Broad-scale trophic shift in the pelagic North Pacific revealed by an oceanic seabird.

ABSTRACT: Human-induced ecological change in the open oceans appears to be accelerating. Fisheries, climate change and elevated nutrient inputs are variously blamed, at least in part, for altering oceanic ecosystems. Yet it is challenging to assess the extent of anthropogenic change in the open oceans, where historical records of ecological conditions are sparse, and the geographical scale is immense. We developed millennial-scale amino acid nitrogen isotope records preserved in ancient animal remains to understand changes in food web structure and nutrient regimes in the oceanic realm of the North Pacific Ocean (NPO). Our millennial-scale isotope records of amino acids in bone collagen in a wide-ranging oceanic seabird, the Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis), showed that trophic leve

SUBMITTER: Ostrom PH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5378076 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature