Nutrients and seabird biogeography: Feather elements differ among oceanic basins in the Southern Hemisphere, reflecting bird size, foraging range and nutrient availability in seawater

Aim Biodiversity hotspots in wide‐ranging marine species typically overlap with regions of high productivity, which are often associated with nutrient‐rich waters. Here we investigate how element concentrations in feathers vary among highly mobile seabirds in global seabird biodiversity hotspots. Location Southern Hemisphere. Time period Contemporary. Major taxa studied Fifteen species in the order Procellariiformes. Methods We collected data on the concentration of 15 elements in feathers for 253 seabirds sampled across Australia and New Zealand and compared the “fingerprint” of micronutrient element profiles to feathers of related seabirds from global hotspots using principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis and permutational analysis of variance (PERMANOVA). Results Breast feather concentrations of some elements, including aluminium, iron, cobalt, chromium, manganese, nickel, arsenic and cadmium, were tens‐to‐hundred‐fold higher in smaller (