Dataset Information

Extreme ecological response of a seabird community to unprecedented sea ice cover.

ABSTRACT: Climate change has been predicted to reduce Antarctic sea ice but, instead, sea ice surrounding Antarctica has expanded over the past 30 years, albeit with contrasted regional changes. Here we report a recent extreme event in sea ice conditions in East Antarctica and investigate its consequences on a seabird community. In early 2014, the Dumont d'Urville Sea experienced the highest magnitude sea ice cover (76.8%) event on record (1982-2013: range 11.3-65.3%; mean±95% confidence interval: 27.7% (23.1-32.2%)). Catastrophic effects were detected in the breeding output of all sympatric seabird species, with a total failure for two species. These results provide a new view crucial to predictive models of species abundance and distribution as to how extreme sea ice events might impact an entire community of top predators in polar marine ecosystems in a context of expanding sea ice in eastern Antarctica.

SUBMITTER: Barbraud C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4453256 | biostudies-other | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Extreme ecological response of a seabird community to unprecedented sea ice cover.

Barbraud Christophe C Delord Karine K Weimerskirch Henri H

Royal Society open science 20150520 5

Climate change has been predicted to reduce Antarctic sea ice but, instead, sea ice surrounding Antarctica has expanded over the past 30 years, albeit with contrasted regional changes. Here we report a recent extreme event in sea ice conditions in East Antarctica and investigate its consequences on a seabird community. In early 2014, the Dumont d'Urville Sea experienced the highest magnitude sea ice cover (76.8%) event on record (1982-2013: range 11.3-65.3%; mean±95% confidence interval: 27.7% ( ...[more]

PMID: 26064653

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Project description:Quantitative camera surveys of benthic megafauna were carried out during the expedition ARK-XXVII/3 to the Eastern Central Arctic Basins with the research icebreaker Polarstern in summer 2012 (2 August-29 September). Nine transects were performed for the first time in deep-sea areas previously fully covered by ice, four of them in the Nansen Basin (3571-4066m) and five in the Amundsen Basin (4041-4384m). At seven of these stations benthic Agassiz trawls were taken near the camera tracks for species identification. Observed Arctic deep-sea megafauna was largely endemic. Several taxa showed a substantially greater depth or geographical range than previously assumed. Variations in the composition and structure of megabenthic communities were analysed and linked to several environmental variables, including state of the sea ice and phytodetritus supply to the seafloor. Three different types of communities were identified based on species dominating the biomass. Among these species were the actiniarian Bathyphellia margaritacea and the holothurians Elpidia heckeri and Kolga hyalina. Variations in megafaunal abundance were first of all related to the proximity to the marginal ice zone. Stations located closer to this zone were characterized by relatively high densities and biomass of B. margaritacea. Food supply was higher at these stations, as suggested by enhanced concentrations of pigments, organic carbon, bacterial cell abundances and nutrients in the sediments. Fully ice-covered stations closer to the North Pole and partially under multi-year ice were characterized by lower concentrations of the same biogeochemical indicators for food supply. These stations nevertheless hosted relatively high density and biomass of the holothurians E. heckeri or K. hyalina, which were observed to feed on large food falls of the sea-ice colonial diatom Melosira arctica. The link between the community structure of megafauna and the extent and condition of the Central Arctic sea-ice cover suggests that future climate changes may substantially affect deep ocean biodiversity.

Dataset Information

Extreme ecological response of a seabird community to unprecedented sea ice cover.

Publications

Extreme ecological response of a seabird community to unprecedented sea ice cover.

Similar Datasets

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