Broader foraging range of ancient short-tailed albatross populations into California coastal waters based on bulk tissue and amino acid isotope analysis

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 610:1-13 (2019) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12839 FEATURE ARTICLE Broader foraging range of ancient short-tailed albatross populations into California coastal waters based on bulk tissue and amino acid isotope analysis Natasha L. Vokhshoori1,2,*, Matthew D. McCarthy1, Paul W. Collins3, Michael A. Etnier4, Torben Rick5, Masaki Eda6, Jessie Beck7, Seth D. Newsome2 1Ocean Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95060, USA 2Biology Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA 3Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, California 93105, USA 4Anthropology Department, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington 98225, USA 5Anthropology Department, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA 6Hokkaido University Museum, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 004-0006, Japan 7Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge, Santa Cruz, California 95060, USA *Corresponding author: [e-mail] ABSTRACT: The short-tailed albatross Phoebastria albatrus was nearly driven to extinction in the early 20th century, but is one of the most common seabirds found in coastal archaeological sites in Japan, the Aleutian Islands, and the Channel Islands off southern California. Today, this species nests on only 2 islands off southern Japan and spends the majority of its time foraging in waters west of the Aleutians. We used carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of bulk tissue (bone collagen) and its constituent amino acids from modern samples of all 3 North Pacific albatross species as well as ancient short-tailed albatross to show that ancient short-tailed albatross foraged east of the Aleutian Islands more frequently than their modern counterparts. Isotope mixing models correctly assigned each species to its known foraging habitats, validating our approach on ancient short-tailed albatross. Mixing models also showed that ancient short-tailed albatross from both western and eastern North Pacific archaeological sites spent more time in the California Current than their modern congeners. However, ancient albatross remains from archaeological sites off southern California are isotopically distinct from those found in sites from the western North Pacific, suggesting this species previously had a more complex population structure. We found that modern short-tailed albatross occupy a higher trophic level than their ancient counterparts, which may be due to their consumption of bait and offal from longline fisheries. As extant short-tailed albatross recover from historical over-exploitation, the reconstruction of their historical ecology helps in identifying likely areas for foraging and possible breeding range expansion. KEY WORDS: Historical ecology · North Pacific albatrosses · Amino acid isotope analysis Full text in pdf format Information about this Feature Article Supplement 1Supplement 2 NextCite this article as: Vokhshoori NL, McCarthy MD, Collins PW, Etnier MA and others (2019) Broader foraging range of ancient short-tailed albatross populations into California coastal waters based on bulk tissue and amino acid isotope analysis. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 610:1-13. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12839 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 610. Online publication date: February 01, 2019 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2019 Inter-Research.