Biomarkers in Ringed Seals Reveal Recent Onset of Borealization in the High- Compared to the Mid-Latitude Canadian Arctic
Warming of the Arctic has resulted in environmental and ecological changes, termed borealization, leading to the northward shift of temperate species. Borealization has occurred across all trophic levels, altering the structure of the food web. The onset and rate of borealization likely varies with...
Published in: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.700687 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.700687/full |
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crfrontiers:10.3389/fmars.2021.700687 2024-09-15T17:52:12+00:00 Biomarkers in Ringed Seals Reveal Recent Onset of Borealization in the High- Compared to the Mid-Latitude Canadian Arctic de la Vega, Camille Mahaffey, Claire Yurkowski, David J. Norman, Louisa Simpson, Elysia Smout, Sophie Ferguson, Steven H. Jeffreys, Rachel M. Natural Environment Research Council 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.700687 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.700687/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Marine Science volume 8 ISSN 2296-7745 journal-article 2021 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.700687 2024-07-09T04:03:11Z Warming of the Arctic has resulted in environmental and ecological changes, termed borealization, leading to the northward shift of temperate species. Borealization has occurred across all trophic levels, altering the structure of the food web. The onset and rate of borealization likely varies with latitude, depending on local warming and advection of warmer water into the Arctic. In order to assess latitudinal trends in food web structure in the Arctic, we analyzed stable nitrogen isotopes of specific amino acids alongside bulk stable carbon isotopes in ringed seal muscle tissue from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (high-Arctic) and Southern Baffin Bay (mid-Arctic) from 1990 to 2016. Our results indicate a shift in food web structure in the high-Arctic that has occurred more recently when compared with the mid-Arctic. Specifically, over the past 25 years, the trophic position of ringed seals from the mid-Arctic was largely constant, whereas the trophic position of ringed seals decreased in the high-Arctic, reaching similar values observed in the mid-Arctic in 2015–2016. This suggests a potential shortening of the food chain length in the high-Arctic, possibly driven by changes in zooplankton communities feeding complexity in association with sea ice decline. This study identifies a temporal offset in the timing of borealization in the Canadian Arctic, resulting in different response of food webs to ecological changes, depending on latitude. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago ringed seal Sea ice Zooplankton Frontiers (Publisher) Frontiers in Marine Science 8 |
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Warming of the Arctic has resulted in environmental and ecological changes, termed borealization, leading to the northward shift of temperate species. Borealization has occurred across all trophic levels, altering the structure of the food web. The onset and rate of borealization likely varies with latitude, depending on local warming and advection of warmer water into the Arctic. In order to assess latitudinal trends in food web structure in the Arctic, we analyzed stable nitrogen isotopes of specific amino acids alongside bulk stable carbon isotopes in ringed seal muscle tissue from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (high-Arctic) and Southern Baffin Bay (mid-Arctic) from 1990 to 2016. Our results indicate a shift in food web structure in the high-Arctic that has occurred more recently when compared with the mid-Arctic. Specifically, over the past 25 years, the trophic position of ringed seals from the mid-Arctic was largely constant, whereas the trophic position of ringed seals decreased in the high-Arctic, reaching similar values observed in the mid-Arctic in 2015–2016. This suggests a potential shortening of the food chain length in the high-Arctic, possibly driven by changes in zooplankton communities feeding complexity in association with sea ice decline. This study identifies a temporal offset in the timing of borealization in the Canadian Arctic, resulting in different response of food webs to ecological changes, depending on latitude. |
author2 |
Natural Environment Research Council |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
de la Vega, Camille Mahaffey, Claire Yurkowski, David J. Norman, Louisa Simpson, Elysia Smout, Sophie Ferguson, Steven H. Jeffreys, Rachel M. |
spellingShingle |
de la Vega, Camille Mahaffey, Claire Yurkowski, David J. Norman, Louisa Simpson, Elysia Smout, Sophie Ferguson, Steven H. Jeffreys, Rachel M. Biomarkers in Ringed Seals Reveal Recent Onset of Borealization in the High- Compared to the Mid-Latitude Canadian Arctic |
author_facet |
de la Vega, Camille Mahaffey, Claire Yurkowski, David J. Norman, Louisa Simpson, Elysia Smout, Sophie Ferguson, Steven H. Jeffreys, Rachel M. |
author_sort |
de la Vega, Camille |
title |
Biomarkers in Ringed Seals Reveal Recent Onset of Borealization in the High- Compared to the Mid-Latitude Canadian Arctic |
title_short |
Biomarkers in Ringed Seals Reveal Recent Onset of Borealization in the High- Compared to the Mid-Latitude Canadian Arctic |
title_full |
Biomarkers in Ringed Seals Reveal Recent Onset of Borealization in the High- Compared to the Mid-Latitude Canadian Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Biomarkers in Ringed Seals Reveal Recent Onset of Borealization in the High- Compared to the Mid-Latitude Canadian Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Biomarkers in Ringed Seals Reveal Recent Onset of Borealization in the High- Compared to the Mid-Latitude Canadian Arctic |
title_sort |
biomarkers in ringed seals reveal recent onset of borealization in the high- compared to the mid-latitude canadian arctic |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.700687 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.700687/full |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago ringed seal Sea ice Zooplankton |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago ringed seal Sea ice Zooplankton |
op_source |
Frontiers in Marine Science volume 8 ISSN 2296-7745 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.700687 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
8 |
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1810294277415108608 |