Abstract
Spring sea ice phenology regulates the timing of the two consecutive pulses of marine autotrophs that form the base of the Arctic marine food webs. This timing has been suggested to be the single most essential driver of secondary production and the efficiency with which biomass and energy are transferred to higher trophic levels. We investigated the chronological sequence of productivity pulses and its potential cascading impacts on the reproductive performance of the High Arctic seabird community from Svalbard, Norway. We provide evidence that interannual changes in the seasonal patterns of marine productivity may impact the breeding performance of little auks and Brünnich’s guillemots. These results may be of particular interest given that current global warming trends in the Barents Sea region predict one of the highest rates of sea ice loss within the circumpolar Arctic. However, local- to regional-scale heterogeneity in sea ice melting phenology may add uncertainty to predictions of climate-driven environmental impacts on seabirds. Indeed, our fine-scale analysis reveals that the inshore Brünnich’s guillemots are facing a slower advancement in the timing of ice melt compared to the offshore-foraging little auks. We provide a suitable framework for analyzing the effects of climate-driven sea ice disappearance on seabird fitness.
Highlights
Spring sea ice phenology regulates the timing of the two consecutive pulses of marine autotrophs that form the base of the Arctic marine food webs
We focused on three of the most abundant, though ecologically diverse, seabird species breeding in the Svalbard archipelago: the Brünnich’s guillemot (Uria lomvia), the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) and the little auk (Alle alle)
The Brünnich’s guillemot mainly foraged in coastal waters within the fjords whereas the little auks’ main foraging ground encompassed two potential offshore areas near the ice edge at the North and South of Spitsbergen (Supporting Information). All of these main foraging areas were partially covered by sea ice during the winter months, with sea ice cover >30%, a threshold previously used for delimiting the sea ice season[6, 7]
Summary
Spring sea ice phenology regulates the timing of the two consecutive pulses of marine autotrophs that form the base of the Arctic marine food webs. We provide evidence that interannual changes in the seasonal patterns of marine productivity may impact the breeding performance of little auks and Brünnich’s guillemots These results may be of particular interest given that current global warming trends in the Barents Sea region predict one of the highest rates of sea ice loss within the circumpolar Arctic. Trophic disruptions affecting marine productivity patterns[22, 23], species distributions[7, 10] or phenological processes[8, 9] may lead to rapid and sensitive responses in the reproductive performance of top-predators[22] Monitoring these reproductive parameters could serve as a sensitive tool for tracking changes in the functioning of Arctic marine ecosystems on a near real-time basis, provided we are able to link the large degree of climatic variability to changes in the breeding performance of top-predators[24]
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