Community structure across a large-scale ocean productivity gradient: Marine bird assemblages of the Southern Indian Ocean

• Published in: Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers
• Main Authors: Hyrenbach, David K., Veit, Richard R., Weimerskirch, Henri, Metzl, Nicolas, Hunt Jr., George L.
• Other Authors: Duke University Marine Laboratory, CSI-CUNY, City University of New York New York (CUNY), Centre d'études biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: Indian Ocean; Community structure; Oceanic fronts; Seabirds; Ocean productivity; Crozet Basin; Species assemblages; Remote sensing; envir; geo; Antarctic; Indian; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2007.05.002; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00266841

International audience Our objective was to understand how marine birds respond to oceanographic variability across the Southern Indian Ocean using data collected during an 16-day cruise (4-21 January 2003). We quantified concurrent water mass distributions, ocean productivity patterns, and seabird distributions across a heterogeneous pelagic ecosystem from subtropical to sub-Antarctic waters. We surveyed 5155km and sighted 15,606 birds from 51 species, and used these data to investigate how seabirds respond to spatial variability in the structure and productivity of the ocean. We addressed two spatial scales: the structure of seabird communities across macro-mega scale (1000 s km) biogeographic domains, and their coarse-scale (10 s km) aggregation at hydrographic and bathymetric gradients. Both seabird density and species composition changed with latitudinal and onshore-offshore gradients in depth, water temperature, and chlorophyll-a concentration. The average seabird density increased across the subtropical convergence (STC) from 2.4 birdskm2 in subtropical waters to 23.8 birdskm2 in sub-Antarctic waters. The composition of the avifauna also differed across biogeographic domains. Prions (Pachyptila spp.) accounted for 57% of all sub-Antarctic birds, wedge-tailed shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus) accounted for 46% of all subtropical birds, and Indian Ocean yellow-nosed albatross (Thallasarche carteri) accounted for 32% of all birds in the STC. While surface feeders were the most abundant foraging guild across the study area, divers were disproportionately more numerous in the sub-Antarctic domain, and plungers were disproportionately more abundant in subtropical waters. Seabird densities were also higher within shallow shelf-slope regions, especially in sub-Antarctic waters, where large numbers of breeding seabirds concentrated. However, we did not find elevated seabird densities along the STC, suggesting that this broad frontal region is not a site of enhanced aggregation.