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Reproductive success of Northern Gannets at their southernmost colony
Thursday, February 23, 2023, 07:00pm - 08:30pm
Living on the edge: Reproductive success and GPS tracking of Northern Gannets at their southernmost colony
 
Marine birds serve as valuable indicators on the status of marine ecosystems. Their reproductive success and foraging behaviour (assessed with the utility of GPS/Time-depth recorder devices) can provide great inference on the distribution and availability of their prey, as well as how they and their prey respond to environmental stressors and climate change.
The Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) is the largest seabird breeding in the North Atlantic Ocean. Their breeding colonies stretch across a broad geographical range, and colonies near the southern extent of their breeding range have recently exhibited poor productivity. Gannets are opportunistic, generalist foragers and consume a wide variety of prey including Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), capelin (Mallotus villosus), Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) and Atlantic saury (Scomberesox saurus). The distribution and availability of these pelagic fishes are determined by ocean temperature.
 
In this presentation, I will discuss the effects of prey availability and environmental conditions during the breeding season on gannet productivity and foraging behaviour at their southernmost colony in the world, Cape St. Mary’s, Newfoundland.
 
This presentation will serve as an overview of my research conducted on Northern Gannets during my time in Newfoundland. First, I will discuss gannet foraging behaviour and how they vary their foraging tactics depending on which prey species they are exploiting. I will then discuss how we can use tracking and dive data to assess differences in gannet foraging effort between and within years, and what this can tell us about the distribution and availability of the fish species they prey upon. Finally, I will discuss factors influencing gannet reproductive success, including prey availability, sea surface temperature, and the outbreak of the deadly highly pathogenic avian influenza virus.
 
About the speaker:
Kyle J.N. d’Entremont is a recent Master of Science graduate from the Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology program at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. Specializing in seabird ecology, he has 6+ years working with seabirds on several colonies in Atlantic Canada, ranging from the Grand Manan Archipelago in the Bay of Fundy to the rugged coastlines of Eastern Newfoundland. He has been involved with a wide array of scientific work on seabirds, including colony surveys, Avian Influenza testing and beach surveys, behavioural observations, and GPS tracking studies. His MSc research focused on assessing the effects of prey availability and environmental conditions on the breeding success and foraging ecology of Northern Gannets nesting at their southernmost colony in the world at Cape St. Mary’s, Newfoundland.
 
This meeting will be held online via Zoom.
 
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81286044266...
ID Meeting ID: 812 8604 4266
Passcode: 319144

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