Seaduck engineers in the Arctic Archipelago: nesting eiders deliver marine nutrients and transform the chemistry of island soils, plants, and ponds
Seabirds are thought to provide ecological services such as the movement of nutrients between marine and terrestrial ecosystems, which may be especially critical to productivity and diversity in nutrient-poor environments. Most Arctic ecosystems are unaffected by local human impacts and are naturall...
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Springer Berlin Heidelberg
2021
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8052239/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33675409 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04889-9 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8052239 2023-05-15T14:28:54+02:00 Seaduck engineers in the Arctic Archipelago: nesting eiders deliver marine nutrients and transform the chemistry of island soils, plants, and ponds Clyde, N. Hargan, K. E. Forbes, M. R. Iverson, S. A. Blais, J. M. Smol, J. P. Bump, J. K. Gilchrist, H. G. 2021-03-06 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8052239/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33675409 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04889-9 en eng Springer Berlin Heidelberg http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8052239/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33675409 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04889-9 © Crown 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . CC-BY Oecologia Ecosystem Ecology–Original Research Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04889-9 2021-05-02T00:26:50Z Seabirds are thought to provide ecological services such as the movement of nutrients between marine and terrestrial ecosystems, which may be especially critical to productivity and diversity in nutrient-poor environments. Most Arctic ecosystems are unaffected by local human impacts and are naturally nutrient poor and especially sensitive to warming. Here, we assessed the effects of nesting common eider ducks (Somateria mollissima) on soil, vegetation, and pond sediments on island archipelagoes in Hudson Strait between Nunavut and Québec, Canada. Soil, moss, and pond sediments were significantly higher in nitrogen on islands with large numbers of nesting eiders compared to sites with no nesting birds. The highest concentrations of nitrogen in soils and moss occurred at the margins of ponds on eider islands, which correspond to the areas of highest eider use. δ(15)N and δ(34)S values in soils, moss, and sediments indicated substantial marine-derived organic matter inputs at the higher nutrient sites. We propose that by foraging on coastal marine benthic invertebrates and returning to islands to nest, eider ducks bio-transport and concentrate marine-derived nutrients to their colony islands, fertilizing Arctic island ecosystems in the process. As common eiders nest on thousands of low to mid-latitude islands throughout the circumpolar Arctic, these nutrient inputs likely dramatically affect biota and ecosystem functioning throughout the tundra biome. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00442-021-04889-9. Text Arctic Archipelago Arctic Common Eider Hudson Strait Nunavut Somateria mollissima Tundra PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Arctic Island ENVELOPE(-74.766,-74.766,62.234,62.234) Canada Eider Islands ENVELOPE(-69.331,-69.331,60.867,60.867) Hudson Hudson Strait ENVELOPE(-70.000,-70.000,62.000,62.000) Nunavut Oecologia 195 4 1041 1052 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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language |
English |
topic |
Ecosystem Ecology–Original Research |
spellingShingle |
Ecosystem Ecology–Original Research Clyde, N. Hargan, K. E. Forbes, M. R. Iverson, S. A. Blais, J. M. Smol, J. P. Bump, J. K. Gilchrist, H. G. Seaduck engineers in the Arctic Archipelago: nesting eiders deliver marine nutrients and transform the chemistry of island soils, plants, and ponds |
topic_facet |
Ecosystem Ecology–Original Research |
description |
Seabirds are thought to provide ecological services such as the movement of nutrients between marine and terrestrial ecosystems, which may be especially critical to productivity and diversity in nutrient-poor environments. Most Arctic ecosystems are unaffected by local human impacts and are naturally nutrient poor and especially sensitive to warming. Here, we assessed the effects of nesting common eider ducks (Somateria mollissima) on soil, vegetation, and pond sediments on island archipelagoes in Hudson Strait between Nunavut and Québec, Canada. Soil, moss, and pond sediments were significantly higher in nitrogen on islands with large numbers of nesting eiders compared to sites with no nesting birds. The highest concentrations of nitrogen in soils and moss occurred at the margins of ponds on eider islands, which correspond to the areas of highest eider use. δ(15)N and δ(34)S values in soils, moss, and sediments indicated substantial marine-derived organic matter inputs at the higher nutrient sites. We propose that by foraging on coastal marine benthic invertebrates and returning to islands to nest, eider ducks bio-transport and concentrate marine-derived nutrients to their colony islands, fertilizing Arctic island ecosystems in the process. As common eiders nest on thousands of low to mid-latitude islands throughout the circumpolar Arctic, these nutrient inputs likely dramatically affect biota and ecosystem functioning throughout the tundra biome. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00442-021-04889-9. |
format |
Text |
author |
Clyde, N. Hargan, K. E. Forbes, M. R. Iverson, S. A. Blais, J. M. Smol, J. P. Bump, J. K. Gilchrist, H. G. |
author_facet |
Clyde, N. Hargan, K. E. Forbes, M. R. Iverson, S. A. Blais, J. M. Smol, J. P. Bump, J. K. Gilchrist, H. G. |
author_sort |
Clyde, N. |
title |
Seaduck engineers in the Arctic Archipelago: nesting eiders deliver marine nutrients and transform the chemistry of island soils, plants, and ponds |
title_short |
Seaduck engineers in the Arctic Archipelago: nesting eiders deliver marine nutrients and transform the chemistry of island soils, plants, and ponds |
title_full |
Seaduck engineers in the Arctic Archipelago: nesting eiders deliver marine nutrients and transform the chemistry of island soils, plants, and ponds |
title_fullStr |
Seaduck engineers in the Arctic Archipelago: nesting eiders deliver marine nutrients and transform the chemistry of island soils, plants, and ponds |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seaduck engineers in the Arctic Archipelago: nesting eiders deliver marine nutrients and transform the chemistry of island soils, plants, and ponds |
title_sort |
seaduck engineers in the arctic archipelago: nesting eiders deliver marine nutrients and transform the chemistry of island soils, plants, and ponds |
publisher |
Springer Berlin Heidelberg |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8052239/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33675409 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04889-9 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-74.766,-74.766,62.234,62.234) ENVELOPE(-69.331,-69.331,60.867,60.867) ENVELOPE(-70.000,-70.000,62.000,62.000) |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Island Canada Eider Islands Hudson Hudson Strait Nunavut |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Island Canada Eider Islands Hudson Hudson Strait Nunavut |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Common Eider Hudson Strait Nunavut Somateria mollissima Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Common Eider Hudson Strait Nunavut Somateria mollissima Tundra |
op_source |
Oecologia |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8052239/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33675409 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04889-9 |
op_rights |
© Crown 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04889-9 |
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Oecologia |
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195 |
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4 |
container_start_page |
1041 |
op_container_end_page |
1052 |
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