• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Key words; climate change; feeding ecology; gannets; north-west Atlantic; oceanogra- phy; seabird populations; trophic interactions; Newfoundland; North West Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.523.5339; http://play.psych.mun.ca/~mont/pubs/centurialand.pdf

on trend of northern gannets (Sula bassana) is correlated with warming surface water conditions and increased mackerel (Scomber scombrus) availability. On a decadal scale, a major dietary change of breeding gannets from migratory warm-water pelagic fish and squids to cold-water fish is associated with cold-water perturbations in the north-west Atlantic during the 1990s. Cold-water influences appear to have inhibited migratory pelagic fish and squid from moving into the region in recent years, causing a major shift in pelagic food webs on the Newfoundland Shelf. Such findings imply that slight changes in oceanographic conditions, possibly associated with climate warming, could have large-scale and pervasive eVects on seabird distributions, feeding ecology, reproductive success, and populations. Such changes might be detected initially near the limits of seabird ranges and the margins of oceanographic regions.