Where to forage in the absence of sea ice? Bathymetry as a key factor for an arctic seabird
The earth is warming at an alarming rate, especially in the Arctic, where a marked decline in sea ice cover may have far-ranging consequences for endemic species. Little auks, endemic Arctic seabirds, are key bioindicators as they forage in the marginal ice zone and feed preferentially on lipid-rich...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22364 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157764 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/22364/1/Amelineau_Where_to_Forage_2016.pdf |
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ftunivcapetownir:oai:localhost:11427/22364 2023-05-15T14:48:20+02:00 Where to forage in the absence of sea ice? Bathymetry as a key factor for an arctic seabird Amélineau, Françoise Grémillet, David Bonnet, Delphine Le Bot, Tangi Fort, Jérôme 2016 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22364 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157764 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/22364/1/Amelineau_Where_to_Forage_2016.pdf eng eng Public Library of Science University of Cape Town Faculty of Science Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157764 http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22364 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/22364/1/Amelineau_Where_to_Forage_2016.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 © 2016 Amélineau et al CC-BY PLoS One http://journals.plos.org/plosone Sea ice Foraging Birds Zooplankton Copepods Seabirds Predation Oceans Journal Article 2016 ftunivcapetownir https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157764 2022-09-13T05:58:11Z The earth is warming at an alarming rate, especially in the Arctic, where a marked decline in sea ice cover may have far-ranging consequences for endemic species. Little auks, endemic Arctic seabirds, are key bioindicators as they forage in the marginal ice zone and feed preferentially on lipid-rich Arctic copepods and ice-associated amphipods sensitive to the consequences of global warming. We tested how little auks cope with an ice-free foraging environment during the breeding season. To this end, we took advantage of natural variation in sea ice concentration along the east coast of Greenland. We compared foraging and diving behaviour, chick diet and growth and adult body condition between two years, in the presence versus nearby absence of sea ice in the vicinity of their breeding site. Moreover, we sampled zooplankton at sea when sea ice was absent to evaluate prey location and little auk dietary preferences. Little auks foraged in the same areas both years, irrespective of sea ice presence/concentration, and targeted the shelf break and the continental shelf. We confirmed that breeding little auks showed a clear preference for larger copepod species to feed their chick, but caught smaller copepods and nearly no ice-associated amphipod when sea ice was absent. Nevertheless, these dietary changes had no impact on chick growth and adult body condition. Our findings demonstrate the importance of bathymetry for profitable little auk foraging, whatever the sea-ice conditions. Our investigations, along with recent studies, also confirm more flexibility than previously predicted for this key species in a warming Arctic. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Global warming Greenland little auk Sea ice Zooplankton Copepods University of Cape Town: OpenUCT Arctic Greenland PLOS ONE 11 7 e0157764 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Cape Town: OpenUCT |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcapetownir |
language |
English |
topic |
Sea ice Foraging Birds Zooplankton Copepods Seabirds Predation Oceans |
spellingShingle |
Sea ice Foraging Birds Zooplankton Copepods Seabirds Predation Oceans Amélineau, Françoise Grémillet, David Bonnet, Delphine Le Bot, Tangi Fort, Jérôme Where to forage in the absence of sea ice? Bathymetry as a key factor for an arctic seabird |
topic_facet |
Sea ice Foraging Birds Zooplankton Copepods Seabirds Predation Oceans |
description |
The earth is warming at an alarming rate, especially in the Arctic, where a marked decline in sea ice cover may have far-ranging consequences for endemic species. Little auks, endemic Arctic seabirds, are key bioindicators as they forage in the marginal ice zone and feed preferentially on lipid-rich Arctic copepods and ice-associated amphipods sensitive to the consequences of global warming. We tested how little auks cope with an ice-free foraging environment during the breeding season. To this end, we took advantage of natural variation in sea ice concentration along the east coast of Greenland. We compared foraging and diving behaviour, chick diet and growth and adult body condition between two years, in the presence versus nearby absence of sea ice in the vicinity of their breeding site. Moreover, we sampled zooplankton at sea when sea ice was absent to evaluate prey location and little auk dietary preferences. Little auks foraged in the same areas both years, irrespective of sea ice presence/concentration, and targeted the shelf break and the continental shelf. We confirmed that breeding little auks showed a clear preference for larger copepod species to feed their chick, but caught smaller copepods and nearly no ice-associated amphipod when sea ice was absent. Nevertheless, these dietary changes had no impact on chick growth and adult body condition. Our findings demonstrate the importance of bathymetry for profitable little auk foraging, whatever the sea-ice conditions. Our investigations, along with recent studies, also confirm more flexibility than previously predicted for this key species in a warming Arctic. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Amélineau, Françoise Grémillet, David Bonnet, Delphine Le Bot, Tangi Fort, Jérôme |
author_facet |
Amélineau, Françoise Grémillet, David Bonnet, Delphine Le Bot, Tangi Fort, Jérôme |
author_sort |
Amélineau, Françoise |
title |
Where to forage in the absence of sea ice? Bathymetry as a key factor for an arctic seabird |
title_short |
Where to forage in the absence of sea ice? Bathymetry as a key factor for an arctic seabird |
title_full |
Where to forage in the absence of sea ice? Bathymetry as a key factor for an arctic seabird |
title_fullStr |
Where to forage in the absence of sea ice? Bathymetry as a key factor for an arctic seabird |
title_full_unstemmed |
Where to forage in the absence of sea ice? Bathymetry as a key factor for an arctic seabird |
title_sort |
where to forage in the absence of sea ice? bathymetry as a key factor for an arctic seabird |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22364 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157764 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/22364/1/Amelineau_Where_to_Forage_2016.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Global warming Greenland little auk Sea ice Zooplankton Copepods |
genre_facet |
Arctic Global warming Greenland little auk Sea ice Zooplankton Copepods |
op_source |
PLoS One http://journals.plos.org/plosone |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157764 http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22364 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/22364/1/Amelineau_Where_to_Forage_2016.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 © 2016 Amélineau et al |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157764 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
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11 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
e0157764 |
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