How Does Ocean Turbulence Affect Foraging Patterns of Seabirds?

With the help of drones, researchers discovered that the foraging behavior of seabirds - their patterns for gathering food over the ocean - is largely affected by ocean turbulence from coastal features surrounding it, as well as man-made structures on the ocean.

In a study that is the first of its kind or scale, a team from Germany and the United Kingdom used the drones for a "synchronized bird's eye view" of what must have been the birds' perspective. It also offers insight into how they respond to the changing tidal flows on the ocean surface.

They tracked seabirds, which refer to species of birds that have already adapted to life around marine environments. Although the term covers a wide range of species - with great differences in terms of physiology and behavior - seabirds are believed to generally face the same problems directly or indirectly caused by human activities.

Researchers present their study in the report "A bird's eye view on turbulence: Seabird foraging associations with evolving surface flow features," set to appear in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

(Photo : Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 27: A cormorant suns himself at the Green Cay Nature Center and Wetlands on March 27, 2021 in Boynton Beach, Florida.

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Seabirds and Their Response to Changing Tidal Flows

The research team - including researchers from the Queen's University Belfast and the University of Plymouth in the UK and the Bielefeld University in Germany - kept track of a tidal flow from Strangford Lough in Northern Island generated by a tidal turbine structure. The location where these flows are generated was a previously-known foraging location for terns or seabirds.

Aside from drone tracking, researchers used statistical modeling and found out that these seabirds had a tendency to gather food over vortices or swirling areas of water. However, they also found that boils or bursts/ eruptions of upwell water ahead of the birds' flight path prompted the birds to stay the course as they moved in for foraging.

In their paper, researchers also claim that the data gathered from the study offers a never-before-seen insight into the effect of ocean turbulence in foraging behaviors. Additionally, the groundbreaking study also adds understanding of the effect of environmental changes - such as the increasing volume of man-made structures - on animal behavior in general.

Unprecedented Insight on Animals and Environment

"Our research highlights the importance of identifying changes in local flow conditions due to ocean energy structures which can change the occurrence, scale and intensity of localized turbulence in the water," Dr. Lilian Lieber, lead investigator of the study and a Bryden Centre Research Fellow at Queen's, in a news release from Plymouth.

She adds that through their interdisciplinary effort, they were able to track prevailing tidal flows and seabirds on unprecedented levels to shed light on the relationship between ocean turbulence and foraging tendencies.

Professor Roland Langrock, co-investigator in the effort from Bielefeld, calls the breakthrough "extremely exciting," having a detailed dataset on the seabirds' movement allows them to better study the behavioral process on a scale not possible thus far.