Title :

Weakening of the subpolar gyre as a key driver of North Atlantic seabird demography: a case study with Brünnich’s guillemots in Svalbard

Author(s) :

Fluhr, J [Auteur]
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive [CEFE]
Norwegian Polar Institute
Strøm, H [Auteur]
Norwegian Polar Institute
Pradel, Roger [Auteur]
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive [CEFE]
Duriez, Olivier [Auteur]
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive [CEFE]
Beaugrand, G. [Auteur]
Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences (LOG) - UMR 8187 [LOG]
Descamps, S. [Auteur]
Norwegian Polar Institute

Journal title :

MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES

Pages :

1-11

Publisher :

Inter Research

Publication date :

2017

ISSN :

0171-8630

English keyword(s) :

Climate change
Adult survival
Subpolar Gyre Index
Winter North Atlantic Oscillation
Sea surface temperature
Uria lomvia
Arctic
Regime shift
Seabirds

HAL domain(s) :

Sciences de l'environnement/Biodiversité et Ecologie
Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]/Ecologie, Environnement/Bioclimatologie

English abstract : [en]

The Arctic is experiencing environmental changes at unprecedented rates. These changes are spreading throughout the entire food web, affecting apex predators such as seabirds. Brünnich’s guillemot Uria lomvia populations ...
Show more >The Arctic is experiencing environmental changes at unprecedented rates. These changes are spreading throughout the entire food web, affecting apex predators such as seabirds. Brünnich’s guillemot Uria lomvia populations in Svalbard archipelago have significantly declined since the mid-1990s. For long-lived species such as seabirds, population growth rate is highly sensitive to changes in adult survival rates, and slight changes in survival may have large consequences at the population level. Adult survival rates, were estimated for Brünnich’s guillemots individually marked and monitored from 1986 to 2011 at Bjørnøya, Svalbard. While survival appeared to be repeatedly high (mean ± SE; 95 ± 1%) from 1986 to 1995-98 (transitional years, when Svalbard guillemot colonies started to decline), it dropped by 9-12% over the period 1995-98 to 2011. This decline coincided with the occurrence of an abrupt ecosystem shift in the North Atlantic Ocean in the mid-1990s and the weakening of the Atlantic subpolar gyre. Variations in the subpolar gyre index (SGI) were significantly associated with inter-annual variation in guillemot annual survival, and a strong gyre (i.e. cold waters on guillemot wintering grounds) was associated with high adult survival. Our results, combined with other studies, suggest that the SGI may be an important global proxy to assess oceanographic conditions and changes in marine ecosystems in the North Atlantic.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Peer reviewed article :

Oui

Audience :

Internationale

Popular science :

Non

Collections :

• Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences (LOG) - UMR 8187

Source :

Harvested from HAL