New tools to evaluate plastic ingestion by northern fulmars applied to North Sea monitoring data 2002-2018.

Monitoring plastic in stomachs of beached northern fulmars for OSPAR's Ecological Quality Objectives (EcoQOs) has been incorporated into the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This paper aims to provide the appropriate tools to interpret the monitoring results. MSFD requires a data-derived threshold value (Fulmar-TV) representing 'Good Environmental Status'. Such Fulmar-TV was calculated from near-pristine Canadian Arctic data where 10.06% of fulmars exceeded the level of 0.1 g ingested plastic. This Fulmar-TV is almost identical to the earlier OSPAR EcoQO, arbitrarily set at 10%. The MSFD approach was evaluated for 2661 North Sea fulmars in 2002-2018. Between 2014 and 2018, 51% of 393 fulmars exceeded 0.1 g plastic, significantly above the proposed Fulmar-TV. Linear regression of individual ingested plastic mass over the 2009-2018 period indicates a significant decrease. Over the longer term 2002-2018, logistic regression of annual EcoQ% shows a significant decline and predicts compliance with the Fulmar-TV by 2054.

Exclusion of tidal influence on ambient sound measurements.

Growing concern about the impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine life has led to a global increase in the number of acoustic monitoring programmes aiming to quantify underwater soundscapes. However, low-frequency measurements in coastal sites may be affected by flow noise that is not actually present in the environment, but is caused by tidal flow turbulence around the hydrophone. At present, there is no standard way of removing this contaminating noise. This study presents an approach to exclude tidal influences (flow noise and other tidal-related acoustic self-noise) on ambient sound measurements, using data recorded at ten Scottish coastal sites between 2013 and 2017, and with a focus on the 63 and 125 Hz 1/3-octave bands. The annual ambient sound pressure levels (SPL) of the full and "tidal influence excluded" datasets of the three most tidally affected sites were compared against hypothetical noise thresholds. For the 63 Hz 1/3-octave band, results revealed: Site-specific patterns in the amount of data excluded (28.2%-89.2%), decreases in SPL (0.7-8.5 dB), and differences in the percentage of time that noise thresholds were exceeded. The described approach may serve as a standardised way of excluding tidal influence on soundscape descriptors.

Seasonal and diel acoustic presence of North Atlantic minke whales in the North Sea.

Despite frequent records from other parts of the North Atlantic, minke whales have never been acoustically recorded in the North Sea. This study investigated the detectability of pulse trains previously associated with this species in other regions, in acoustic data from ten sites along the east coast of Scotland. Since preliminary results confirmed pulse train presence, subsequently, an automated detector was applied to these data to record the seasonal and diel presence of minke whale pulse trains. Minke whales were detected from May to November, with most detections occurring in June, July and October. No acoustic detections were made in December, January or in the month of April, whilst no data were available for February and March. This pattern of acoustic presence supports available visual data and suggested an absence of minke whales from the study area during winter. Minke whale acoustic presence showed a statistically significant diel pattern, with a detection peak during night time. This study established the acoustic detectability of minke whales in the North Sea and highlights the potential of using passive acoustic monitoring to study the seasonal presence and spatial distribution of minke whales in the North Sea and wider Northeast Atlantic.

Central place foragers and moving stimuli: A hidden-state model to discriminate the processes affecting movement.

Human activities can influence the movement of organisms, either repelling or attracting individuals depending on whether they interfere with natural behavioural patterns or enhance access to food. To discern the processes affecting such interactions, an appropriate analytical approach must reflect the motivations driving behavioural decisions at multiple scales. In this study, we developed a modelling framework for the analysis of foraging trips by central place foragers. By recognising the distinction between movement phases at a larger scale and movement steps at a finer scale, our model can identify periods when animals are actively following moving attractors in their landscape. We applied the framework to GPS tracking data of northern fulmars Fulmarus glacialis, paired with contemporaneous fishing boat locations, to quantify the putative scavenging activity of these seabirds on discarded fish and offal. We estimated the rate and scale of interaction between individual birds and fishing boats and the interplay with other aspects of a foraging trip. The model classified periods when birds were heading out to sea, returning towards the colony or following the closest boat. The probability of switching towards a boat declined with distance and varied depending on the phase of the trip. The maximum distance at which a bird switched towards the closest boat was estimated around 35 km, suggesting the use of olfactory information to locate food. Individuals spent a quarter of a foraging trip, on average, following fishing boats, with marked heterogeneity among trips and individuals. Our approach can be used to characterise interactions between central place foragers and different anthropogenic or natural stimuli. The model identifies the processes influencing central place foraging at multiple scales, which can improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying movement behaviour and characterise individual variation in interactions with a range of human activities that may attract or repel these species. Therefore, it can be adapted to explore the movement of other species that are subject to multiple dynamic drivers.

Sexual and individual foraging segregation in Gentoo penguins Pygoscelis papua from the Southern Ocean during an abnormal winter.

Knowledge about sexual segregation and gender-specific, or indeed individual specialization, in marine organisms has improved considerably in the past decade. In this context, we tested the "Intersexual Competition Hypothesis" for penguins by investigating the feeding ecology of Gentoo penguins during their austral winter non-breeding season. We considered this during unusual environmental conditions (i.e. the year 2009 had observations of high sea surface and air temperatures) in comparison with the long term average at Bird Island, South Georgia. Through conventional (i.e. stomach contents) and stable isotopic values from red blood cells, plasma and feathers of both male and female Gentoo penguins, we showed that there were significant differences between sexes, with males feeding mainly on fish (54% by mass) followed by crustaceans (38%) whereas females fed mainly on crustaceans (89% by mass) followed by fish (4%). Themisto gaudichaudii was the most important crustacean prey for males (64% by mass; 82% by number; 53% by frequency of occurrence) and females (63% by mass; 77% by number; 89% by frequency of occurrence), contrasting with all previous studies that found Antarctic krill Euphausia superba were generally the main prey. Stable isotopic data showed that, in terms of habitat use (based on δ 13C), there were significant differences in short-term carbon signatures between males and females (based on plasma and red blood cells), suggesting that both sexes explored different habitats, with females exploring more offshore pelagic waters and males feeding more in coastal benthic waters. Based on δ 15N, males fed on significantly higher trophic level than females (based on plasma and red blood cells), in agreement with our diet results., Thus, Gentoo penguins behave in a similar manner to other non-breeding penguins species (e.g. king, macaroni and rockhopper penguins), albeit at a smaller spatial scale (as they do not disperse as these other penguins do), in that they have a wider habitat and trophic niche during the Antarctic Winter (in comparison to Summer). We also detected individual specialization in feeding/trophic levels for each gender, with certain males feeding mainly on fish and certain females mainly on crustaceans, which may be driven the prevailing environmental conditions that lead individuals to search for alternative prey, and cause sexual diet segregation. Our results provide further information to help improve understanding about sexual segregation and individual specialization of marine organisms, while contributing valuable information on the winter diet for Antarctic monitoring programs and for modelling Antarctic marine food webs.