Long-term feeding ecology of Great Black-backed Gulls (Larus marinus) in the northwest Atlantic: 110 years of feather isotope data

Farmer, Robert G.; Leonard, Madeleine

doi:10.1139/z10-102

Cited by 43 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…This contrasts with other seabirds over similar time frames in the North Atlantic [38,51], North Pacific [18,52], and Indian and southern Oceans [53][54][55]. While we found that ivory gull stable-isotope values remained constant, their diet could have changed to different prey with similar isotopic values.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 90%

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Rapidly increasing methyl mercury in endangered ivory gull ( Pagophila eburnea ) feathers over a 130 year record

2015

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 90%

“…We used values of -0.007‰ for b his , the historical global annual decline in d 13 C [36], as no region-specific measurements are available, and -0.026‰ for b mod , the change in oceanic d 13 C in the North Atlantic measured from 1950 to 1993 [37], following the same rationale as Farmer & Leonard [38].…”

Section: (B) Laboratory Analyses (I) Stable Isotopesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapidly increasing methyl mercury in endangered ivory gull ( Pagophila eburnea ) feathers over a 130 year record

2015

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“…Based on an estimated increase of 3‰ with each trophic level (33), our δ 15 N data translate to a decline of one-half, fourfifths, and two-thirds of a trophic level for the populations on Maui, Lanai, and Hawaii, respectively. Studies of freshwater and near-shore marine ecosystems show that similar trophic declines in generalist seabirds are associated with fishing pressure and declines in prey abundance (34)(35)(36). Consistent with this trend, δ 15 N decline in the Hawaiian petrel was coincident with the onset of large-scale, industrial fishing in the oceanic Pacific, which could have affected petrel diet through several mechanisms.…”

mentioning

confidence: 72%

Millennial-scale isotope records from a wide-ranging predator show evidence of recent human impact to oceanic food webs

Wiley

Ostrom

Welch

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Human exploitation of marine ecosystems is more recent in oceanic than near shore regions, yet our understanding of human impacts on oceanic food webs is comparatively poor. Few records of species that live beyond the continental shelves date back more than 60 y, and the sheer size of oceanic regions makes their food webs difficult to study, even in modern times. Here, we use stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes to study the foraging history of a generalist, oceanic predator, the Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis), which ranges broadly in the Pacific from the equator to near the Aleutian Islands. Our isotope records from modern and ancient, radiocarbon-dated bones provide evidence of over 3,000 y of dietary stasis followed by a decline of ca. 1.8‰ in δ 15 N over the past 100 y. Fishery-induced trophic decline is the most likely explanation for this sudden shift, which occurs in genetically distinct populations with disparate foraging locations. Our isotope records also show that coincident with the apparent decline in trophic level, foraging segregation among petrel populations decreased markedly. Because variation in the diet of generalist predators can reflect changing availability of their prey, a foraging shift in wide-ranging Hawaiian petrel populations suggests a relatively rapid change in the composition of oceanic food webs in the Northeast Pacific. Understanding and mitigating widespread shifts in prey availability may be a critical step in the conservation of endangered marine predators such as the Hawaiian petrel.fishing | seabird | stable isotope H istorical baselines are a prerequisite to understanding the extent of human impact on a species or ecosystem. In coastal marine environments, retrospective studies show that habitat destruction and harvest of marine organisms have caused severe modifications, including trophic cascades and the regional loss of entire ecosystems (1, 2). It is difficult to assess the extent to which such impacts extend beyond continental shelves to the oceanic zone, because few chronological data are available for regions far out at sea, and the vast size of these ecosystems makes their food webs difficult to study, even in the present.In the oceanic Northeast Pacific, significant human presence began with the colonization of the Hawaiian Islands, less than 1,000 y ago (3, 4). For centuries afterward, anthropogenic impacts, such as harvesting of marine organisms, were concentrated near the Islands; only in the 20th century, with the advent of industrialized fishing, have a wide variety of oceanic organisms been exploited at a broad spatial scale (5, 6). Our understanding of how human actions such as fishing have affected oceanic food web structure is primarily derived from catch statistics, which show a temporal decline in the abundance of some targeted groups, such as tuna, and in the trophic level of global catch (6-8). However, catch statistics can be strongly affected by shifting technologies and markets, and reflect only the abundance of species that are harveste...

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“…While initially applied to bone collagen to identify shifts in prehistoric human diets (Ambrose, 1986), this technique has also been applied to animal bones and keratinized tissues to explore changes in marine and terrestrial food webs (Thompson et al, 1995;Farmer and Leonard, 2011;Crowley et al, 2012;Wiley et al, 2013;Moreno et al, 2016) and linkages between them (Darimont and Reimchen, 2002;Chamberlain et al, 2005;Blight et al, 2015;Matsubayashi et al, 2015). Shifts in diet between types of mammal carrion (marine, terrestrial herbivores, and grainfed livestock) by California Condors (Gymnogyps californianus; Chamberlain et al, 2005) and from vertebrate herbivores and toward plant materials by Brown Bears (Ursus arctos; Matsubayashi et al, 2015) have been detected by comparing both the δ 15 N and δ 13 C values of museum specimen tissues from the predators and potential prey types during different time periods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable Isotopes from Museum Specimens May Provide Evidence of Long-Term Change in the Trophic Ecology of a Migratory Aerial Insectivore

2018

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Long-term feeding ecology of Great Black-backed Gulls (Larus marinus) in the northwest Atlantic: 110 years of feather isotope data

Cited by 43 publications

References 59 publications

Rapidly increasing methyl mercury in endangered ivory gull ( Pagophila eburnea ) feathers over a 130 year record

Rapidly increasing methyl mercury in endangered ivory gull ( Pagophila eburnea ) feathers over a 130 year record

Millennial-scale isotope records from a wide-ranging predator show evidence of recent human impact to oceanic food webs

Stable Isotopes from Museum Specimens May Provide Evidence of Long-Term Change in the Trophic Ecology of a Migratory Aerial Insectivore

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