Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:15:13.042Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tahiti Petrel Pseudobulweria rostrata population decline at a nickel-mining site: a critical need for adapted conservation strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2021

ANGÉLIQUE PAGENAUD Open the ORCID record for ANGÉLIQUE PAGENAUD [Opens in a new window] ,
KAREN BOURGEOIS ,
SYLVAIN DROMZÉE ,
MARTIN THIBAULT ,
GUILLAUME CHAGNEAU ,
NICOLAS BARRÉ ,
ÉLODIE BOUYÉ ,
VINCENT CHARTENDRAULT ,
NICOLAS DELELIS  and
JULIEN DIJOUX
...Show all authors
ANGÉLIQUE PAGENAUD*
Affiliation:
UMR ENTROPIE, IRD, IFREMER, CNRS, University of Reunion, University of New Caledonia, BP A5, 98848 Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia. Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, University of Avignon, IMBE, Centre IRD Nouméa - BP A5, 98848 Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia.
KAREN BOURGEOIS
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, University of Avignon, IMBE, Centre IRD Nouméa - BP A5, 98848 Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia.
SYLVAIN DROMZÉE
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, University of Avignon, IMBE, Centre IRD Nouméa - BP A5, 98848 Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia.
MARTIN THIBAULT
Affiliation:
UMR ENTROPIE, IRD, IFREMER, CNRS, University of Reunion, University of New Caledonia, BP A5, 98848 Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia.
GUILLAUME CHAGNEAU
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, University of Avignon, IMBE, Centre IRD Nouméa - BP A5, 98848 Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia.
NICOLAS BARRÉ
Affiliation:
IAC - Institut Agronomique néo-Calédonien, Port-Laguerre, BP73, 98890 Païta, New Caledonia.
ÉLODIE BOUYÉ
Affiliation:
KONIAMBO NICKEL SAS, Route Territoriale 1, Site de Vavouto - 98833 Voh, BP 679- 98860 Koné, New Caledonia.
VINCENT CHARTENDRAULT
Affiliation:
LPO Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, délégation territoriale Drôme-Ardèche, 18 place Génissieu, 26120 Chabeuil, France.
NICOLAS DELELIS
Affiliation:
IAC - Institut Agronomique néo-Calédonien, Port-Laguerre, BP73, 98890 Païta, New Caledonia.
JULIEN DIJOUX
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, University of Avignon, IMBE, Centre IRD Nouméa - BP A5, 98848 Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia.
MAGALIE PATROIS
Affiliation:
KONIAMBO NICKEL SAS, Route Territoriale 1, Site de Vavouto - 98833 Voh, BP 679- 98860 Koné, New Caledonia.
JÉRÔME SPAGGIARI
Affiliation:
SCO - Société Calédonienne d’Ornithologie - BP 13641, 98803, Nouméa cedex, New Caledonia.
ÉRIC VIDAL
Affiliation:
UMR ENTROPIE, IRD, IFREMER, CNRS, University of Reunion, University of New Caledonia, BP A5, 98848 Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia. Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, University of Avignon, IMBE, Centre IRD Nouméa - BP A5, 98848 Nouméa Cedex, New Caledonia.
*
*Author for correspondence; email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

New Caledonia hosts a large part of the world’s breeding population of the Tahiti Petrel Pseudobulweria rostrata. This rare, cryptic and little-studied seabird nests locally in the mountains up to 1,200 m in altitude, particularly in ultramafic (i.e. nickel-rich) areas where mining activity is a major threat. The considerable development of mining activities in New Caledonia over the past decade raises concerns about its potential impacts on breeding populations through both direct habitat destruction and side effects such as pollution or repeated disturbances. This context calls for a dedicated assessment of the persistence of local populations to guide the design of an adapted conservation strategy and potential restoration programmes. We investigated the impact of mining activities on a Tahiti Petrel population when surveyed pre-mining (2004–2007) and following a period of full mining (2017–2018). The vocal activity was assessed at a total of 114 night-call count stations spread over the Koniambo massif. Areas with ground-originated vocal activity were then searched during daytime for nesting evidence. Finally, georeferenced aerial photos were used to estimate habitat degradation as the percentage of bare soil cover (PBSC) within a 400-m radius around each call count station. Our study revealed a dramatic decline in the Tahiti Petrel vocal activity and a desertion of breeding habitats during the full-mining period compared to the pre-mining period. In light of these results, we recommend designing safe breeding areas and combining restoration methods including social attraction, predation control and artificial burrows at mining sites.

Keywords

mining sitePseudobulweria rostratavocal activityrestoration
Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 246 - 258
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of BirdLife International

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arneill, G. E., Critchley, E. J., Wischnewski, S., Jessopp, M. J. and Quinn, J. L. (2019) Acoustic activity across a seabird colony reflects patterns of within-colony flight rather than nest density. Ibis 162: 416–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baille, J. and Jegat, P. (2012) La situation minière de 1978 à nos jours. Pp. 161–164 in Bonvallot, J., Gay, J-C. and Habert, É., eds. Atlas de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Marseille (France), Nouméa (New Caledonia): IRD- Congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie.Google Scholar
Bates, J. H., Spotswood, E. N. and Russel, J. C. (2014) Foraging behaviour and habitat partitioning in sympatric invasive birds in French Polynesia. Notornis 61: 35–42.Google Scholar
Bayne, E. M., Habib, L. and Boutin, S. (2008) Impacts of chronic anthropogenic noise from energy-sector activity on abundance of songbirds in the boreal forest. Conserv. Biol. 22: 1186–1193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berr, T., Naudet, J., Lagourge, C., Vuibert, K., Bourgeois, K. and Vidal, E. (2020) Plastic ingestion by seabirds in New Caledonia, South Pacific. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 152: 110925.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bird, E. C. F., Dubois, J. and Iltis, J. (1984) The impacts of opencast mining on the rivers and coast of New Caledonia. Tokyo: United Nations University.Google Scholar
BirdLife International (2018) Pseudobulweria rostrata. The IUCN Red list of Threatened Species 2018. Downloaded on 25 February 2020.Google Scholar
BirdLife International (2020) Species factsheet: Pseudobulweria rostrata. Downloaded from http://wwww.birdlife.org on 17 January 2020.Google Scholar
Bolton, M., Medeiros, R., Hothersall, B. and Campos, A. (2004) The use of artificial breeding chambers as a conservation measure for cavity-nesting procellariiform seabirds: A case study of the Madeiran storm petrel (Oceanodroma castro). Biol. Conserv. 116: 73–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borker, A. L., Mckown, M. W., Ackerman, J. T., Eagles-Smith, C. A., Tershy, B. R. and Croll., D. A. (2014) Vocal activity as a low cost and scalable index of seabird colony size. Conserv. Biol. 28: 1100–1108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bourgeois, K., Dromzée, S. and Vidal, E. (2015) Are artificial burrows efficient conservation tools for seabirds? A case study of two sympatric shearwaters on neighbouring islands and guidelines for improvement. Biol. Conserv. 191: 282–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourgeois, K., Dromzée, S., Vidal, E. and Legrand, J. (2008) Yelkouan shearwater Puffinus yelkouan presence and behaviour at colonies: not only a moonlight question. C. R. Biol. 331: 88–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretagnolle, V. (1996) Acoustic Communication in a group of nonpasserine birds, the petrels. Pp. 160–177 in Kroodsma, D. E. and Miller, E. H., eds. Ecology and evolution of acoustic communication in Birds. Ney Your, USA: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Bretagnolle, V. (2001) Le pétrel de la chaîne Pterodroma (Leucoptera caledonica): statut et menaces. Unpublished report.Google Scholar
Brooke, M. (2004) Albatrosses and petrels across the world, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Buxton, R. T. and Jones, I. L. (2012a) Measuring nocturnal seabird activity and status using acoustic recording devices: Applications for island restoration. J. Field Ornithol. 83: 47–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, R. T. and Jones, I. L. (2012b) An experimental study of social attraction in two species of storm-petrel by acoustic and olfactory cues. The Condor 114: 733–743.10.1525/cond.2012.110091CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, R. T., Major, H. L., Jones, I. L. and Williams, J. C. (2013) Examining patterns in nocturnal seabird activity and recovery across the Western Aleutian Islands, Alaska, using automated acoustic recording. The Auk 130: 331–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlile, N., Priddel, D. and Madeiros, J. (2012) Establishment of a new, secure colony of endangered Bermuda petrel Pterodroma cahow by translocation of near-fledged nestlings. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 22: 46–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croxall, J. P., Butchart, S. H. M., Lascelles, B., Stattersfield, A. J., Sullivan, B., Symes, A. and Taylor, P. (2012) Seabird conservation status, threats and priority actions: a global assessment. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 22: 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dias, M. P., Martin, R., Pearmain, E. J., Burfield, I. J., Small, C., Phillips, R. A., Yates, O., Lascelles, B., Borboroglu, P. G. and Croxall, J. P. (2019) Threats to seabirds: A global assessment. Biol. Conserv. 237: 525–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duarte, M. H. L., Sousa-Lima, R. S., Young, R. J., Farina, A., Vasconcelos, R. J., Rodrigues, M. and Pieretti, N. (2015) The impact of noise from open-cast mining on Atlantic forest biophony. Biol. Conserv. 191: 623–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faulquier, L. (2014) Étude du pétrel de Tahiti Pseudobulweria rostrata sur les plateaux de Te Mehani de l’île de Raiatea. Société d’Ornithotologie de Polynésie, Stratégie National pour la Biodiversité (SNB) and Direction de l’Environnement de Polynésie Française. Unpublished report.Google Scholar
Fox, J. and Weisberg, S. (2019) An {R} companion to applied regression. Third Edition. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Francis, C. D., Ortega, C. P. and Cruz, A. (2009) Noise pollution changes avian communities and species interactions. Curr. Biol. 19: 1415–1419.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gangloff, B., Shirihai, H., Watling, D., Cruaud, C., Couloux, A., Tillier, A., Pasquet, E. and Bretagnolle, V. (2012) The complete phylogeny of Pseudobulweria, the most endangered seabird genus: Systematics, species status and conservation implications. Conserv. Genet. 13: 39–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandcolas, P., Murienne, J., Robillard, T., Desutter-Grandcolas, L., Jourdan, H., Guilbert, E. and Deharveng, L. (2008) New Caledonia: A very old Darwinian island? Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B: Biol. Sci. 363: 3309–3317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horowitz, L. S. (2004) Toward a viable independence? The Koniambo project and the political economy of mining in New Caledonia. The Contem. Pac. 16: 287–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaffré, T. (1992) Floristic and ecological diversity of the vegetation on ultramafic rocks in New Caledonia. Pp. 101–107 in The vegetation of ultramafic (serpentine) soils. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Serpentine Ecology. Andover, UK: Intercept Ltd.Google Scholar
James, P. C. (1985) The vocal behaviour of the Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus. Z. Tierpsychol. 67: 269–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, H. P. and Kress, S. W. (2012) A review of the world’s active seabird restoration projects. J. Wildl. Manag. 76: 2–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, H. P., Towns, D. R., Bodey, T. W., Miskelly, C., Ellis, J. C., Rauzon, M. J., Kress, S. W. and McKown, M. W. (2011) Recovery and Restoration on Seabird Islands. Pp. 317–357 in Mulder, C. P. H., Anderson, W. B., Towns, D. R. and Bellingham, P. J., eds. Seabird islands: Ecology, invasion, and restoration. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, I. L., Gaston, A. J. and Falls, J. B. (1990) Factors affecting colony attendance by ancient murrelets (Synthliboramphus antiquus). Can. J. Zool. 68: 433–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keitt, B. S. (2005) Status of Xantus’s Murrelet and its nesting habitat in Baja California, Mexico. Mar. Ornithol. 33: 105–114.Google Scholar
Kildaw, S. D., Irons, D. B., Nysewander, D. R. and Buck, C. L. (2005) Formation and growth of new seabird colonies: The significance of habitat quality. Mar. Ornithol. 33: 49–58.Google Scholar
Le Corre, M., Ollivier, A., Ribes, S. and Jouventin, P. (2002) Light-induced mortality of petrels: A 4-year study from Réunion Island (Indian Ocean). Biol. Conserv. 105: 93–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenth, R. (2020) emmeans: Estimated Marginal Means, aka Least-Squares Means. R package version 1.4.7. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/emmeans/index.htmlGoogle Scholar
L’Huillier, L., Jaffre, T. and Wulff, A. (2010) Mines et environnement en Nouvelle-Calédonie : les milieux sur substrats ultramafiques et leur restauration. Nouméa, Nouvelle-Calédonie: Editions IAC.Google Scholar
Mareschal, J. (2009) Impacts des pollutions lumineuses sur les procellaridés de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Master’s thesis, Jean-Monnet University and Société Calédonienne d’Ornithologie de la Nouvelle-Calédonie.Google Scholar
McKown, M. W. (2008) Acoustic communication in colonial seabirds: individual, sexual, and species-specific variation in acoustic signals of Pterodroma petrels. PhD Thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Miskelly, C. M., Taylor, G. A., Gummer, H. and Williams, R. (2009) Translocations of eight species of burrow-nesting seabirds (genera Pterodroma, Pelecanoides, Pachyptila and Puffinus: Family Procellariidae). Biol. Conserv. 142: 1965–1980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monteiro, L. R., Ramos, J. A., Pereira, J. C., Monteiro, P. R., Feio, R. S., Thompson, D. R., Bearhop, S., Furness, R. W., Laranjo, M., Hilton, G., Neves, V. C., Groz, M. P. and Thompson, K. R. (1999) Status and distribution of Fea’s Petrel, Bulwer’s Petrel, Manx Shearwater, Little Shearwater and Band-rumped Storm-petrel in the Azores archipelago. Waterbirds 22: 358–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mougeot, F. and Bretagnolle, V. (2000) Predation risk and moonlight avoidance in nocturnal seabirds. J. Avian Biol. 31: 376–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakache, T. (1999) Koniambo. Pp. 109-110 in Yann Bencivengo, ed. La mine en Nouvelle Calédonie: 101 mots pour comprendre. Iles de Lumières.Google Scholar
Oppel, S., Cassini, A., Fenton, C., Daley, J. and Gray, G. (2014a) Population status and trend of the Critically Endangered Montserrat Oriole. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 24: 252–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oppel, S., Hervias, S., Oliveira, N., Pipa, T., Silva, C., Geraldes, P., Goh, M., Immler, E. and McKown, M. (2014b) Estimating population size of a nocturnal burrow-nesting seabird using acoustic monitoring and habitat mapping. Nat. Conserv. 7: 1–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paleczny, M., Hammill, E., Karpouzi, V. and Pauly, D. (2015) Population trend of the world’s monitored seabirds, 1950-2010. PLoS One 10(6): e0129342CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Palmas, P., Jourdan, H., Rigault, F., Debar, L., De Meringo, H., Bourguet, E., Mathivet, M., Lee, M., Adjouhgniope, R., Papillon, Y., Bonnaud, E. and Vidal, E. (2017) Feral cats threaten the outstanding endemic fauna of the New Caledonia biodiversity hotspot. Biol. Conserv. 214: 250–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pandolfi-Benoit, M. and Bretagnolle, V. (2002) Seabirds of the Southern Lagoon of New Caledonia: Distribution, abundance and threats. Waterbird Soc. 25: 202–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, M. W., Kress, S. W., Golightly, R. T., Carter, H. R., Parsons, E. B., Schubel, S. E., Boyce, J. A., McChesney, G. J. and Wisely, S. M. (2007) Assessment of social attraction techniques used to restore a common murre colony in central California. Waterbirds 30: 17–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pascal, M., De Forges, B. R., Le Guyader, H. and Simberloff, D. (2008) Mining and other threats to the New Caledonia biodiversity hotspot. Conserv. Biol. 22: 498–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Podolsky, R. (1990) Effectiveness of social stimuli in attracting Laysan Albatross to new potential nesting sites. The Auk 107: 119–124.Google Scholar
QGIS Development Team (2016) QGIS. https://qgis.orgGoogle Scholar
R Core Team (2016) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.orgGoogle Scholar
Rauzon, M. J. and Rudd, A. B. (2014) Vocal repertoire of the Tahiti Petrel Pseudobulweria rostrata: A preliminary assessment. Mar. Ornithol. 42: 143–148.Google Scholar
Ravache, A., Bourgeois, K., Thibault, M., Dromzée, S., Weimerskirch, H., de Grissac, S., Prudor, A., Lorrain, A., Menkes, C., Allain, V., Bustamante, P., Letourneur, Y. and Vidal, E. (2020) Flying to the moon: Lunar cycle influences trip duration and nocturnal foraging behavior of the wedge-tailed shearwater Ardenna pacifica. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol.: 525: 151322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravache, A., Bourgeois, K., Weimerskirch, H., Pagenaud, A., De Grissac, S., Miller, M., Dromzée, S., Lorrain, A., Allain, V., Bustamante, P., Bylemans, J., Gleeson, D., Letourneur, Y. and Vidal, E. (2020) Behavioral and trophic segregations help the Tahiti Petrel to cope with the abundance of wedge-tailed shearwater when foraging in oligotrophic tropical waters. Sci. Rep. 10: 1–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reville, B. J., Tranter, J. D. and Yorkston, H. D. (1990) Impact of forest clearing on the endangered seabird Sula abbotti. Biol. Conserv. 51: 23–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez, A., Arcos, J. M., Bretagnolle, V., Dias, M. P., Holmes, N. D., Louzao, M., Provencher, J., Raine, A. F., Ramírez, F., Rodríguez, B., Ronconi, R. A., Taylor, R. S., Bonnaud, E., Borrelle, S. B., Cortés, V., Descamps, S., Friesen, V. L., Genovart, M., Hedd, A., Hodum, P., Humphries, G. R. W., Le Corre, M., Lebarbenchon, C., Martin, R., Melvin, E. F., Montevecchi, W. A., Pinet, P., Pollet, I. L., Ramos, R., Russell, J. C., Ryan, P. G., Sanz-Aguilar, A., Spatz, D. R., Travers, M., Votier, S. C., Wanless, R. M., Woehler, E. and Chiaradia, A. (2019) Future directions in conservation research on petrels and shearwaters. Front. Mar. Sci. 6: 94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez, A., Holmes, N. D., Ryan, P. G., Wilson, K. J., Faulquier, L., Murillo, Y., Raine, A. F., Penniman, J. F., Neves, V., Rodríguez, B., Negro, J. J., Chiaradia, A., Dann, P., Anderson, T., Metzger, B., Shirai, M., Deppe, L., Wheeler, J., Hodum, P., Gouveia, C., Carmo, V., Carreira, G. P., Delgado-Alburqueque, L., Guerra-Correa, C., Couzi, F. X., Travers, M. and Le Corre, M. (2017) Seabird mortality induced by land-based artificial lights. Conserv. Biol. 31: 986–1001.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodríguez, A., Rodríguez, B. and Negro, J. J. (2015) GPS tracking for mapping seabird mortality induced by light pollution. Sci. Rep. 5: 10670.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodwell, J. S. (2006) National Vegetation Classification : Users’ handbook. Peterborough, UK: Joint Nature Conservation Committee.Google Scholar
Saha, D. C. and Padhy, P. K. (2011) Effect of air and noise pollution on species diversity and population density of forest birds at Lalpahari, West Bengal, India. Sci. Total Environ. 409: 5328–5336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schreiber, E. A. and Burger, J. (Eds.). (2001) Biology of marine birds. Boca Raton, USA: CRC Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, A. C., Virgl, J., Panayi, D., Armstrong, A. R. and Panayi, D. (2012) Birds of a diamond mine on tundra-breeding birds. Artic 58: 295–304.Google Scholar
Titmus, A. J. (2017) Investigating spatiotemporal distribution and habitat use of poorly understood Procellariiform seabirds on a remote island in American Samoa. PhD Thesis, University of Hawaii.Google Scholar
Vié, J-C., Hilton-Taylor, C. and Stuart, S. N., eds. (2009) Wildlife in a changing world - An analysis of the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.Google Scholar
Villard, P., Dano, S. and Bretagnolle, V. (2006) Morphometrics and the breeding biology of the Tahiti Petrel Pseudobulweria rostrata. Ibis 148: 285–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacaster, S. (2017) The mineral industry of New Caledonia. In: Minerals Yearbook 2013: Area Reports: International, Asia and the Pacific. Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Warham, J. (1990) The petrels: their ecology and breeding systems, London, UK: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Warham, J. (1996) The behaviour, population biology and physiology of the petrels, London, UK: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Zuur, A. F., Ieno, E. N., and Elphick, C. S. (2010) A protocol for data exploration to avoid common statistical problems. Methods Ecol. Evol. 1: 3–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuur, A. F. and Ieno, E. N. (2016) A protocol for conducting and presenting results of regression-type analyses. Methods Ecol. Evol. 7: 636–645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar