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Spring Phenology Shapes The Spatial Foraging Behavior Of Antarctic Petrels, Per Fauchald, Arnaud Tarroux, Torkild Tveraa, Yves Cherel, Yan Ropert-Coudert, Akiko Kato, Oliver P. Love, ∅Ystein Varpe, Sébastien Descamps

Integrative Biology Publications

In polar seas, the seasonal melting of ice triggers the development of an open-water ecosystem characterized by short-lived algal blooms, the grazing and development of zooplankton, and the influx of avian and mammalian predators. Spatial heterogeneity in the timing of ice melt generates temporal variability in the development of these events across the habitat, offering a natural framework to assess how foraging marine predators respond to the spring phenology. We combined 4 yr of tracking data of Antarctic petrels Thalassoica antarctica with synoptic remote-sensing data on sea ice and chlorophyll a to test how the development of melting ice and …