The importance of prey aggregations to the distribution of Brunnich's guillemots in Storfjorden, Svalbard
We studied the influence of the distribution of prey and hydrographic fronts on the spatial distribution of foraging Brunnich's guillemots (Uria lomvia) in Storfjorden, southeastern Svalbard in late July 1992. Two large breeding colonies, comprising a total of 540,000 individuals, were located...
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1996
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt3k2323vf 2023-05-15T15:10:08+02:00 The importance of prey aggregations to the distribution of Brunnich's guillemots in Storfjorden, Svalbard Mehlum, F Hunt, GL Klusek, Z Decker, MB Nordlund, N 537 - 547 1996-01-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k2323vf unknown eScholarship, University of California qt3k2323vf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k2323vf CC-BY CC-BY Polar Biology, vol 16, iss 8 Marine Biology & Hydrobiology Biological Sciences article 1996 ftcdlib 2021-03-11T09:12:49Z We studied the influence of the distribution of prey and hydrographic fronts on the spatial distribution of foraging Brunnich's guillemots (Uria lomvia) in Storfjorden, southeastern Svalbard in late July 1992. Two large breeding colonies, comprising a total of 540,000 individuals, were located adjacent to the study area, and large numbers of Brunnich's gullemots from these colonies foraged within the area, as well as to the south, outside of Storfjorden. Within the study area, most guillemots foraged on the west side of the fjord, coincident with a weak subsurface front between warm Atlantic water, which penetrated Storfjorden from the south, and cold Arctic water. Food samples from the guillemots collected in the study area contained primarily crustaceans (Parathemisto spp. and Thysanoessa inermis) and polar cod Boreogadus saida. Acoustic observations of prey were differentiated into two classes of signals, which we interpreted as originating from aggregated and dispersed organisms. The numbers of foraging guillemots were strongly correlated with the strength of echoes of the aggregated type, whereas correlations with dispersed echoes were consistently weaker. The distribution of foraging guillemots showed no significant correlations with either horizontal or vertical gradients of physical properties of the water column. Our finding that guillemots respond differently to aggregated and dispersed prey has important implications both for the interpretation of past work on the foraging ecology of marine birds, and for the management of fisheries. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Boreogadus saida Polar Biology polar cod Storfjorden Svalbard Uria lomvia Thysanoessa inermis uria University of California: eScholarship Arctic Svalbard |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Marine Biology & Hydrobiology Biological Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Marine Biology & Hydrobiology Biological Sciences Mehlum, F Hunt, GL Klusek, Z Decker, MB Nordlund, N The importance of prey aggregations to the distribution of Brunnich's guillemots in Storfjorden, Svalbard |
topic_facet |
Marine Biology & Hydrobiology Biological Sciences |
description |
We studied the influence of the distribution of prey and hydrographic fronts on the spatial distribution of foraging Brunnich's guillemots (Uria lomvia) in Storfjorden, southeastern Svalbard in late July 1992. Two large breeding colonies, comprising a total of 540,000 individuals, were located adjacent to the study area, and large numbers of Brunnich's gullemots from these colonies foraged within the area, as well as to the south, outside of Storfjorden. Within the study area, most guillemots foraged on the west side of the fjord, coincident with a weak subsurface front between warm Atlantic water, which penetrated Storfjorden from the south, and cold Arctic water. Food samples from the guillemots collected in the study area contained primarily crustaceans (Parathemisto spp. and Thysanoessa inermis) and polar cod Boreogadus saida. Acoustic observations of prey were differentiated into two classes of signals, which we interpreted as originating from aggregated and dispersed organisms. The numbers of foraging guillemots were strongly correlated with the strength of echoes of the aggregated type, whereas correlations with dispersed echoes were consistently weaker. The distribution of foraging guillemots showed no significant correlations with either horizontal or vertical gradients of physical properties of the water column. Our finding that guillemots respond differently to aggregated and dispersed prey has important implications both for the interpretation of past work on the foraging ecology of marine birds, and for the management of fisheries. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mehlum, F Hunt, GL Klusek, Z Decker, MB Nordlund, N |
author_facet |
Mehlum, F Hunt, GL Klusek, Z Decker, MB Nordlund, N |
author_sort |
Mehlum, F |
title |
The importance of prey aggregations to the distribution of Brunnich's guillemots in Storfjorden, Svalbard |
title_short |
The importance of prey aggregations to the distribution of Brunnich's guillemots in Storfjorden, Svalbard |
title_full |
The importance of prey aggregations to the distribution of Brunnich's guillemots in Storfjorden, Svalbard |
title_fullStr |
The importance of prey aggregations to the distribution of Brunnich's guillemots in Storfjorden, Svalbard |
title_full_unstemmed |
The importance of prey aggregations to the distribution of Brunnich's guillemots in Storfjorden, Svalbard |
title_sort |
importance of prey aggregations to the distribution of brunnich's guillemots in storfjorden, svalbard |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
1996 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k2323vf |
op_coverage |
537 - 547 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Boreogadus saida Polar Biology polar cod Storfjorden Svalbard Uria lomvia Thysanoessa inermis uria |
genre_facet |
Arctic Boreogadus saida Polar Biology polar cod Storfjorden Svalbard Uria lomvia Thysanoessa inermis uria |
op_source |
Polar Biology, vol 16, iss 8 |
op_relation |
qt3k2323vf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k2323vf |
op_rights |
CC-BY |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766341190915981312 |