Foraging distributions of little auks Alle alle across the Greenland Sea: implications of present and future Arctic climate change

N Karnovsky,A Harding,Z Brown,D Grémillet,A Bailey,L Mcfadden,I Goszczko,H Routti,Jr Wiktor J,G Beaugrand,S Kwasniewski,W Walkusz

doi:10.3354/meps08749

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 415:283-293 (2010) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08749 Foraging distributions of little auks Alle alle across the Greenland Sea: implications of present and future Arctic climate change Nina Karnovsky1,*, Ann Harding2, Wojciech Walkusz3, Sławomir Kwaśniewski3, Ilona Goszczko3, Josef Wiktor Jr3, Heli Routti4, Allison Bailey1, Laurel McFadden1, Zachary Brown1, Grégory Beaugrand5, David Grémillet6,7 1Department of Biology, Pomona College, 175 W 6th St., Claremont, California 91711, USA 2Environmental Science Department, Alaska Pacific University, 4101 University Drive, Anchorage, Alaska 99508, USA 3Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712 Sopot, Poland 4Norwegian Polar Institute, Polar Environmental Centre, 9296 Tromsø, Norway 5Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences, UMR CNRS 8187 LOG, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 1, Station Marine, 28 avenue Foch, 69360 Wimereux, France 6Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEFE, 1919 route de Mende, F 34293 Montpellier, Cedex 5, France 7Percy FitzPatrick Institute, DST/NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa *Email: nina.karnovsky@pomona.edu ABSTRACT: The Arctic is undergoing widespread warming. In order to understand the impact of climate change on Arctic marine food webs, we studied the at-sea distribution of foraging little auks in contrasting conditions of the Greenland Sea. While the eastern side of the Greenland Sea has experienced recent warming, the western side is still dominated by cold, Arctic water in the East Greenland Current. We hypothesized that foraging little auks would be found in greatest abundance in cold Arctic waters bearing more lipid-rich prey, allowing them to deliver more energy-rich food to their chicks. To test our hypotheses, we made ship-borne bird observations and zooplankton tows, as well as analyses of chick meals at 2 little auk colonies adjacent to 3 distinct water masses in the Greenland Sea. Associated with the coldest water in the East Greenland Current, we found the highest concentrations of large Calanus copepods (C. glacialis and C. hyperboreus), as well as the highest concentrations of foraging little auks, indicating a relationship that is likely to be disrupted by increasing water temperatures. To assess potential future impacts of ocean warming, we used a coupled atmosphere–ocean global climate model (AOGCM) to predict Greenland Sea sea-surface temperatures over the study area at the end of the 21st century. Our results suggest that 4 of 8 little auk breeding colonies in the North Atlantic may be negatively impacted as temperatures exceed the thermal preferenda of large Calanus, which is the preferred prey of little auks during the breeding season. KEY WORDS: At-sea observations · Calanus copepod · Climate model · East Greenland Current · Seabird · Little auk · Sea temperature · West Spitsbergen Current Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Karnovsky N, Harding A, Walkusz W, Kwaśniewski S and others (2010) Foraging distributions of little auks Alle alle across the Greenland Sea: implications of present and future Arctic climate change. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 415:283-293. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08749Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 415. Online publication date: September 29, 2010 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2010 Inter-Research.

Highlights

In recent years, the effects of climate change have been especially pronounced in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic
Inshore was a mass of cold water that can be identified as the Arctic-fed Sørkapp Current (SC), with temperatures ranging from 2.4°C inshore to 5.5°C along the front with the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC)
We found no difference in the number of meals per day that little auk chicks in East Greenland received and that which chicks in Hornsund received (5 ± 1.1 and 3.5 ± 0.8 meals d–1 for Greenland and Hornsund, respectively; 2-tailed t-test p = 0.13)

Summary

Introduction

The effects of climate change have been especially pronounced in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic. In the Greenland Sea, sea ice has declined and the eastern side has experienced large increases in temperature (Blindheim et al 2000, Vinje 2001) These changes have been driven primarily by increased advection of warm, saline, Atlantic water into the Greenland Sea via the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) (Aagaard et al 1987, Walczowski & Piechura 2006, Fig. 1). The SC runs north along the west coast of Spitsbergen inshore of the WSC but advects cold, low salinity, Arctic water that originates northeast of the island (Swerpel & Zajaczkowski 1990; Fig. 1). The East Greenland current (EGC) is characterized by cold, low salinity water It originates in the Arctic Ocean and flows south along the east coast of Greenland (Bourke et al 1988; Fig. 1)

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Conclusion