Lesser black-backed gulls (Larus fuscus) consuming swimming crabs: An important link in the food web of the southern North Sea

Abstract

Swimming crabs (Liocarcinus spp.) are one of the most common brachyuran species in the North Sea, and their abundance has substantially increased over the last century. Seabirds such as lesser black-backed gulls (LBBG) commonly feed mainly on higher-trophic-level organisms such as fish. However, intensive use of swimming crabs by LBBGs in the eastern North Sea has been noted over several years. Our investigation of this aspect of the food web by examining food remains from breeding LBBGs showed that swimming crabs accounted for more than half of the nutrition of LBBGs. Gulls selected larger individuals than expected, based on sizes of free-living swimming crabs. A long-term data set (2002–2006) shows that gulls took swimming crabs mainly in the early morning and late evening, suggesting that they might migrate vertically in the water column. Moreover, it shows that although swimming crabs occurred at considerable distances from the shore, LBBGs took this prey item exclusively from near the shore where it was most abundant. This suggests the existence of a possible energy threshold above which gulls experience a net energy loss, if they have to travel too far from their colony, where the abundance of swimming crabs is lower and the energy intake might thus not compensate for the long-distance flights. Swimming-crab abundance did not appear to be the primary factor influencing overall gull distribution. A simple bioenergetic model showed that the 22,000 individual LBBGs in the most important breeding colony in the south-eastern North Sea consumed approximately 35 million swimming crabs annually (i.e. 1590 swimming crabs per individual gull) during the breeding period. However, considering the high numbers of swimming crabs in the south-eastern North Sea (demonstrated by bottom-trawl surveys in 2005 and 2007) LBBGs are unlikely to exert top-down control on this prey. Conversely, a bottom-up effect is more likely, potentially enabling further increases in LBBG populations through increases in their most important prey item in the south-eastern North Sea.