70 Result(s)
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Richard A. Phillips
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Article
Open AccessMercury Concentrations in Feathers of Albatrosses and Large Petrels at South Georgia: Contemporary Patterns and Comparisons with Past Decades
Mercury (Hg) is an environmental contaminant that can negatively impact the health of humans and wildlife. Albatrosses and large petrels show some of the highest levels of Hg contamination among birds, with po...
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Open AccessSynchronous timing of return to breeding sites in a long-distance migratory seabird with ocean-scale variation in migration schedules
Migratory birds generally have tightly scheduled annual cycles, in which delays can have carry-over effects on the timing of later events, ultimately impacting reproductive output. Whether temporal carry-over ...
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Open AccessMigration strategies of skuas in the southwest Atlantic Ocean revealed by stable isotopes
Stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) were measured in feathers to compare the non-breeding distributions and habitat use of adult brown skuas Stercorarius antarcticus lönnbergi from high-lat...
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Open AccessDistribution, hosts and long-term decline in abundance of the Patagonian lamprey inferred from diet assessment of albatrosses
Knowledge of lampreys during their marine phase is limited, and for the southern hemisphere species was gleaned from their predators (albatrosses) in the 1970s. Taking advantage of new methodologies and long-t...
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Open AccessGlobal assessment of marine plastic exposure risk for oceanic birds
Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world’s oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife ...
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Open AccessRafting behaviour of albatrosses and petrels at South Georgia
Seabirds often spend time on the water in the vicinity of their breeding colonies at the start or end of foraging trips, which may be for bathing, social interaction, information transfer, or to reduce predati...
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Open AccessGenomic insights into the secondary aquatic transition of penguins
Penguins lost the ability to fly more than 60 million years ago, subsequently evolving a hyper-specialized marine body plan. Within the framework of a genome-scale, fossil-inclusive phylogeny, we identify key ...
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Open AccessAquatic birds have middle ears adapted to amphibious lifestyles
Birds exhibit wide variation in their use of aquatic environments, on a spectrum from entirely terrestrial, through amphibious, to highly aquatic. Although there are limited empirical data on hearing sensitivi...
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Variation among species and populations in bill shape and size in three planktivorous petrels
Morphological variation in biological structures may be driven by genetic and environmental factors, such as inter- and intraspecific competition for resources. In seabirds, although the bill is also involved ...
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Open AccessIndependent evolution of intermediate bill widths in a seabird clade
Interspecific introgression can occur between species that evolve rapidly within an adaptive radiation. Pachyptila petrels differ in bill size and are characterised by incomplete reproductive isolation, leading t...
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Open AccessHidden Markov models identify major movement modes in accelerometer and magnetometer data from four albatross species
Inertial measurement units (IMUs) with high-resolution sensors such as accelerometers are now used extensively to study fine-scale behavior in a wide range of marine and terrestrial animals. Robust and practic...
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Long-term inter- and intraspecific dietary variation in sibling seabird species
Northern Macronectes halli and southern giant petrels M. giganteus are opportunistic predators and the dominant avian scavengers in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic ecosystems. At South Georgia, there are globally imp...
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Open AccessVariation among colonies in breeding success and population trajectories of wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans at South Georgia
The wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans, is a globally threatened species breeding at a number of sites within the Southern Ocean. Across the South Georgia archipelago, there are differences in population trend...
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Open AccessLong-term changes in habitat and trophic level of Southern Ocean squid in relation to environmental conditions
Long-term studies of pelagic nekton in the Southern Ocean and their responses to ongoing environmental change are rare. Using stable isotope ratios measured in squid beaks recovered from diet samples of wander...
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Open AccessIntroduced species and extreme weather as key drivers of reproductive output in three sympatric albatrosses
Invasive species present a major conservation threat globally and nowhere are their affects more pronounced than in island ecosystems. Determining how native island populations respond demographically to invas...
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Tracking of marine predators to protect Southern Ocean ecosystems
Southern Ocean ecosystems are under pressure from resource exploitation and climate change1,2. Mitigation requires the identification and protection of Areas of Ecological Significance (AESs), which have so far n...
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Open AccessThe retrospective analysis of Antarctic tracking data project
The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity In...
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Ecological segregation of two superabundant, morphologically similar, sister seabird taxa breeding in sympatry
Prions Pachyptila are the most abundant seabirds in the Southern Ocean and comprise two main groups: those with and without bill lamellae to filter zooplankton. With few exceptions, each breeding location support...
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Open AccessEffects of age on foraging behavior in two closely related albatross species
Foraging performance is widely hypothesized to play a key role in sha** age-specific demographic rates in wild populations, yet the underlying behavioral changes are poorly understood. Seabirds are among the...
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Long-term trends in albatross diets in relation to prey availability and breeding success
Diet analyses can reveal important changes in seabird foraging ecology and, by inference, resource availability and predator–prey dynamics within the wider marine ecosystem. Here, we analysed stomach contents ...
