On the crucial importance of a small bird: The ecosystem services of the little auk (Alle alle) population in Northwest Greenland in a long-term perspective

Abstract

The little auk is the most numerous seabird in the North Atlantic and its most important breeding area is the eastern shores of the North Water polynya. Here, a population of an estimated 33 million pairs breeds in huge colonies and significantly shapes the ecosystem. Archaeological remains in the colonies document that the little auk has been harvested over millennia. Anthropological research discloses how the little auk has a role both as social engineer and as a significant resource for the Inughuit today. The hunting can be practiced without costly equipment, and has no gender and age discrimination in contrast to the dominant hunt for marine mammals. Little auks are ecological engineers in the sense that they transport vast amounts of nutrients from sea to land, where the nutrients are deposited as guano. Here, the fertilized vegetation provides important foraging opportunities for hares, geese, fox, reindeer, and the introduced muskox. We estimate that the relative muskox density is ten times higher within 1 km of little auk fertilized vegetation hotspots.

Muskox status, recent variation, and uncertain future

“…Before we can address the effects of climate change on forage quantity and quality, we need to understand the impact of normal grazing on these matrices under differing animal densities and at multiple scales. Muskox grazing can alter carbon dioxide and methane fluxes (Falk et al 2015), redistribute nutrients (Murray 1991;Mosbacher et al 2016), alter plant community composition (Mosbacher et al 2018), sometimes mitigate shrubification (Post and Pedersen 2008), and enhance graminoid production (Mosbech et al 2018). In addition to vegetation biomass, an understanding of the complete nutrient value of the vegetation and its correlation with population health is currently lacking.…”

Life around the North Water ecosystem: Natural and social drivers of change over a millennium

“…Large little auk ( Alle alle ) colonies formed in the area some 4500 years ago (Mosbech et al 2018); this presupposed that a polynya had formed creating productivity that could support copepods which eventually could sustain the little auk colonies (Davidson et al 2018). The polynya offered conspicuous concentrations of marine game that could support the human migrations to the area as evidenced from the archaeological traces of the earliest human habitations in the region from about the same time as the arrival of the little auks (Grønnow 2017).…”

“…The resettlement of the Thule population in 1953, moving the majority of the people northwards, much further from the fox-rich valleys around the dump at Thule Airbase, and on the coast between Thule and Cape York, where they could forage on little auks, also added a new spatial obstacle to hunting for people, who were not in possession of the necessary, strong motorboats. On the slope of Qaanaaq, chosen as the official replacement site of Thule in 1953, when people had to leave the Middle District due to the establishment of the American Airbase, foxes ( Vulpes lagopus ) are few and far between, because there are no seabird colonies close by on which the fox can prey (Mosbech et al 2018). …”

The ecological significance of extremely large flocks of birds

“…Seabird colonies, and by inference flocks of birds, are important global drivers of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles (Mosbech et al, ; Otero, Peña‐Alberti, Pérez‐Alberti, Osorio Ferreira, & Huerta‐Diaz, ). This role for seabird colonies is due to effects of soil, sediment, and water eutrophication.…”