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A Video Surveillance System to Monitor Breeding Colonies of Common Terns Sterna Hirundo
Published on: July 22, 2018
Extreme ecological response of a seabird community to unprecedented sea ice cover
Christophe Barbraud1, Karine Delord1, Henri Weimerskirch1
1CEBC , UMR7372 CNRS , Villiers en Bois 79360, France.
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.
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