Fernando Medrano, Julio Hernández-Montoya, Sarah Saldanha, Yuliana Bedolla-Guzmán, Jacob González-Solís
{"title":"Contrasting migratory ecology of two threatened and allochronic storm-petrels breeding in the Mexican Pacific","authors":"Fernando Medrano, Julio Hernández-Montoya, Sarah Saldanha, Yuliana Bedolla-Guzmán, Jacob González-Solís","doi":"10.3354/esr01344","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT: Migration is an essential life stage in many species, but is little understood in some groups, e.g. storm-petrels. Considering that storm-petrels reside in non-breeding areas for over half of their lifespan, identifying these areas is a priority for conservation efforts. Townsend’s <i>Hydrobates socorroensis</i> and Ainley’s storm-petrels <i>H. cheimomnestes</i> are 2 threatened sister species, breeding allochronically on Guadalupe Island (Mexican Pacific), for which migratory patterns are unknown. In this article, we describe the non-breeding areas of these 2 species, assess artificial light events recorded by geolocators, and describe the birds’ daily activity patterns. We deployed geolocators from 2021 to 2023 and modeled migratory routes using SGAT. We successfully tracked 7 Townsend’s and 4 Ainley’s storm-petrels over their non-breeding period. Townsend’s storm-petrels were found to travel to the south of the Baja California Peninsula and spent most of the time in Mexican waters, while Ainley’s storm-petrels migrated toward Hawaii and spent most of the time on the high seas. For the Townsend’s storm-petrels, 16.1% of their core areas are in protected waters, whereas for Ainley’s storm-petrel, only 0.7% of the core areas are protected, and 0.8% of those areas are recognized as key biodiversity areas (KBAs). Further, our findings indicate that both species are mainly nocturnal, making them highly susceptible to the impacts of light pollution; we detected 6 artificial light events. Our findings also support the hypothesis that divergence in the migration patterns between allochronic populations could be a crucial factor in sympatric speciation, which seems likely in seasonal environments like the northern Pacific.","PeriodicalId":48746,"journal":{"name":"Endangered Species Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Endangered Species Research","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01344","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT: Migration is an essential life stage in many species, but is little understood in some groups, e.g. storm-petrels. Considering that storm-petrels reside in non-breeding areas for over half of their lifespan, identifying these areas is a priority for conservation efforts. Townsend’s Hydrobates socorroensis and Ainley’s storm-petrels H. cheimomnestes are 2 threatened sister species, breeding allochronically on Guadalupe Island (Mexican Pacific), for which migratory patterns are unknown. In this article, we describe the non-breeding areas of these 2 species, assess artificial light events recorded by geolocators, and describe the birds’ daily activity patterns. We deployed geolocators from 2021 to 2023 and modeled migratory routes using SGAT. We successfully tracked 7 Townsend’s and 4 Ainley’s storm-petrels over their non-breeding period. Townsend’s storm-petrels were found to travel to the south of the Baja California Peninsula and spent most of the time in Mexican waters, while Ainley’s storm-petrels migrated toward Hawaii and spent most of the time on the high seas. For the Townsend’s storm-petrels, 16.1% of their core areas are in protected waters, whereas for Ainley’s storm-petrel, only 0.7% of the core areas are protected, and 0.8% of those areas are recognized as key biodiversity areas (KBAs). Further, our findings indicate that both species are mainly nocturnal, making them highly susceptible to the impacts of light pollution; we detected 6 artificial light events. Our findings also support the hypothesis that divergence in the migration patterns between allochronic populations could be a crucial factor in sympatric speciation, which seems likely in seasonal environments like the northern Pacific.
期刊介绍:
ESR is international and interdisciplinary. It covers all endangered forms of life on Earth, the threats faced by species and their habitats and the necessary steps that must be undertaken to ensure their conservation. ESR publishes high quality contributions reporting research on all species (and habitats) of conservation concern, whether they be classified as Near Threatened or Threatened (Endangered or Vulnerable) by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) or highlighted as part of national or regional conservation strategies. Submissions on all aspects of conservation science are welcome.