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journal-article

North Atlantic winter cyclones starve seabirds

Current Biology ()

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.059

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Authors (49)

  1. Manon Clairbaux
  2. Paul Mathewson
  3. Warren Porter
  4. Jérôme Fort
  5. Hallvard Strøm
  6. Børge Moe
  7. Per Fauchald
  8. Sebastien Descamps
  9. Hálfdán H. Helgason
  10. Vegard S. Bråthen
  11. Benjamin Merkel
  12. Tycho Anker-Nilssen
  13. Ingar S. Bringsvor
  14. Olivier Chastel
  15. Signe Christensen-Dalsgaard
  16. Jóhannis Danielsen
  17. Francis Daunt
  18. Nina Dehnhard
  19. Kjell Einar Erikstad
  20. Alexey Ezhov
  21. Maria Gavrilo
  22. Yuri Krasnov
  23. Magdalene Langset
  24. Svein-H. Lorentsen
  25. Mark Newell
  26. Bergur Olsen
  27. Tone K. Reiertsen
  28. Geir Helge Systad
  29. Thorkell L. Thórarinsson
  30. Mark Baran
  31. Tony Diamond
  32. Annette L. Fayet
  33. Michelle G. Fitzsimmons
  34. Morten Frederiksen
  35. Hugh G. Gilchrist
  36. Tim Guilford
  37. Nicholas P. Huffeldt
  38. Mark Jessopp
  39. Kasper L. Johansen
  40. Amy-Lee Kouwenberg
  41. Jannie F. Linnebjerg
  42. Heather L. Major
  43. Laura McFarlane Tranquilla
  44. Mark Mallory
  45. Flemming R. Merkel
  46. William Montevecchi
  47. Anders Mosbech
  48. Aevar Petersen
  49. David Grémillet

Abstract

Each winter, the North Atlantic Ocean is the stage for numerous cyclones, the most severe ones leading to seabird mass-mortality events called ‘‘winter wrecks.’’ During these, thousands of emaciated seabird carcasses are washed ashore along European and North American coasts. Winter cyclones can therefore shape seabird population dynamics by affecting survival rates as well as the body condition of surviving individuals and thus their future reproduction. However, most often the geographic origins of impacted seabirds and the causes of their deaths remain unclear. We performed the first ocean-basin scale assessment of cyclone exposure in a seabird community by coupling winter tracking ∼ 1,500 individuals of five key North Atlantic seabird species (Alle alle, Fratercula arctica, Uria aalge, Uria lomvia, and Rissa tridactyla) and cyclone locations. We then explored the energetic consequences of different cyclonic conditions using a mechanistic bioenergetics model and tested the hypothesis that cyclones dramatically increase seabird energy requirements. We demonstrated that cyclones of high intensity impacted birds from all studied species and breeding colonies during winter but especially those aggregating in the Labrador Sea, the Davis Strait, the surroundings of Iceland, and the Barents Sea. Our broad-scale analyses suggested that cyclonic conditions do not increase seabird energy requirements, implying that they die because of the unavailability of their prey and/or their inability to feed during cyclones. Our study provides essential information on seabird cyclone exposure in a context of marked cyclone regime changes due to global warming. at-sea distributioncyclonesenergy expenditureGLS trackingseabird migrationseascape ecology

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