The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters

Fort, Jérôme; Cherel, Yves; Harding, Ann M. A.; Egevang, Carsten; Steen, Harald B.; Kuntz, Grégoire; Porter, Warren P.; Grémillet, David

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0082

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Our study also provides one of the first descriptions of the winter feeding ecology of little auks (e.g. Fort et al 2010) and gives important insights into their moulting and wintering grounds, to be confirmed with complementary methods such as geolocation (see Bost et al 2009). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In this region, the spring phytoplankton bloom starts earlier than in the rest of the North Atlantic (i.e. from February; Henson et al 2009) and it is likely that copepods, which migrate back to surface waters following this bloom, are available to diving little auks during their winter moult (Fort et al 2010). In contrast, birds from all Spitsbergen colonies adopted a different feeding strategy during winter.…”

Section: Temporal Variability In the Isotopic Niche Of Little Auksmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Geographic and seasonal variability in the isotopic niche of little auks

Fort¹,

Cherel²,

Harding³

et al. 2010

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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International audienceThe non-breeding season of seabirds is extremely challenging to study because it isoften spent offshore under harsh environmental conditions. We used stable isotope analysis to investigatelittle auk Alle alle feeding ecology throughout the annual cycle. The geographic distribution oflittle auks in the Arctic covers a wide range of oceanographic conditions. We sampled birds from 5different colonies located in the most important breeding areas (Greenland and Spitsbergen) toexamine how individuals breeding in contrasting marine environments differ in their trophic nichethroughout the year. We found differences in summer δ15N values among the colonies, suggestingdifferent target species despite low overall δ15N values in blood, which indicates a diet that is primarilycomposed of copepods. A rise in δ15N values between summer and autumn indicated that adultschanged their trophic status to feed at a higher trophic level. During autumn, a large overlap infeather δ13C values between colonies suggests a common moulting area off Northeast Greenland.During winter, the isotopic signatures show that the trophic status of Greenland and Spitsbergenbirds differed, with birds from Greenland feeding at low trophic levels (probably mostly on copepods),and birds from Spitsbergen maintaining a higher trophic level. These findings highlight contrastingseasonal and regional diet in little auk populations, and reveal possible population overlapsduring the autumn moult. We found substantial trophic variability in little auks, which may indicateunsuspected capabilities to adapt to current, drastic environmental change in the North Atlantic

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Temporal Variability In the Isotopic Niche Of Little Auksmentioning

confidence: 93%

Geographic and seasonal variability in the isotopic niche of little auks

Fort¹,

Cherel²,

Harding³

et al. 2010

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…In higher plants the cleavage of this enzyme leads to formation of phylloquinone; the cognate thioestrase of the same enzyme has been recently characterized in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp [61]. In photoautotrophic organisms, including certain species of cyanobacteria phylloquinone is a vital redox cofactor required for electron transfer in PSI and the formation of protein disulphide bond [62,63,64]. In consistence with the above findings, in cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp.…”

Section: Unknown and Hypotheticalmentioning

confidence: 76%

Proteomic Responses of the Cyanobacterium Nostoc Muscorum under Salt and Osmotic Stresses

Gupta¹,

Bhardwaj²,

Gothalwal³

et al. 2017

JAMB

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Abstract. In this paper, we examined the effect of salt stress (NaCl) and osmotic stress (sucrose) on proteomic level in the diazotrophic cyanobacterium Nostoc muscorum. The aim of this study is to compare proteins appeared in control vs. salt treated, control vs. sucrose treated and salt treated vs. sucrose treated cultures. In the salt treated cultures about 37 proteins were expressed differentially out of these only 5 proteins have shown fold regulation of 1.5 or more. About 141 proteins were found to express independently in control and about 554 proteins were express independently in salt treated culture. When we compared proteins in control and sucrose treated cells, it was reported that about 37 protein spots were express differentially, out of these only 7 proteins have fold regulation 1.5 or more. The independently expressed proteins appeared on gel are 141 and 186 respectively. Similarly, when we compared proteins appeared in salt and sucrose treated cells, it was reported that about 54 proteins were express differentially, out of these 10 proteins have fold regulation 1.5 or more. About 537 protein spots were independently present in salt treated cells and about 186 proteins were independently present in sucrose treated cells. In addition, the differentially expressed proteins and their identification with their functional group have also been discussed. Key words:Nostoc muscorum, osmotic stress, proteomic, salt stress IntroductionCyanobacteria are Gram negative eubacteria, their evolutionary history dated back to 2.7 billion years ago [1]. The origin of cyanobacteria and the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis have been considered as the most important event in the evolution of aerobic atmosphere. Cyanobacteria are known to be found in almost all the ecological niches with diverse environmental conditions. The native cyanobacterial species present in such habitats confronted with cation toxicity and water loss. The microorganisms, including cyanobacteria that grow and multiply in such stressful habitats have ability to change their morphological and physiological parameters to cope up with such stressful conditions [2]. The ionic component of the stress factor is usually overcome by the efflux mechanism driven by Na + /H + antiporter activity or by the Mrp system [3,4,2]. On the other hand the osmotic component of the stress factor is overcome by the synthesis/accumulation of low molecular weight organic compounds collectively known as compatible solutes [5,6]. The nature and the biosynthesis of compatible solutes depend upon the habitat in which cyanobacteria grow. The fresh water cyanobacterial strains are known to synthesized sucrose, trehalose and proline as an osmotic balancer [7,2,8]. Glucosyl-glycerol is a major compatible solute synthesized by moderately halotolerant strains [9,10]. On the other hand hyper saline strains produce glycine-betaine or glutamate-betaine as compatible solutes [11,12].The modern molecular biology techniques such as genomics and proteomics have provided valuable dat...

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Section: Geospatial Mapping Of Climate and Reproductive Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Warmer SST is related to earlier timing of life history events by copepods (Mackas et al 2007), including diapause, which may render the copepods unavailable to auklets (Goldblatt et al 1999, Richardson 2008. Data from continuous plankton recorders in the North Pacific showed a marked decrease in copepod abundance in winter (December to March), although smaller numbers may remain accessible to seabird predators (Fort et al 2010).Critical to an understanding of geospatial patterns of demography-oceanography relationships in seabirds is an understanding of the birds' spatial distribution during the time of interest, which in our case is winter and spring. Knowledge of the non-breeding distributions of Aethia auklets, especially from the ice-free Aleutians, is poor.…”

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confidence: 99%

Reproductive success of planktivorous seabirds in the North Pacific is related to ocean climate on decadal scales

Bond¹,

Jones²,

Sydeman³

et al. 2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Growing evidence indicates relationships between seabird demography and both largeand small-scale variation in climate and oceanography, yet few studies have examined multiple species and locations simultaneously. As secondary consumers, least, whiskered, and crested auklets (Aethia pusilla, A. pygmaea, and A. cristatella, respectively), congeneric planktivorous seabirds endemic to the Bering and Okhotsk seas, are expected to respond to changes in ocean climate due to their low trophic positioning. From 1990 to 2008, we measured reproductive success (productivity) and breeding phenology (mean hatching date) of auklets on Buldir, Kiska, and Kasatochi, 3 islands spanning 585 km across the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA. A model including Island, Species, and Winter Aleutian Low Pressure Index (ALPI) best explained productivity, with reproductive success decreasing among all species with increasing ALPI (β = -0.273 ± 0.0263 [SE]), likely through control of water temperature and prey (zooplankton) availability. Auklet productivity also increased with increasing winter sea surface temperature (SST) in the western North Pacific and western Bering Sea (and correspondingly decreased with increasing SST in the Gulf of Alaska), and was correlated negatively with spring sea-level air pressure in the North Pacific. These responses are reflective of positive values of the Aleutian low pressure system. Though our datasets cover only 19 yr or less, we found similar correlations between climate and auklet productivity among all species and islands. Together, our results suggest that ocean climatic conditions and reproductive success of planktivorous auklets are significantly related.KEY WORDS: Productivity · Oceanography · Demography · Aethia spp. · Least auklet · Crested auklet · Whiskered auklet · Aleutian Islands 424: 205-218, 2011 Pacific and Bering Sea, this shift resulted in greater climatic variability (Bond et al. 2003, Hunt & Elliott 2004, Rodionov et al. 2005, greater stratification of the water column, and increased primary productivity (Trenberth & Hurrell 1994, Iida & Saitoh 2007. Other purported ecosystem shifts have occurred in 1989-1990 and 1998-1999, but these putative shifts in system state have not been well documented (Overland et al. 1999, Hare & Mantua 2000, Mueter et al. 2007. Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog SerSeabirds, as conspicuous, generally unexploited, secondary and tertiary consumers in marine systems, provide a unique opportunity to investigate coupled climate-ecosystem variation (Durant et al. 2009). Indeed, the relationship between ocean climate, ranging from direct measures of SST to multivariate climate indices, e.g. Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) (Mantua & Hare 2002), and seabird breeding performance has been investigated frequently in the North Pacific (e.g. Gjerdrum et al. 2003, Abraham & Sydeman 2004) and elsewhere (e.g. Harris et al. 2005, Durant et al. 2006, Møller et al. 2006, Lavers et al. 2008, Jenouvrier et ...

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The feeding ecology of little auks raises questions about winter zooplankton stocks in North Atlantic surface waters

Cited by 25 publications

References 16 publications

Geographic and seasonal variability in the isotopic niche of little auks

Geographic and seasonal variability in the isotopic niche of little auks

Proteomic Responses of the Cyanobacterium Nostoc Muscorum under Salt and Osmotic Stresses

Reproductive success of planktivorous seabirds in the North Pacific is related to ocean climate on decadal scales

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