NOW-isotopic summary from Small birds, big effects: the little auk ( Alle alle ) transforms high Arctic ecosystems
In some arctic areas, marine-derived nutrients (MDN) resulting from fish migrations fuel freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, increasing primary production and biodiversity. Less is known, however, about the role of seabird-MDN in shaping ecosystems. Here, we examine how the most abundant seabird...
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The Royal Society
2017
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ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.4620604 2023-05-15T13:16:13+02:00 NOW-isotopic summary from Small birds, big effects: the little auk ( Alle alle ) transforms high Arctic ecosystems González-Bergonzoni, Ivan Johansen, Kasper L. Mosbech, Anders Landkildehus, Frank Jeppesen, Erik Davidson, Thomas A. 2017 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4620604 https://rs.figshare.com/articles/dataset/NOW-isotopic_summary_from_Small_birds_big_effects_the_little_auk_i_Alle_alle_i_transforms_high_Arctic_ecosystems/4620604 unknown The Royal Society https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2572 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Environmental Science Ecology FOS Biological sciences dataset Dataset 2017 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4620604 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2572 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z In some arctic areas, marine-derived nutrients (MDN) resulting from fish migrations fuel freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, increasing primary production and biodiversity. Less is known, however, about the role of seabird-MDN in shaping ecosystems. Here, we examine how the most abundant seabird in the North Atlantic, the little auk ( Alle alle ), alters freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems around the North Water Polynya (NOW) in Greenland. We compare stable isotope ratios ( δ 15 N and δ 13 C) of freshwater and terrestrial biota, terrestrial vegetation indices and physical–chemical properties, productivity and community structure of fresh waters in catchments with and without little auk colonies. The presence of colonies profoundly alters freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems by providing nutrients and massively enhancing primary production. Based on elevated δ 15 N in MDN, we estimate that MDN fuels more than 85% of terrestrial and aquatic biomass in bird influenced systems. Furthermore, by using different proxies of bird impact (colony distance, algal δ 15 N) it is possible to identify a gradient in ecosystem response to increasing bird impact. Little auk impact acidifies the freshwater systems, reducing taxonomic richness of macroinvertebrates and truncating food webs. These results demonstrate that the little auk acts as an ecosystem engineer, transforming ecosystems across a vast region of Northwest Greenland. Dataset Alle alle Arctic Greenland little auk North Atlantic DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Arctic Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Environmental Science Ecology FOS Biological sciences |
spellingShingle |
Environmental Science Ecology FOS Biological sciences González-Bergonzoni, Ivan Johansen, Kasper L. Mosbech, Anders Landkildehus, Frank Jeppesen, Erik Davidson, Thomas A. NOW-isotopic summary from Small birds, big effects: the little auk ( Alle alle ) transforms high Arctic ecosystems |
topic_facet |
Environmental Science Ecology FOS Biological sciences |
description |
In some arctic areas, marine-derived nutrients (MDN) resulting from fish migrations fuel freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, increasing primary production and biodiversity. Less is known, however, about the role of seabird-MDN in shaping ecosystems. Here, we examine how the most abundant seabird in the North Atlantic, the little auk ( Alle alle ), alters freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems around the North Water Polynya (NOW) in Greenland. We compare stable isotope ratios ( δ 15 N and δ 13 C) of freshwater and terrestrial biota, terrestrial vegetation indices and physical–chemical properties, productivity and community structure of fresh waters in catchments with and without little auk colonies. The presence of colonies profoundly alters freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems by providing nutrients and massively enhancing primary production. Based on elevated δ 15 N in MDN, we estimate that MDN fuels more than 85% of terrestrial and aquatic biomass in bird influenced systems. Furthermore, by using different proxies of bird impact (colony distance, algal δ 15 N) it is possible to identify a gradient in ecosystem response to increasing bird impact. Little auk impact acidifies the freshwater systems, reducing taxonomic richness of macroinvertebrates and truncating food webs. These results demonstrate that the little auk acts as an ecosystem engineer, transforming ecosystems across a vast region of Northwest Greenland. |
format |
Dataset |
author |
González-Bergonzoni, Ivan Johansen, Kasper L. Mosbech, Anders Landkildehus, Frank Jeppesen, Erik Davidson, Thomas A. |
author_facet |
González-Bergonzoni, Ivan Johansen, Kasper L. Mosbech, Anders Landkildehus, Frank Jeppesen, Erik Davidson, Thomas A. |
author_sort |
González-Bergonzoni, Ivan |
title |
NOW-isotopic summary from Small birds, big effects: the little auk ( Alle alle ) transforms high Arctic ecosystems |
title_short |
NOW-isotopic summary from Small birds, big effects: the little auk ( Alle alle ) transforms high Arctic ecosystems |
title_full |
NOW-isotopic summary from Small birds, big effects: the little auk ( Alle alle ) transforms high Arctic ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
NOW-isotopic summary from Small birds, big effects: the little auk ( Alle alle ) transforms high Arctic ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
NOW-isotopic summary from Small birds, big effects: the little auk ( Alle alle ) transforms high Arctic ecosystems |
title_sort |
now-isotopic summary from small birds, big effects: the little auk ( alle alle ) transforms high arctic ecosystems |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4620604 https://rs.figshare.com/articles/dataset/NOW-isotopic_summary_from_Small_birds_big_effects_the_little_auk_i_Alle_alle_i_transforms_high_Arctic_ecosystems/4620604 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Alle alle Arctic Greenland little auk North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Alle alle Arctic Greenland little auk North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2572 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4620604 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2572 |
_version_ |
1766273092379738112 |