The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters
Copepods are essential components of marine food webs worldwide. In the North Atlantic, they are thought to perform vertical migration and to remain at depths more than 500 m during winter. We challenge this concept through a study of the winter feeding ecology of little auks (Alle alle), a highly a...
Published in: | Biology Letters |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
The Royal Society
2010
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936134 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20236962 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:2936134 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:2936134 2023-05-15T13:16:16+02:00 The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters Fort, Jérôme Cherel, Yves Harding, Ann M. A. Egevang, Carsten Steen, Harald Kuntz, Grégoire Porter, Warren P. Grémillet, David 2010-10-23 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936134 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20236962 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936134 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20236962 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 © 2010 The Royal Society Marine Biology Text 2010 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 2013-09-03T04:36:00Z Copepods are essential components of marine food webs worldwide. In the North Atlantic, they are thought to perform vertical migration and to remain at depths more than 500 m during winter. We challenge this concept through a study of the winter feeding ecology of little auks (Alle alle), a highly abundant planktivorous seabird from the North Atlantic. By combining stable isotope and behavioural analyses, we strongly suggest that swarms of copepods are still available to their predators in water surface layers (less than 50 m) during winter, even during short daylight periods. Using a new bioenergetic model, we estimate that the huge number (20–40 million birds) of little auks wintering off southwest Greenland consume 3600–7200 tonnes of copepods daily, strongly suggesting substantial zooplankton stocks in surface waters of the North Atlantic in the middle of the boreal winter. Text Alle alle Greenland North Atlantic Copepods PubMed Central (PMC) Greenland Biology Letters 6 5 682 684 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Marine Biology |
spellingShingle |
Marine Biology Fort, Jérôme Cherel, Yves Harding, Ann M. A. Egevang, Carsten Steen, Harald Kuntz, Grégoire Porter, Warren P. Grémillet, David The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
topic_facet |
Marine Biology |
description |
Copepods are essential components of marine food webs worldwide. In the North Atlantic, they are thought to perform vertical migration and to remain at depths more than 500 m during winter. We challenge this concept through a study of the winter feeding ecology of little auks (Alle alle), a highly abundant planktivorous seabird from the North Atlantic. By combining stable isotope and behavioural analyses, we strongly suggest that swarms of copepods are still available to their predators in water surface layers (less than 50 m) during winter, even during short daylight periods. Using a new bioenergetic model, we estimate that the huge number (20–40 million birds) of little auks wintering off southwest Greenland consume 3600–7200 tonnes of copepods daily, strongly suggesting substantial zooplankton stocks in surface waters of the North Atlantic in the middle of the boreal winter. |
format |
Text |
author |
Fort, Jérôme Cherel, Yves Harding, Ann M. A. Egevang, Carsten Steen, Harald Kuntz, Grégoire Porter, Warren P. Grémillet, David |
author_facet |
Fort, Jérôme Cherel, Yves Harding, Ann M. A. Egevang, Carsten Steen, Harald Kuntz, Grégoire Porter, Warren P. Grémillet, David |
author_sort |
Fort, Jérôme |
title |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_short |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_full |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_fullStr |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_full_unstemmed |
The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters |
title_sort |
feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in north atlantic surface waters |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936134 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20236962 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Alle alle Greenland North Atlantic Copepods |
genre_facet |
Alle alle Greenland North Atlantic Copepods |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936134 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20236962 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 |
op_rights |
© 2010 The Royal Society |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
682 |
op_container_end_page |
684 |
_version_ |
1766273308064481280 |