Bill Henry, at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab. As you read this, Laysan albatrosses are dancing their courtship ritual on the towering rugged volcanic cliffs of Guadalupe Island off the coast of Mexico. They arrived a few weeks ago after soaring thousands of miles from Alaskas Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska . They dance within a few feet of their previous nest site to spend much of the next seven months on tierra firme. While these birds have just returned south, we at the lab are busy gearing up to spend some time with them.

Photo (left): Just a little friendly check in. You can see Guadalupe's offshore islets, Toro and Zapato in the background.

As part of my PhD at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I work with a new colony of Laysan albatrosses on Guadalupe Island. This population appeared there in the early 1980's. A 2,400-mile (4,000 km) breeding range expansion is a very rare occurrence among albatrosses. Im interested in how this new albatross population gets along in the eastern Pacific, where the environment is quite different from the waters of the central Pacific near Hawaii. Life in the eastern Pacific along the California Current and the cold upwelled waters of Baja Mexico, California and Oregon is a bit chillier than in Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in the center of the Pacific Ocean. This cold upwelled water spells productivity, and the Guadalupe birds have come to raise their chicks and take advantage of the rich food resources here in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

During the breeding and wintering seasons, we track birds from Hawaii and Guadalupe with satellite and archival tags to see where birds from the two different populations journey. When the birds return from their voyages at sea, we also collect samples of what they eat. Later at the lab, we combine the tracking and diet data with satellite images of the ocean. These images show that the ocean is not just a flat body of water, but a mosaic of diverse features that look distinctly different through the eyes of an albatross. So, when we finish this research, not only will we show you where albatrosses go, but what types of ocean habitats they use and what foods they eat from those different habitats.

I want to understand how albatrosses adapt to environmental changes and to new habitats. Unlike terrestrial animals that can move to neighboring areas if changes occur in their own ranges, most seabirds breed only on islands. Since islands are relatively uncommon in the oceans, how will seabirds cope with the challenges of global climate change? Where will seabird colonies move if environmental conditions on their islands change so much that they cant breed there anymore? Will they simply die out to join the multitudes of extinctions?

Photo (above): Can you see the archival tag on the leg band of this Laysan Albatross?

So far, it looks like conditions near Guadalupe Island are a good thing for Laysan albatrosses. The colony is expanding rapidly -- more birds from Hawaii arrive each year. Albatrosses seem to do quite well on Guadalupe, they commute shorter distances to find food for their hungry chicks. The nearby productive waters of the California Current may be a factor. Continued tracking and monitoring of this new population will help to show how these animals respond to a changing world.