Biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot
Marine environments are greatly affected by climate change, and understanding how this perturbation affects marine vertebrates is a major issue. In this context, it is essential to identify the environmental drivers of animal distribution. Here, we focused on the little auk ( Alle alle ), one of the...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15020 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041194 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/15020/1/Fort_Biologging_2012.pdf |
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ftunivcapetownir:oai:localhost:11427/15020 2023-05-15T13:16:19+02:00 Biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot Fort, Jérôme Beaugrand, Grégory Grémillet, David Phillips, Richard A 2012 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15020 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041194 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/15020/1/Fort_Biologging_2012.pdf eng eng Public Library of Science University of Cape Town Faculty of Science Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041194 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/15020/1/Fort_Biologging_2012.pdf This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 © 2012 Fort et al CC-BY PLoS One http://journals.plos.org/plosone Seabirds Copepods Food web structure Marine environments Animal migration Animal sexual behavior Journal Article 2012 ftunivcapetownir https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041194 2022-09-13T05:53:15Z Marine environments are greatly affected by climate change, and understanding how this perturbation affects marine vertebrates is a major issue. In this context, it is essential to identify the environmental drivers of animal distribution. Here, we focused on the little auk ( Alle alle ), one of the world’s most numerous seabirds and a major component in Arctic food webs. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we show how little auks adopt specific migratory strategies and balance environmental constraints to optimize their energy budgets. Miniature electronic loggers indicate that after breeding, birds from East Greenland migrate >2000 km to overwinter in a restricted area off Newfoundland. Synoptic data available from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) indicate that this region harbours some of the highest densities of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus found in the North Atlantic during winter. Examination of large-scale climatic and oceanographic data suggests that little auks favour patches of high copepod abundance in areas where air temperature ranges from 0°C to 5°C. These results greatly advance our understanding of animal responses to extreme environmental constraints, and highlight that information on habitat preference is key to identifying critical areas for marine conservation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alle alle Arctic Calanus finmarchicus Climate change East Greenland Greenland little auk Newfoundland North Atlantic Copepods University of Cape Town: OpenUCT Arctic Greenland PLoS ONE 7 7 e41194 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Cape Town: OpenUCT |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcapetownir |
language |
English |
topic |
Seabirds Copepods Food web structure Marine environments Animal migration Animal sexual behavior |
spellingShingle |
Seabirds Copepods Food web structure Marine environments Animal migration Animal sexual behavior Fort, Jérôme Beaugrand, Grégory Grémillet, David Phillips, Richard A Biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot |
topic_facet |
Seabirds Copepods Food web structure Marine environments Animal migration Animal sexual behavior |
description |
Marine environments are greatly affected by climate change, and understanding how this perturbation affects marine vertebrates is a major issue. In this context, it is essential to identify the environmental drivers of animal distribution. Here, we focused on the little auk ( Alle alle ), one of the world’s most numerous seabirds and a major component in Arctic food webs. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we show how little auks adopt specific migratory strategies and balance environmental constraints to optimize their energy budgets. Miniature electronic loggers indicate that after breeding, birds from East Greenland migrate >2000 km to overwinter in a restricted area off Newfoundland. Synoptic data available from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) indicate that this region harbours some of the highest densities of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus found in the North Atlantic during winter. Examination of large-scale climatic and oceanographic data suggests that little auks favour patches of high copepod abundance in areas where air temperature ranges from 0°C to 5°C. These results greatly advance our understanding of animal responses to extreme environmental constraints, and highlight that information on habitat preference is key to identifying critical areas for marine conservation. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fort, Jérôme Beaugrand, Grégory Grémillet, David Phillips, Richard A |
author_facet |
Fort, Jérôme Beaugrand, Grégory Grémillet, David Phillips, Richard A |
author_sort |
Fort, Jérôme |
title |
Biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot |
title_short |
Biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot |
title_full |
Biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot |
title_fullStr |
Biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot |
title_full_unstemmed |
Biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot |
title_sort |
biologging, remotely-sensed oceanography and the continuous plankton recorder reveal the environmental determinants of a seabird wintering hotspot |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15020 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041194 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/15020/1/Fort_Biologging_2012.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Alle alle Arctic Calanus finmarchicus Climate change East Greenland Greenland little auk Newfoundland North Atlantic Copepods |
genre_facet |
Alle alle Arctic Calanus finmarchicus Climate change East Greenland Greenland little auk Newfoundland North Atlantic Copepods |
op_source |
PLoS One http://journals.plos.org/plosone |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041194 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/15020/1/Fort_Biologging_2012.pdf |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 © 2012 Fort et al |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041194 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
e41194 |
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