Little auks buffer the impact of current Arctic climate change

• Main Authors: Grémillet, David, Welcker, Jorg, Karnovsky, Nina J., Walkusz, Wojciech, Hall, Margaret E., Fort, Jerome, Brown, Zachary W., Speakman, John R., Harding, Ann M.A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Alle alle; Climate change; Greenland Sea; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/publications/little-auks-buffer-the-impact-of-current-arctic-climate-change(9f3eb386-bb42-4fe9-8055-9d7449a89aa8).html; https://pure.au.dk/ws/files/45556137/Gremillet_et_al._2012.pdf; http://www.int-res.com/articles/theme/m454p197.pdf

Climate models predict a multi-degree warming of the North Atlantic in the 21st century. A research priority is to understand the impact of such changes upon marine organisms. With 40-80 million individuals, planktivorous little auks (Alle alle) are an essential component of pelagic food webs in this region that are potentially highly susceptible to climatic effects. Using an integrative study of their behaviour, physiology and fitness at three study sites, we evaluated the impact of ocean warming on little auks across the Greenland Sea in 2005-2007. Contrary to our hypothesis, the birds responded to a wide range of sea surface temperatures via plasticity of their foraging behaviour, allowing them to maintain their fitness levels unchanged. Predicted effects of climate change are significantly attenuated by such plasticity, confounding attempts to forecast future impacts of climate change by envelope models