We compared seasonal composition, abundance, and biomass of seabirds between the ICES Journal of Marine Science, 63: 1145e1158 (2006)Northeast (ICES region) and Northwest (NAFO region) Atlantic fisheries regions to identify differences in community assemblage and prey consumption. Seabirds were more...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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2005
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.576.9958 http://play.psych.mun.ca/~mont/pdfs/barrett2006.pdf |
| Summary: | We compared seasonal composition, abundance, and biomass of seabirds between the ICES Journal of Marine Science, 63: 1145e1158 (2006)Northeast (ICES region) and Northwest (NAFO region) Atlantic fisheries regions to identify differences in community assemblage and prey consumption. Seabirds were more abundant in the Northwest Atlantic, but biomass was greater in the Northeast. This disparity resulted from enormous numbers of little auks Alle alle breeding in West Greenland and of Leach’s storm-petrels Oceanodroma leucorhoa breeding in Newfoundland, plus large numbers of non-breeding shearwaters Puffinus spp. entering southern NAFO areas in summer. The Northeast Atlantic communities were dominated numerically by northern fulmars Fulmarus glacialis, large auks Uria spp., and the Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica. Seabirds oc-cupying the North Atlantic consume approximately 11 106 t of food annually. Overall consumption rates peak during summer as a result of increased breeding activity and sea-sonal movements of birds into the North Atlantic. Because of the greater biomass of birds in the northeast, consumption (mainly by piscivores) in ICES areas was approximately 20% higher than that in NAFO areas, where planktivores dominate. NAFO areas had, however, a much greater consumption rate per unit area than ICES areas. Comparative studies such as |
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