Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot
Marine environments are greatly affected by climate change, and understanding how this perturbation affects marine vertebrates is a major issue. In this context, it is essential to identify the environmental drivers of animal distribution. Here, we focused on the little auk (Alle alle), one of the w...
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ftplymouthml:oai:plymsea.ac.uk:5733 2023-05-15T13:16:18+02:00 Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot Fort, J Beaugrand, G Grémillet, D Phillips, RA 2012 http://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/5733/ unknown Fort, J; Beaugrand, G; Grémillet, D; Phillips, RA. 2012 Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot. PLoS one, 7 (7). Publication - Article NonPeerReviewed 2012 ftplymouthml 2022-09-13T05:48:23Z Marine environments are greatly affected by climate change, and understanding how this perturbation affects marine vertebrates is a major issue. In this context, it is essential to identify the environmental drivers of animal distribution. Here, we focused on the little auk (Alle alle), one of the world’s most numerous seabirds and a major component in Arctic food webs. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we show how little auks adopt specific migratory strategies and balance environmental constraints to optimize their energy budgets. Miniature electronic loggers indicate that after breeding, birds from East Greenland migrate .2000 km to overwinter in a restricted area off Newfoundland. Synoptic data available from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) indicate that this region harbours some of the highest densities of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus found in the North Atlantic during winter. Examination of large-scale climatic and oceanographic data suggests that little auks favour patches of high copepod abundance in areas where air temperature ranges from 0uC to 5uC. These results greatly advance our understanding of animal responses to extreme environmental constraints, and highlight that information on habitat preference is key to identifying critical areas for marine conservation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alle alle Arctic Calanus finmarchicus Climate change East Greenland Greenland little auk Newfoundland North Atlantic Plymouth Marine Science Electronic Archive (PlyMSEA - Plymouth Marine Laboratory, PML) Arctic Greenland |
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Plymouth Marine Science Electronic Archive (PlyMSEA - Plymouth Marine Laboratory, PML) |
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ftplymouthml |
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Marine environments are greatly affected by climate change, and understanding how this perturbation affects marine vertebrates is a major issue. In this context, it is essential to identify the environmental drivers of animal distribution. Here, we focused on the little auk (Alle alle), one of the world’s most numerous seabirds and a major component in Arctic food webs. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we show how little auks adopt specific migratory strategies and balance environmental constraints to optimize their energy budgets. Miniature electronic loggers indicate that after breeding, birds from East Greenland migrate .2000 km to overwinter in a restricted area off Newfoundland. Synoptic data available from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) indicate that this region harbours some of the highest densities of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus found in the North Atlantic during winter. Examination of large-scale climatic and oceanographic data suggests that little auks favour patches of high copepod abundance in areas where air temperature ranges from 0uC to 5uC. These results greatly advance our understanding of animal responses to extreme environmental constraints, and highlight that information on habitat preference is key to identifying critical areas for marine conservation. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fort, J Beaugrand, G Grémillet, D Phillips, RA |
spellingShingle |
Fort, J Beaugrand, G Grémillet, D Phillips, RA Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot |
author_facet |
Fort, J Beaugrand, G Grémillet, D Phillips, RA |
author_sort |
Fort, J |
title |
Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot |
title_short |
Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot |
title_full |
Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot |
title_fullStr |
Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot |
title_full_unstemmed |
Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot |
title_sort |
biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/5733/ |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Alle alle Arctic Calanus finmarchicus Climate change East Greenland Greenland little auk Newfoundland North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Alle alle Arctic Calanus finmarchicus Climate change East Greenland Greenland little auk Newfoundland North Atlantic |
op_relation |
Fort, J; Beaugrand, G; Grémillet, D; Phillips, RA. 2012 Biologging, Remotely-Sensed Oceanography and the Continuous Plankton Recorder Reveal the Environmental Determinants of a Seabird Wintering Hotspot. PLoS one, 7 (7). |
_version_ |
1766273454454079488 |