The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters
Copepods are essential components of marine food webs worldwide. In the North Atlantic, they are thought to perform vertical migration and to remain at depths more than 500 m during winter. We challenge this concept through a study of the winter feeding ecology of little auks ( Alle alle ), a highly...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 2024-06-23T07:45:18+00:00 The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters Fort, Jérôme Cherel, Yves Harding, Ann M. A. Egevang, Carsten Steen, Harald Kuntz, Grégoire Porter, Warren P. Grémillet, David 2010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Biology Letters volume 6, issue 5, page 682-684 ISSN 1744-9561 1744-957X journal-article 2010 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 2024-06-04T06:23:04Z Copepods are essential components of marine food webs worldwide. In the North Atlantic, they are thought to perform vertical migration and to remain at depths more than 500 m during winter. We challenge this concept through a study of the winter feeding ecology of little auks ( Alle alle ), a highly abundant planktivorous seabird from the North Atlantic. By combining stable isotope and behavioural analyses, we strongly suggest that swarms of copepods are still available to their predators in water surface layers (less than 50 m) during winter, even during short daylight periods. Using a new bioenergetic model, we estimate that the huge number (20–40 million birds) of little auks wintering off southwest Greenland consume 3600–7200 tonnes of copepods daily, strongly suggesting substantial zooplankton stocks in surface waters of the North Atlantic in the middle of the boreal winter. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alle alle Greenland North Atlantic Copepods The Royal Society Greenland Biology Letters 6 5 682 684 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Copepods are essential components of marine food webs worldwide. In the North Atlantic, they are thought to perform vertical migration and to remain at depths more than 500 m during winter. We challenge this concept through a study of the winter feeding ecology of little auks ( Alle alle ), a highly abundant planktivorous seabird from the North Atlantic. By combining stable isotope and behavioural analyses, we strongly suggest that swarms of copepods are still available to their predators in water surface layers (less than 50 m) during winter, even during short daylight periods. Using a new bioenergetic model, we estimate that the huge number (20–40 million birds) of little auks wintering off southwest Greenland consume 3600–7200 tonnes of copepods daily, strongly suggesting substantial zooplankton stocks in surface waters of the North Atlantic in the middle of the boreal winter. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fort, Jérôme Cherel, Yves Harding, Ann M. A. Egevang, Carsten Steen, Harald Kuntz, Grégoire Porter, Warren P. Grémillet, David |
spellingShingle |
Fort, Jérôme Cherel, Yves Harding, Ann M. A. Egevang, Carsten Steen, Harald Kuntz, Grégoire Porter, Warren P. Grémillet, David The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
author_facet |
Fort, Jérôme Cherel, Yves Harding, Ann M. A. Egevang, Carsten Steen, Harald Kuntz, Grégoire Porter, Warren P. Grémillet, David |
author_sort |
Fort, Jérôme |
title |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_short |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_full |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_fullStr |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_full_unstemmed |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_sort |
feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in north atlantic surface waters |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Alle alle Greenland North Atlantic Copepods |
genre_facet |
Alle alle Greenland North Atlantic Copepods |
op_source |
Biology Letters volume 6, issue 5, page 682-684 ISSN 1744-9561 1744-957X |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
682 |
op_container_end_page |
684 |
_version_ |
1802638965730181120 |