UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff MMaassssaacchhuusseettttss AAmmhheerrsstt SScchhoollaarrWWoorrkkss@@UUMMaassss AAmmhheerrsstt Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 2012 PPooppuullaattiioonn SSiizzee,, HHaabbiittaatt UUssee aanndd DDiieett ooff KKiittttlliittzz''ss MMuurrrreelleettss iinn PPrriinnccee WWiilllliiaamm SSoouunndd,, AAllaasskkaa Andrew J. Allyn University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Part of the Biology Commons, Marine Biology Commons, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, and the Population Biology Commons Allyn, Andrew J., "Population Size, Habitat Use and Diet of Kittlitz's Murrelets in Prince William Sound, Alaska" (2012). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 749. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/749 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. POPULATION SIZE, HABITAT USE AND DIET OF KITTLITZ’S MURRELETS IN PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKA A Thesis Presented by ANDREW J. ALLYN Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE February 2012 Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation © Copyright by Andrew J. Allyn 2012 All Rights Reserved POPULATION SIZE, HABITAT USE AND DIET OF KITTLITZ’S MURRELETS IN PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKA A Thesis Presented by ANDREW J. ALLYN Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________________ Curtice Griffin, Chair ______________________________________________ Kevin McGarigal, Member ______________________________________________ Paul Sievert, Member ______________________________________________ Mark Leckie, Member ____________________________________________ Paul Fisette, Department Head Department of Environmental Conservation DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my family for their ever-lasting support and patience. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was conducted with financial support from the Earthwatch Institute and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Bird Management Nongame Office Anchorage, Alaska provided logistical support and equipment. I am forever grateful to research technicians Peter Crommett, Nick Nelson and Alex Robbins for their dedicated fieldwork. Numerous Earthwatch volunteers also helped collect data, including Amanda Adley, Samantha Arthur, David Brindle, Mario Rivera, Dan Smith, Rebecca Speer and Julie Stayner. I would also like to thank the graduate student community for their help answering many data analysis questions along the way. Lastly, Beth Pattinson and Karen Brenneman were always gracious enough to provide rides to the airport and housing whenever I needed them in Anchorage. David Irons and Kathy Kuletz from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Bird Management Nongame office provided support and thoughtful conversations throughout this study. They were always willing to share their knowledge of seabird ecology. Although I was never formally either David’s or Kathy’s graduate student, I am thankful that they treated me as such. I thank my advisor, Curtice Griffin, for his time and guidance throughout this entire process; I am forever indebted to Curt for taking a chance and accepting a student who admittedly probably didn’t look like a very promising applicant on paper. I am also thankful for the amazing amount of time and effort Kevin McGarigal dedicated to this study, and for his guidance throughout my master’s program. I also want to thank Paul Sievert for all of the insightful conversations over the years, and Mark Leckie for his thoughtful comments on glaciers and oceanographic processes. v Lastly, and most importantly, none of this would have been possible if Aly McKnight and Kelsey Sullivan hadn’t agreed to hire an English major, with virtually no wildlife or ecology background, back in May of 2007. Thank you both for giving me a chance, and for your continued guidance, support and friendship. I look forward to many more years of seabird work together, and I hope we can all return to Prince William Sound for some survey work, or maybe just a silver salmon fishing adventure. vi ABSTRACT POPULATION SIZE, HABITAT USE AND DIET OF KITTLITZ’S MURRELETS IN PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKA FEBRUARY 2012 ANDREW J. ALLYN, B.A., CONNECTICUT COLLEGE M.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Curtice R. Griffin During the summer of 2008 and 2009, we studied the ecology of the Kittlitz’s Murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris), a small diving seabird, in Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska. Population declines in recent decades throughout many core Kittlitz’s Murrelet population areas in Alaska, including PWS, have put this species on numerous conservation lists, including the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Critically Endangered List and the United States Endangered Species Candidate List. However, causes of these declines have yet to be determined, and much of the species general ecology remains a mystery, as research efforts are hampered by the birds’ occurrence in remote glacial fjords and by their cryptic, solitary nesting behavior that precludes standard breeding site-based monitoring. Here, I update the PWS Kittlitz’s Murrelet population estimate, investigate Kittlitz’s Murrelet daytime habitat use patterns in PWS, and examine the diet and foraging behavior for a subset of the Kittlitz’s Murrelet PWS population. In Chapter 1, I update PWS population estimates from 2001 and model Kittlitz’s Murrelet daytime habitat use using at-sea Kittlitz’s Murrelet observation data collected during 2009. Population estimates from comparisons between bootstrapped datasets for 2001 and 2009 with vii identical transect compositions suggest that the PWS Kittlitz’s Murrelet population significantly increased from 2001 to 2009. The habitat use model indicated that water depth, distance to glacier, distance to shore, and distance to moraine had the greatest influence on Kittlitz’s Murrelet daytime habitat use patterns within the study fjords; individuals were observed in shallower waters, closer to glaciers, the shoreline, and further from moraines than the average available habitat. In Chapter 2, I investigated Kittlitz’s Murrelet daytime habitat use patterns in relationship to landscape features and temperature-depth profiles during June and July 2008 in Harriman Fjord and Heather Bay, PWS, Alaska. In Harriman Fjord, Kittlitz’s Murrelets were observed in habitats near upwelling areas, indicated by a cold-water wedge near the surface in the temperature-depth profiles. In addition, these locations were also closer to the dominant tidewater glacier, shallower in depth, and further from shore than the average available habitat. In Heather Bay, Kittlitz’s Murrelets used locations with a cold, fresh surface layer remaining on top of warmer, more saline water, which were also closer to the glacial moraine, shallower, and closer to shore than the average available habitat. In Chapter 3, I examined the diet and foraging behavior of Kittlitz’s Murrelets in northwestern PWS using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes and radio telemetry methods from data collected during the summer of 2009. There was no significant difference in either carbon or nitrogen isotope signatures between sexes within the breeding and non-breeding seasons. During the early breeding season, isotope mixing model results suggest individuals foraged on a combination of zooplankton and fish. During the post-breeding season, in contrast, demersal fish and near-surface pelagic fish, possibly from the Bering Sea, dominated Kittlitz’s Murrelet diet. Radio-tagged individuals foraged in rapid bouts with short dives and rests, punctuated by longer loafing periods. viii Overall, this research updates the population estimate within a core population area for this rare and elusive species, while filling crucial knowledge gaps concerning characteristics of the population’s general ecology. ix