Longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the Canadian Arctic
Northern polar regions have warmed more than other parts of the globe potentially amplifying the effects of climate change on biological communities. Ice-free seasons are becoming longer in many areas, which has reduced the time available to polar bears (Ursus maritimus) to hunt for seals and hamper...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3924086 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24500172 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3128 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3924086 2023-05-15T14:53:36+02:00 Longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the Canadian Arctic Iverson, Samuel A. Gilchrist, H. Grant Smith, Paul A. Gaston, Anthony J. Forbes, Mark R. 2014-03-22 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3924086 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24500172 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3128 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3924086 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24500172 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3128 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ © 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Articles Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3128 2014-03-23T01:33:06Z Northern polar regions have warmed more than other parts of the globe potentially amplifying the effects of climate change on biological communities. Ice-free seasons are becoming longer in many areas, which has reduced the time available to polar bears (Ursus maritimus) to hunt for seals and hampered bears’ ability to meet their energetic demands. In this study, we examined polar bears’ use of an ancillary prey resource, eggs of colonial nesting birds, in relation to diminishing sea ice coverage in a low latitude region of the Canadian Arctic. Long-term monitoring reveals that bear incursions onto common eider (Somateria mollissima) and thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) nesting colonies have increased greater than sevenfold since the 1980s and that there is an inverse correlation between ice season length and bear presence. In surveys encompassing more than 1000 km of coastline during years of record low ice coverage (2010–2012), we encountered bears or bear sign on 34% of eider colonies and estimated greater egg loss as a consequence of depredation by bears than by more customary nest predators, such as foxes and gulls. Our findings demonstrate how changes in abiotic conditions caused by climate change have altered predator–prey dynamics and are leading to cascading ecological impacts in Arctic ecosystems. Text Arctic Climate change Common Eider Sea ice Somateria mollissima thick-billed murre Uria lomvia Ursus maritimus uria PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281 1779 20133128 |
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English |
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Research Articles |
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Research Articles Iverson, Samuel A. Gilchrist, H. Grant Smith, Paul A. Gaston, Anthony J. Forbes, Mark R. Longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the Canadian Arctic |
topic_facet |
Research Articles |
description |
Northern polar regions have warmed more than other parts of the globe potentially amplifying the effects of climate change on biological communities. Ice-free seasons are becoming longer in many areas, which has reduced the time available to polar bears (Ursus maritimus) to hunt for seals and hampered bears’ ability to meet their energetic demands. In this study, we examined polar bears’ use of an ancillary prey resource, eggs of colonial nesting birds, in relation to diminishing sea ice coverage in a low latitude region of the Canadian Arctic. Long-term monitoring reveals that bear incursions onto common eider (Somateria mollissima) and thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) nesting colonies have increased greater than sevenfold since the 1980s and that there is an inverse correlation between ice season length and bear presence. In surveys encompassing more than 1000 km of coastline during years of record low ice coverage (2010–2012), we encountered bears or bear sign on 34% of eider colonies and estimated greater egg loss as a consequence of depredation by bears than by more customary nest predators, such as foxes and gulls. Our findings demonstrate how changes in abiotic conditions caused by climate change have altered predator–prey dynamics and are leading to cascading ecological impacts in Arctic ecosystems. |
format |
Text |
author |
Iverson, Samuel A. Gilchrist, H. Grant Smith, Paul A. Gaston, Anthony J. Forbes, Mark R. |
author_facet |
Iverson, Samuel A. Gilchrist, H. Grant Smith, Paul A. Gaston, Anthony J. Forbes, Mark R. |
author_sort |
Iverson, Samuel A. |
title |
Longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the Canadian Arctic |
title_short |
Longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the Canadian Arctic |
title_full |
Longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the Canadian Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the Canadian Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the Canadian Arctic |
title_sort |
longer ice-free seasons increase the risk of nest depredation by polar bears for colonial breeding birds in the canadian arctic |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3924086 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24500172 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3128 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Common Eider Sea ice Somateria mollissima thick-billed murre Uria lomvia Ursus maritimus uria |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Common Eider Sea ice Somateria mollissima thick-billed murre Uria lomvia Ursus maritimus uria |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3924086 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24500172 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3128 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ © 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3128 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
281 |
container_issue |
1779 |
container_start_page |
20133128 |
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1766325202514345984 |