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Cormorants, Oceanography, and Collaborations:�Using biologging to measure temperature and salinity from foraging seabirds

Rachael A Orben^1*, Adam Peck-Richardson^2*, Alexa Piggott²^*,

Dylan Winters³, Sabir Bin Muzaffar⁴, Alastair MM Baylis⁵, Dorukhan Ardağ³, Greg Wilson³, James Lerczak³

¹Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, OR, USA

²Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

³College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

⁴Department of Biology, College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE

⁵South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute, Stanley, Falkland Islands

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Cormorant Oceanography Project

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Years 1-3:

Development of a small biologging device (<40g) with oceanographic sensors to deploy on diving marine birds.
Near real-time oceanographic data processing and access.
Utilization of biologging measurements in data assimilative ocean models.

Years 4-5:

Scale-up this effort across cormorant species and regions to demonstrate the contribution biologging can make to our understanding of nearshore oceanographic processes.

Our Project Objectives Are:

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Cormorant Oceanographers

CTD – Temperature

& Salinity Profiles

IMU Data –

Surface Gravity Waves

Dive Depth & Shape - Bathymetry

Surface Drifts –

Currents & Velocity

GSM – Data Transfer

GPS

Locations

Solar Power

Conceptually cormorants make wonderful oceanographers. The tend to be coastal allowing good cell phone communication and data download – which is important for tags that are sampling GPS, accelerometry, pressure, temperature and conductivity. Our strategy is to limit sample to target the specific behaviors to conserve battery power for both sampling and data transmission.

Cormorants (and shags) tend to dive around 100x each day and they often dive benthically. During dives we can measure temp, conductivity, and benthic dives are essentially depth soundings. The Ornitela tags we are working with take GPS fixes when birds return to the surface, thus these measurement are reasonably georeferenced. On the surface, between dives when birds are resting we can use the GPS to measure surface currents. We recently worked with Ornitela to modify the firmware to sample surface drift periodically. For instance we can now program tags to take GPS points every second, for 10 seconds, every 100^th dive. This helps save battery power while still collecting these data. Finally, when birds are resting on the surface we can use the accelerometer to measure wave statistics. This is something that we have tested in a wave pool at OSU, and are just beginning to work with the data from free ranging cormorants.

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Pelagic Cormorant

Middleton Island, AK

Socotra Cormorant

Arabian Gulf

69,409 dives

78,795 dives

324,919 dives

Brandt’s Cormorant

Columbia River, OR

Main Study Sites and Species (so far):

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Oceanographic Biologgers – Seawater Profiling

Tagged Brandt’s Cormorants

in the Columbia River Estuary

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Oceanographic Biologgers – Seawater Profiling

Tagged Brandt’s Cormorants

in the Columbia River Estuary

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Fast temperature response is critical

Oceanographic Biologgers – Seawater Profiling

Tagged Brandt’s Cormorants

in the Columbia River Estuary

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Fast temperature response is critical

Require stable measurements over time

Oceanographic Biologgers – Seawater Profiling

Tagged Brandt’s Cormorants

in the Columbia River Estuary

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Fast temperature response is critical

Require stable measurements over time

Tags and sensors must be robust & durable

Oceanographic Biologgers – Seawater Profiling

Tagged Brandt’s Cormorants

in the Columbia River Estuary

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Temperature Profiling Tag