Composition of chick meals from one of the main little auk (Alle alle) breeding colonies in Northwest Greenland

Frandsen, Marie Schou; Fort, Jérôme; Rigét, Frank; Galatius, Anders; Mosbech, Anders

doi:10.1007/s00300-014-1491-0

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In a study from East Greenland, this copepod was the dominant component of chick diets with biomass consisting of 36–58 % of the total diet (Fort et al 2010 ; Karnovsky et al 2010 ). The prevalence of the last-mentioned component was also observed in northwest Greenland (Frandsen et al 2014 ). This taxon exhibits better-developed lipid storage strategy, and is much larger than its two counterparts, C. finmarchicus and C .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Supplementary diet components of little auk chicks in two contrasting regions on the West Spitsbergen coast

et al. 2014

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The complete diet composition structure of the most numerous planktivorous sea bird, little auk (Alle alle), in the European Arctic, is still not fully recognized. Although regular constituents of little auk chick diets, the copepods, Calanus glacialis and C. finmarchicus have been previously relatively well described, more taxa were frequent ingredients of the bird’s meals. Therefore, the role of the little auks supplementary diet components (SDCs) at two colonies in the Svalbard Archipelago, Hornsund and Magdalenefjorden, in 2007–2009, is a main subject of this comparative study. Because the SDCs often consisted of scarce but large zooplankters, this investigation was focused on biomass as a proxy of the SDCs’ energy input. Although the total biomass of the food delivered to chicks in both colonies was similar, in Magdalenefjorden, the proportion of SDCs was twice that found in Hornsund. The main SDCs in Hornsund were Decapoda larvae (with predominating Pagurus pubescens) and Thysanoessa inermis, whereas the main SDCs in Magdalenefjorden were C. hyperboreus and Apherusa glacialis. Previous investigations, which indicated lipid richness of SDCs, together with our ecological results from the colonies, suggest that this category might play a compensatory role in little auk chick diets. The ability to forage on diverse taxa may help the birds to adapt to ongoing Arctic ecosystem changes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Supplementary diet components of little auk chicks in two contrasting regions on the West Spitsbergen coast

et al. 2014

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“…and fish, whereby birds require specific, intermediate sea-ice concentrations for an optimal provisioning efficiency (Emmerson & Southwell, 2008;Ballard et al, 2012). Work conducted at little auk breeding sites across the Arctic clearly demonstrates the importance of cold water and associated large, lipid-rich copepods for their profitable foraging (Kwasniewski et al, 2010;Karnovsky et al, 2011;Frandsen et al, 2014), as well as their close association with the marginal ice zone (Jakubas et al, 2013). Further, our results are also in line with recent studies and syntheses from other arctic regions, which stressed the importance of glacier outflow into coastal ecosystems, and the ecological consequences of a climate-induced increase of such outflow.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arctic warming: nonlinear impacts of sea‐ice and glacier melt on seabird foraging

Grémillet

Fort

Amélineau

et al. 2015

Global Change Biology

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Arctic climate change has profound impacts on the cryosphere, notably via shrinking sea-ice cover and retreating glaciers, and it is essential to evaluate and forecast the ecological consequences of such changes. We studied zooplankton-feeding little auks (Alle alle), a key sentinel species of the Arctic, at their northernmost breeding site in Franz-Josef Land (80°N), Russian Arctic. We tested the hypothesis that little auks still benefit from pristine arctic environmental conditions in this remote area. To this end, we analysed remote sensing data on sea-ice and coastal glacier dynamics collected in our study area across 1979-2013. Further, we recorded little auk foraging behaviour using miniature electronic tags attached to the birds in the summer of 2013, and compared it with similar data collected at three localities across the Atlantic Arctic. We also compared current and historical data on Franz-Josef Land little auk diet, morphometrics and chick growth curves. Our analyses reveal that summer sea-ice retreated markedly during the last decade, leaving the Franz-Josef Land archipelago virtually sea-ice free each summer since 2005. This had a profound impact on little auk foraging, which lost their sea-ice-associated prey. Concomitantly, large coastal glaciers retreated rapidly, releasing large volumes of melt water. Zooplankton is stunned by cold and osmotic shock at the boundary between glacier melt and coastal waters, creating new foraging hotspots for little auks. Birds therefore switched from foraging at distant ice-edge localities, to highly profitable feeding at glacier melt-water fronts within <5 km of their breeding site. Through this behavioural plasticity, little auks maintained their chick growth rates, but showed a 4% decrease in adult body mass. Our study demonstrates that arctic cryosphere changes may have antagonistic ecological consequences on coastal trophic flow. Such nonlinear responses complicate modelling exercises of current and future polar ecosystem dynamics.

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“…400 km, approximately 80% of the global little auk population, or 33 million breeding pairs, have their nesting sites in dense colonies on talus slopes up to 10 km inland from the coast [24 -26]. Colonies are attended from early-May to mid-August when parents, performing round-trips to at-sea foraging areas up to 100 km from the breeding site, raise a single chick on a diet of lipid-rich Arctic copepods [27]. In the NOW, little auks are estimated to be capable of consuming up to 24% of the copepod standing stock [28], bringing vast quantities of MDN to land.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small birds, big effects: the little auk (Alle alle) transforms high Arctic ecosystems

et al. 2017

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In some arctic areas, marine-derived nutrients (MDN) resulting from fish migrations fuel freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems, increasing primary production and biodiversity. Less is known, however, about the role of seabird-MDN in shaping ecosystems. Here, we examine how the most abundant seabird in the North Atlantic, the little auk ( Alle alle ), alters freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems around the North Water Polynya (NOW) in Greenland. We compare stable isotope ratios ( δ 15 N and δ 13 C) of freshwater and terrestrial biota, terrestrial vegetation indices and physical–chemical properties, productivity and community structure of fresh waters in catchments with and without little auk colonies. The presence of colonies profoundly alters freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems by providing nutrients and massively enhancing primary production. Based on elevated δ 15 N in MDN, we estimate that MDN fuels more than 85% of terrestrial and aquatic biomass in bird influenced systems. Furthermore, by using different proxies of bird impact (colony distance, algal δ 15 N) it is possible to identify a gradient in ecosystem response to increasing bird impact. Little auk impact acidifies the freshwater systems, reducing taxonomic richness of macroinvertebrates and truncating food webs. These results demonstrate that the little auk acts as an ecosystem engineer, transforming ecosystems across a vast region of Northwest Greenland.

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Composition of chick meals from one of the main little auk (Alle alle) breeding colonies in Northwest Greenland

Cited by 22 publications

References 32 publications

Supplementary diet components of little auk chicks in two contrasting regions on the West Spitsbergen coast

Supplementary diet components of little auk chicks in two contrasting regions on the West Spitsbergen coast

Arctic warming: nonlinear impacts of sea‐ice and glacier melt on seabird foraging

Small birds, big effects: the little auk (Alle alle) transforms high Arctic ecosystems

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