Effects of a Gulf Stream warm‐core ring on summer seabird distribution in the northwest Atlantic Ocean1

• Published in: Limnology and Oceanography
• Main Author: Haney, J. Christopher
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1987
• Subjects: Aquatic Science; Oceanography; Northwest Atlantic; Oceanodroma leucorhoa
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.4319/lo.1987.32.3.0665; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.4319%2Flo.1987.32.3.0665; https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.4319/lo.1987.32.3.0665

Species composition, distribution, and abundance of seabirds at a Gulf Stream warm‐core ring differed from water masses of the northwest Atlantic slope, shelf, and Sargasso Sea during August 1984. Mean seabird abundance within the 2‐month‐old ring (12.3 birds km −2 ) was similar to Slope Water (13.0 birds km −2 ). Mean biomass of the seabird assemblage within the ring (0.85 kg km −2 wet wt) was intermediate between biomass values in Sargasso Sea and Slope Water. The seabird assemblage within the ring was comprised of one nekton‐feeding species ( Puffinus lherminieri ) displaced from the parent water mass (Gulf Stream), and the storm‐petrels Oceanites oceanicus and Oceanodroma leucorhoa common in adjacent Slope Water.