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Crossing the frontier: vertical transit rates of deep diving cormorants reveal depth zone of neutral buoyancy

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Abstract

Knowing the depth zone of neutral buoyancy of divers is important because buoyancy can determine how animals manage their energy budget. In this study, we estimate the depth zone of neutral buoyancy of free-ranging cormorants for the first time, using time-depth recorders. We discovered that vertical ascent rates of 12 Crozet and 15 Kerguelen diving blue-eyed shags (respectively Phalacrocorax melanogenis and P. verrucosus) slowed down considerably at the 50–60 m depth zone. We suggest this was due to birds trying to reach the surface from that point upwards using reduced locomotor activity because the force of buoyancy becomes greater than the force of gravity at that depth. The results show a shift of this depth zone in relation to maximum targeted dive depth, suggesting cormorants may control buoyancy through respiratory air volume adjustment. Interestingly, 60 m is close to the maximum depth zone reached by these two species during dives lasting 4 min, their estimated behavioural aerobic dive limit. This suggests that the decision to swim deeper has a direct consequence on the energy budget, with time spent recovering at the surface (time thus lost to foraging) strongly increasing relative to the preceding time of submergence. Resources found in deeper waters must be of sufficient quantity or quality to justify crossing the frontier of physical neutral buoyancy.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Yoshihisa Mori for a most interesting discussion on optimal output strategy in diving animals and Pierre Legagneux for a debate on the use of statistics in ecology. Thank’s also to François Brischoux for most valuable critiques of an earlier version of the manuscript, and to anonymous reviewers for their constructive recommendations during the revision process. Special thanks go to Jon Cook for his advice on English usage. Animals in this study were cared for in accordance with the guidelines of the ethics committee of the French Polar Institute (Institut Paul Emile Victor – IPEV). This work was supported financially and logistically by the IPEV (Program 109 and 394) and the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises (TAAF).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), CNRS UPR 1934, Villiers-en-bois, 79360, Beauvoir-sur-Niort, France

    Timothée Romuald Cook, Frédéric Bailleul, Amélie Lescroël & Charles-André Bost

  2. Long Marine Laboratory, University of California, Santa Cruz, 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA

    Yann Tremblay

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  1. Timothée Romuald Cook
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  2. Frédéric Bailleul
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  3. Amélie Lescroël
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  4. Yann Tremblay
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  5. Charles-André Bost
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Correspondence to Timothée Romuald Cook.

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Communicated by M.I. Taylor.

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Cook, T.R., Bailleul, F., Lescroël, A. et al. Crossing the frontier: vertical transit rates of deep diving cormorants reveal depth zone of neutral buoyancy. Mar Biol 154, 383–391 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-008-0939-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-008-0939-6

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