Foraging in a dynamic environment: response of four sympatric sub-Antarctic albatross species to interannual environmental variability

Seasonal and annual climate variations are linked to fluctuations in the abundance and distribution of resources, posing a significant challenge to animals that need to adjust their foraging behaviour accordingly. Particularly during adverse conditions, and while energetically constrained when breeding, animals ideally need to be flexible in their foraging behaviour. Such behavioural plasticity may separate ‘winners’ from ‘losers’ in light of rapid environmental changes due to climate change. Here, the foraging behaviour of four sub-Antarctic albatross species was investigated from 2015/16 to 2017/18, a period characterized by pronounced environmental variability. Over three breeding seasons on Marion Island, Prince Edward Archipelago, incubating wandering (WA, Diomedea exulans; n=45), grey-headed (GHA, Thalassarche chrysostoma; n=26), sooty (SA, Phoebetria fusca; n=23) and light-mantled (LMSA, P. palpebrata; n=22) albatrosses were tracked with GPS loggers. The response of birds to envi...