Long-term Declines in the Size of Northern Fulmar (<i>Fulmarus glacialis</i>) Colonies on Eastern Baffin Island, Canada

Abstract

We censused three colonies of Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) along eastern Baffin Island, Canada, that were estimated to support 155 000 breeding pairs in 1973, but had not been adequately counted since then. The colonies were surveyed in July and August 2018 using photographs taken from a helicopter or a drone. The combined estimated colony sizes were 36 500 pairs, much smaller than historical estimates. Although the 1973 estimates were coarse, this difference represents an apparent 3+% annual decline in numbers at each colony over approximately four decades or more than 87% over three generations (66 years). Several factors may be contributing to these declines, including changes in winter food supplies and the susceptibility of fulmars to fisheries bycatch. We recommend efforts to survey the remaining major fulmar colonies in Arctic Canada to assess the overall population size and trends, and allow for further analyses of potential population drivers.

Climate change impacts on sea-ice ecosystems and associated ecosystem services

“…No adequate data appear to be available for other highly abundant high Arctic species like the Little Auk or Northern Fulmar. The global population of the Northern Fulmar is listed as a "least concern" species, but colonies on Bear Island (in the Barents Sea) in or near seasonally icecovered areas have seen a 58% decline over about 25 years (Fauchald et al, 2015), and an alarming 87% decline has been observed in study colonies in the Canadian Arctic over the past 45 years (Mallory et al, 2020). In a general sense, species currently foraging by preference in sea-ice areas will meet problems when the ice disappears, and predicting their capacity to adapt is diffcult.…”

Fuzzy cognitive mapping as a tool to assess the relative cumulative effects of environmental stressors on an Arctic seabird population to identify conservation action and research priorities

“…In the circumpolar Arctic, one of the many seabird bioindicators is the northern fulmar ( Fulmarus glacialis ; Figure 1) (Mallory et al, 2006; Mallory & Braune, 2012; Mallory, Hatch, et al, 2020). It is a medium‐sized petrel that is distributed from boreal waters to the high Arctic, breeds in cliff colonies of up to tens of thousands of birds, forages at the ocean's surface on a diverse array of prey and may travel >500 km from its breeding colony to find those prey (reviewed in Mallory, Dey, et al, 2020). Fulmars are particularly suitable as biomonitors for an Arctic environmental assessment because they are influenced by many anthropogenic stressors in the marine environment, and generally respond more to these stressors than most sympatric seabirds (e.g.…”

Plastic ingestion, retention, and transport in animals from the eastern Canadian Arctic

“…Our results indicated that seabirds are excreting microplastics to the environment via their guano, however at this time, the use of guano as a standalone method to monitor accumulated plastic in seabirds is not a sufficient replacement for the existing more invasive monitoring methods. Further to quantifying the presence of microplastic particles in seabird faecal precursor samples, I used the data along with estimated excretion frequencies and population surveys (Mallory et al, 2020a) to estimate that fulmars and murres could be depositing up to 3.34 ± 1.61 and 45.5 ± 46.9 million anthropogenic particles, respectively, per year into the environment during their breeding period at the specific colonies studied.…”

“…Using the faecal precursor data from the fulmars and murres, as well as population surveys conducted at the bird colonies in 2018 (Mallory et al, 2020a), we estimated how many microplastics could be deposited to the environment surrounding these colonies annually. In 2018, the colony in the Qaqulluit National Wildlife Area was occupied by 25,000 breeding pairs of northern fulmars (Mallory et al, 2020a). Fulmars are typically at the colony for approximately 75 days during the breeding period, and both parents are rarely present at the same time (Gaston et al, 2006;Mallory et al, 2020b).…”

“…The objectives of this project were to assess if these seabirds are excreting microplastics via their guano, and if there was a relationship between plastics found in their gastrointestinal tracts and guano. In this study, I also used colony population data from 2018 (Mallory et al, 2020a), and the proportion of birds containing anthropogenic particles in their faecal precursor samples to estimate how many microplastic particles could potentially be deposited through guano to remote Arctic islands each year during the breeding periods.…”