Seabird sensitivity to Arctic environmental change

• Main Author: Amélineau, Françoise
• Other Authors: Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud ), Université Montpellier, David Grémillet, Jérôme Fort
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: Environmental variability; Long-Term monitoring; Seabird; Foraging behaviour; Variabilité environnementale; Comportement de recherche alimentaire; Oiseaux marins; Suivi à long terme; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; Arctic; Greenland; Alle alle; Arctique*; East Greenland; little auk; North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01646601; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01646601/document; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01646601/file/2016_AMELINEAU_archivage.pdf

The Arctic is warming twice faster than the rest of the world, leading to major changes for marine ecosystems. For example, sea-ice extent is decreasing, and air mass distribution is changing, thus modifying wind and precipitation regimes. In parallel, the Arctic is subject to increasing anthropogenic pollution carried by atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and accentuated by the development of local human activities. In this context, there is an urgent need to understand the ecological impacts of these environmental modifications on the species of this region. Little auks (Alle alle) are the most abundant seabird in the Arctic, and key players of coastal food webs. Although recent works suggested a high resiliency of little auks to global changes, a comprehensive study was needed to understand in detail the impacts of these changes. Through this work, we used a multidisciplinary approach (diet ecology, ecotoxicology, bioenergetics, foraging ecology) on the long term to characterize little auk sensitivity to environmental changes during the breeding season (summer) and in winter. We therefore studied a little auk population in East Greenland. Our results show that little auks are indeed impacted by ongoing changes. During the breeding season, their prey change and their diving effort increase when there is no sea-ice, even if they remain faithful to their feeding grounds on the continental slope. This tends to decrease their body condition and that of their chick, but does not impact their survival. In winter, little auks optimize their migration and their distribution according to the distribution of their prey and their energetic landscape. Therefore, our predictive models indicate that a warming of the North Atlantic could be benefic for little auk populations, by reducing their energetic needs. Finally, we found that little auks ingest microplastics, by confusing them with their prey. This additional source of pollution could increase with sea-ice loss that release microplastics stocked in the ice. This ...