Annual prey consumption of a dominant seabird, the common murre, in the California Current system

• Published in: ICES Journal of Marine Science
• Main Authors: Roth, Jennifer E., Nur, Nadav, Warzybok, Pete, Sydeman, William J.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2008
• Subjects: Articles; Blanco; Common Murre; Uria aalge; uria
• Online Access: http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/65/6/1046; https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsn077

<qd> Roth, J. E., Nur, N., Warzybok, P., and Sydeman, W. J. 2008. Annual prey consumption of a dominant seabird, the common murre, in the California Current system. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 1046–1056. </qd>Information compiled from the literature on population size, diet composition, field metabolic rate, prey energy densities, and assimilation efficiency is used to estimate annual prey consumption by common murres ( Uria aalge ), between Cape Blanco, OR, and Point Conception, CA, USA. The population consumed an estimated 172 313 t of prey based on population estimates and diet data from the mid- to the late 1980s, including 50 125 t consumed by breeding adults, 36 940 t by non-breeding birds during the breeding season, 85 098 t by all birds during the wintering period, and 150 t by dependent chicks before their leaving the breeding colonies. The population in the mid-2000s consumed 225 235 t of prey based on population estimates from 2004, including 65 516 t consumed by breeding adults, 48 283 t by non-breeding birds during the breeding season, 111 226 t by all birds during the wintering period, and 210 t by chicks at breeding colonies. Monte Carlo simulations indicated that the coefficients of variation around our overall prey consumption estimates were ±14.4% for the 1980s and ±13.2% for the 2000s.