Bugoni 2008 Phd Thesis
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ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF ALBATROSSES AND PETRELS AT SEA OFF BRAZIL Leandro Bugoni Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, at the Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow. July 2008 DECLARATION I declare that the work described in this thesis has been conducted independently by myself under he supervision of Professor Robert W. Furness, except where specifically acknowledged, and has not been submitted for any other degree. This study was carried out according to permits No. 0128931BR, No. 203/2006, No. 02001.005981/2005, No. 023/2006, No. 040/2006 and No. 1282/1, all granted by the Brazilian Environmental Agency (IBAMA), and International Animal Health Certificate No. 0975-06, issued by the Brazilian Government. The Scottish Executive - Rural Affairs Directorate provided the permit POAO 2007/91 to import samples into Scotland. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I was very lucky in having Prof. Bob Furness as my supervisor. He has been very supportive since before I had arrived in Glasgow, greatly encouraged me in new initiatives I constantly brought him (and still bring), gave me the freedom I needed and reviewed chapters astonishingly fast. It was a very productive professional relationship for which I express my gratitude. Thanks are also due to Rona McGill who did a great job in analyzing stable isotopes and teaching me about mass spectrometry and isotopes. Kate Griffiths was superb in sexing birds and explaining molecular methods again and again. Many people contributed to the original project with comments, suggestions for the chapters, providing samples or unpublished information, identifyiyng fish and squids, reviewing parts of the thesis or helping in analysing samples or data. I have probably forgotten some names, but those I remember are Blake Henke (North Star Sci. Technol., USA), John P. Croxall (BirdLife International, UK), Richard A. Phillips (British Antarctic Survey, UK), Pierre Bize, Liliana D’Alba, Kate Griffiths, Hawthorne Beyer, Dan Haydon and Roger Downie (University of Glasgow, UK), Jason Newton and Rona A.R. McGill (NERC, UK), Tatiana S. Neves, Loretha Nascimento, Fabiano V. Peppes and Patricia L. Mancini (Projeto Albatroz, Brazil), Teodoro Vaske-Jr (UNESP, Brazil), Roberta A. Santos (CEPSUL-IBAMA, Brazil), Karen N. Fischer (Oregon State University, USA), Gene C. Feldman (NASA, USA), Petra Quillfeldt (Max-Planck Institute für Ornithologie, Germany), Gilberto Sales and Projeto TAMAR team (Brazil) Paulo S. Polito (USP, Brazil), Paulo R. Pezzuto (GEP-UNIVALI, Brazil), Jorge P. Castello and Antonio Gomes-Jr (FURG, Brazil), Danielle S. Monteiro, Serginho C. Estima and Marcel Oliveira (NEMA, Brazil). Several anonymous referees and journal editors also improved early manuscripts. Funds for stable isotope analysis were provided by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC-UK, Grant Number EK81-07/05). Satellite transmitters deployed in 2007 were awarded by North Star Science and Technology through the ‘LLC Annual Grant Program’ in partnership with American Bird Conservancy. CAPES Foundation (Ministry of Education – Brazil) sponsored my PhD in Glasgow through a personal grant, university and bench fees. All funders were essential for this course and research activities, and I gratefully acknowledge them. Logistic support during fieldwork in Brazil was provided by Projeto Albatroz, NEMA (Núcleo de Educação e Monitoramento Ambiental) and the Brazilian Navy. Captain Celso Oliveira generously shared his expertise in fishing methods and maritime subjects. The crews of the fishing vessels ‘Ana Amaral I’ and ‘Akira V’ were very supportive in capturing birds at sea and allowing me to go onboard. The development of trapping methods and enjoyable fieldwork was very much appreciated. 3 The ‘Projeto Albatroz family’ contributed to this thesis in several ways particularly for gathering fishing effort data at harbours, providing data on incidental capture, producing maps, reviewing chapters amongst many others. Thanks very much for all your help. To my friends and colleagues from Glasgow who turned the winter less cold and dark: Juan, Davina, Mi Ran, Lili, Yuri, Pierre, Bernie, Lulu, Jan, Maria, Liz, Gume, Fábio, Flávia and the lobster people (Sebastian, Nick, Amaya, Rosanna, Faridah). Staff from DEEB: Lorna, Florence, Pat, Graham, John, Alan. Tatiana Neves encouraged me to work on albatrosses ages ago, and was supportive in several ways, personally and professionally, throughout this endeavour. My sincere gratitude goes to my family for their support, particularly my brother Jéferson, and the new family I joined during this period. And finally my immense gratitude to my wife Ana Carolina for boundless love and patience during long trips at sea and to remote islands, this long final year and endless writing up, and for reminding me that there are more important things than papers. Black-browed albatross. Photo: L. Bugoni. Edition: G. Osório. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary 7 List of Tables 10 List of Figures 13 Chapter 1. General introduction and outline of the thesis 18 Chapter 2. An effective method for trapping scavenging seabirds at sea 25 Chapter 3. Bill colour and moult as a potential tool for ageing immature Atlantic Yellow-nosed ( Thalassarche chlororhynchos ) and Black- browed ( T. melanophris ) Albatrosses in wintering grounds 35 Chapter 4. Effects of preservation methods on stable isotope signatures in bird tissues 43 Chapter 5. Patterns of moult and breeding-moult overlap in albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters 58 Chapter 6. Sexual size dimorphism and age composition of albatrosses and petrels off Brazil 77 Chapter 7. The role of fishing discards on the trophic structure of albatrosses and petrels wintering in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean determined by stable isotopes 91 Chapter 8. Marine habitat use of wintering Spectacled Petrels Procellaria conspicillata and overlap with longline fishery 118 Chapter 9. Seabird bycatch in the Brazilian pelagic longline fishery and a review of capture rates in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean 143 Chapter 10. Potential bycatch of seabirds and turtles in hook-and-line fisheries of the Itaipava Fleet, Brazil 169 5 Chapter 11. Sex-biased incidental mortality of albatrosses and petrels in fishery: differential distributions at sea rather than sexual size dimorphism 184 Chapter 12 . General discussion 197 References 201 Appendix 1. Quillfeldt P, Bugoni L, McGill RAR, Masello JF, Furness RW. Differences in stable isotopes in blood and feathers of seabirds are consistent across species, age and latitude - Implications for food web studies. Under Review 226 Appendix 2. Bugoni L, Sander M, Costa ES (2007) Effects of the first southern Atlantic hurricane on Atlantic Petrels ( Pterodroma incerta ). The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 119(4): 725-729. 240 Appendix 3. Remarks on other data gathered but not included in the thesis 249 6 SUMMARY In this study I investigated Procellariiformes (albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters) at sea in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Fourteen species and 301 individuals were sampled non-destructively using a cast net method described here. A method is described for ageing Atlantic Yellow-nosed ( Thalassarche chlororhynchos ) and Black- browed ( T. melanophris ) Albatrosses based on bill colour and moult. Procellariiformes appear to have two distinct moulting strategies: petrels and shearwaters have complete annual moult, start to moult during the breeding period, and replace several primaries and tail feathers at one time, whereas albatrosses undergo long moulting cycles, replace less feathers at once, and suspend the wing moult during breeding periods. Primary moult starting at P2 rather than P1 was demonstrated to be a common feature in this taxon, with important implications for studies of stable isotopes, trace elements and pollutants in feathers. Overlap between moulting and breeding is demonstrated to be common with tail and contour feathers, but limited in wing, which suggests that flight constraint in long distance foragers rather than nutritional and energetic limitations is the ultimate factor determining primary moult timing. Based on molecular sexing and linear measurements, sexual size dimorphism was shown to vary according to species, with females in general smaller than males, more pronounced in bill measurements than in other traits, and more conspicuous in Giant Petrels ( Macronectes spp.) and Diomedea albatrosses. Closely related species pairs of Thallassarche albatrosses and Procellaria petrels had differing levels of sexual dimorphism. The pelagic seabird community sampled comprises birds from different ages and breeding status according to species. Skewed Adult Sex Ratio (ASR) has been proposed as a common pattern in birds, frequently biased towards males and with larger biases in globally threatened species. In albatrosses and petrels, differential mortality of one gender in fisheries is suggested to be caused by sexual size dimorphism giving males a competitive advantage, which allows more access of the larger sex to discards and baits, or to at sea segregation of sexes. These hypotheses were tested by sampling birds at sea and reviewing ASR of birds incidentally captured in fisheries. Skewed ASR is common in albatrosses and petrels from the community attending vessels, but there was no correlation between skewed ASR and conservation status, both in terms of population size or global level of threat, or between ASR and sexual size dimorphism. Thus, sexual dimorphism