Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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Author: search.filters.author.Cherel YStart date: 2020

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    Using Stable Isotopes to Assign Origin of White-Chinned Petrels Killed by Longline Fisheries
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2025-07-08) Barquete V; Cherel Y; Phillips RA; Thompson D; Chilvers BL; Wanless RM; Ryan PG
    Incidental capture (bycatch) of seabirds in longline and trawl fisheries is one of the main threats to many albatrosses and large petrels. The White-chinned Petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) has a circumpolar distribution and is the seabird species killed most frequently by fisheries in the Southern Ocean. In an attempt to identify provenance, stable isotope values (δ13C and δ15N) in feathers from White-chinned Petrels killed in longline fisheries off Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand were compared with those from petrels breeding at five major colonies (South Georgia, Prince Edward, Crozet, Kerguelen and Antipodes Islands). Feather δ15N, and to a lesser extent, δ13C values in feathers differed among breeding birds sampled at South Georgia, Antipodes Islands and the three Indian Ocean colonies. Given that adult feathers are moulted primarily in temperate waters, away from their colonies, this confirms that most adults from these three regions winter in different areas. Discriminant function analysis of stable isotope values indicated that most petrels killed off Brazil and South Africa were from Atlantic and Indian Ocean populations, respectively. Birds killed in New Zealand fisheries in summer were assigned to populations from all three oceans, with few assigned to the Antipodes; however, we lacked stable isotope data from the Auckland Islands, which is the most likely source population. Identifying the origin of bycaught birds is essential for determining which populations are affected by human activities and for prioritising conservation efforts. This includes targeting of mitigation regulations, monitoring of compliance and bycatch rates, and ensuring cooperation between breeding and non-breeding range states to ensure best practices are adopted in national fisheries and in the high seas.
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    Genomic insights into the secondary aquatic transition of penguins
    (Springer Nature Limited, 2022-07-19) Cole TL; Zhou C; Fang M; Pan H; Ksepka DT; Fiddaman SR; Emerling CA; Thomas DB; Bi X; Fang Q; Ellegaard MR; Feng S; Smith AL; Heath TA; Tennyson AJD; Borboroglu PG; Wood JR; Hadden PW; Grosser S; Bost C-A; Cherel Y; Mattern T; Hart T; Sinding M-HS; Shepherd LD; Phillips RA; Quillfeldt P; Masello JF; Bouzat JL; Ryan PG; Thompson DR; Ellenberg U; Dann P; Miller G; Dee Boersma P; Zhao R; Gilbert MTP; Yang H; Zhang D-X; Zhang G
    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 geological events that shaped penguin diversification and genomic signatures consistent with widespread refugia/recolonization during major climate oscillations. We further identify a suite of genes potentially underpinning adaptations related to thermoregulation, oxygenation, diving, vision, diet, immunity and body size, which might have facilitated their remarkable secondary transition to an aquatic ecology. Our analyses indicate that penguins and their sister group (Procellariiformes) have the lowest evolutionary rates yet detected in birds. Together, these findings help improve our understanding of how penguins have transitioned to the marine environment, successfully colonizing some of the most extreme environments on Earth.