can be used as a tool to monitor birds that are sensitive to disturbance while breeding.