Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T03:41:32.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Multi-scale factors influencing seabird assemblages in the African sector of the Southern Ocean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2013

Morgan L. Commins ,
Isabelle Ansorge  and
Peter G. Ryan
Morgan L. Commins*
Affiliation:
Percy FitzPatrick Institute, DST/NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
Isabelle Ansorge
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
Peter G. Ryan
Affiliation:
Percy FitzPatrick Institute, DST/NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Oceanic fronts are important foraging areas for many top predators, but they also define biogeographical boundaries to animals in the Southern Ocean and play a role in structuring seabird assemblages. Understanding the factors driving patterns in the spatial and temporal distribution of seabirds is important to infer the likely impact of a changing climate. Latitudinal transects south of Africa in two summers indicate that fronts and sea ice extent play key roles in determining seabird assemblages. We observed 37 seabird taxa and found five seabird assemblages. The Subtropical Convergence and pack ice-edge form the strongest biogeographical boundaries, whereas the Sub-Antarctic Front and Antarctic Polar Front are less well defined. As summer progresses, the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front (the Antarctic Divergence or southern boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current) becomes important, when a distinct seabird assemblage forms north of the retreating sea ice following an influx of great shearwaters Puffinus gravis (O'Reilly), blue petrels Halobaena caerulea (Gmelin), Kerguelen petrels Lugensa brevirostris (Lesson) and southern fulmars Fulmarus glacialoides (Smith). Seabird assemblages show strong seasonality and are predictable between years. They are structured primarily by latitudinal gradients and secondarily by seasonal variation in sea-surface temperature and ice cover within their latitudinal habitat zones.

Keywords

DISTLMice coveroceanic frontsPERMANOVAseasonalitysea surface temperature
Type
Biological Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 38 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, R.W. 1985. Environmental determinants of pelagic seabird distribution in the African sector of the Southern Ocean. Journal of Biogeography, 12, 473–492.Google Scholar
Ainley, D.G., Ribic, C.A. Fraser, W.R. 1994. Ecological structure among migrant and resident seabirds of the Scotia-Weddell confluence region. Journal of Animal Ecology, 63, 347–364.Google Scholar
Ainley, D.G., Ribic, C.A. Spear, L.B. 1993. Species-habitat relationships among Antarctic seabirds: a function of physical or biological factors? The Condor, 95, 806–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ainley, D.G., Jacobs, S.S., Ribic, C.A. Gaffney, I. 1998. Seabird distribution and oceanic features of the Amundsen and southern Bellingshausen seas. Antarctic Science, 10, 111–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, M.J., Gorley, R.N. Clarke, K.R. 2008. PERMANOVA+ for PRIMER: guide to software and statistical methods. Plymouth: PRIMER-E, 214 pp.Google Scholar
Ansorge, I.J., Speich, S., Lutjeharms, J.R.E., Goni, G., Rautenbach, C., Froneman, P.W., Rouault, M. Garzoli, S. 2005. Monitoring the oceanic flow between Africa and Antarctica: report of the first Good Hope cruise. South African Journal of Science, 101, 29–35.Google Scholar
Ballance, L.T., Pitman, R.L. Reilly, S.B. 1997. Seabird community structure along a productivity gradient: importance of competition and energetic constraint. Ecology, 78, 1502–1518.Google Scholar
Barange, M., Pakhomov, E.A., Perissinotto, R., Froneman, P.W., Verheye, H.M., Taunton-Clark, J. Lucas, M.I. 1998. Pelagic community structure of the subtropical convergence region south of Africa and in the mid-Atlantic ocean. Deep Sea Research I, 45, 1663–1687.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bost, C.A., Cotté, C., Bailleul, F., Cherel, Y., Charrassin, J.B., Guinet, C., Ainley, D.G. Weimerskirch, H. 2009. The importance of oceanographic fronts to marine birds and mammals of the southern oceans. Journal of Marine Systems, 78, 363–376.Google Scholar
Chown, S.L., Gaston, K. Williams, P.H. 1998. Global patterns in species-richness of pelagic seabirds: the Procellariiformes. Ecography, 21, 342–350.Google Scholar
Clark, D.B., Palmer, M.W. Clark, D.A. 1999. Edaphic factors and the landscape-scale distributions of tropical rain forest trees. Ecology, 80, 2662–2675.Google Scholar
Clarke, K.R. Gorley, R.N. 2006. PRIMER v6: user manual/tutorial. 2nd ed. Plymouth: PRIMER-E, 192 pp.Google Scholar
Clarke, K.R. Warwick, R.M. 2001. Change in marine communities: an approach to statistical analysis and interpretation. 2nd ed. Plymouth: PRIMER-E, 172 pp.Google Scholar
Croxall, J.P., Trathan, P.N. Murphy, E.J. 2002. Environmental change and Antarctic seabird populations. Science, 297, 1510–1514.Google Scholar
Croxall, J.P., Steele, W., McInnes, S. Prince, P. 1995. Breeding distribution of the snow petrel Pagodroma nivea . Marine Ornithology, 23, 69–99.Google Scholar
Fraser, W.R. Ainley, D.G. 1986. Ice-edges and seabird occurrence in Antarctica. BioScience, 36, 258–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Froneman, P.W. Perissinotto, R. 1996. Microzooplankton grazing and protozooplankton community structure in the South Atlantic and in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. Deep Sea Research I, 43, 703–721.Google Scholar
Gibbons, M.J. 1997. Pelagic biogeography of the South Atlantic Ocean. Marine Biology, 129, 757–768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffiths, A.M., Siegfried, W.R. Abrams, R.W. 1982. Ecological structure of a pelagic seabird community in the Southern Ocean. Polar Biology, 1, 39–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guinet, C., Koudil, M., Bost, C.A., Durbec, J.-P., Georges, J., Mouchot, M. Jouventin, P. 1997. Foraging behaviour of satellite-tracked king penguins in relation to sea-surface temperatures obtained by satellite telemetry at Crozet Archipelago, a study during three austral summers. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 150, 11–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hockey, P.A.R., Dean, W.R.J. Ryan, P.G. eds. 2005. Roberts Birds of southern Africa. 7th ed. Cape Town: The Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, 1296 pp.Google Scholar
Hyrenbach, K.D., Veit, R.R., Weimerskirch, H., Metzl, N. Hunt, G.L. 2007. Community structure across a large-scale ocean productivity gradient: marine bird assemblages of the Southern Indian Ocean. Deep Sea Research I, 54, 1129–1145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laubscher, R.K., Perissinotto, R. McQuaid, C.D. 1993. Phytoplankton production and biomass at frontal zones in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. Polar Biology, 13, 471–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marchant, S. Higgins, P.J. 1990. The handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, vol. 1. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 735 pp.Google Scholar
Nagy, K.A., Girard, I.A. Brown, T.K. 1999. Energetics of free-ranging mammals, reptiles, and birds. Annual Review of Nutrition, 19, 247–277.Google Scholar
Nevitt, G.A., Veit, R.R. Kareiva, P. 1995. Dimethyl sulphide as a foraging cue for Antarctic Procellariiform seabirds. Nature, 376, 680–682.Google Scholar
Nicol, S., Pauly, T., Bindoff, N.L., Wright, S., Thiele, D., Hosie, G.W., Strutton, P.G. Woehler, E. 2000. Ocean circulation off east Antarctica affects ecosystem structure and sea ice extent. Nature, 406, 504–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pakhomov, E.A. McQuaid, C.D. 1996. Distribution of surface zooplankton and seabirds across the Southern Ocean. Polar Biology, 16, 271–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pakhomov, E.A., Perissinotto, R., McQuaid, C.D. Froneman, P.W. 2000. Zooplankton structure and grazing in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean in late austral summer 1993: Part 1. Ecological zonation. Deep Sea Research I, 47, 1663–1686.Google Scholar
Quinn, G.P. Keough, M.J. 2002. Experimental design and data analysis for biologists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 537 pp.Google Scholar
Ribic, C.A., Ainley, D.G., Ford, R.G., Fraser, W.R., Tynan, C.T. Woehler, E.J. 2011. Water masses, ocean fronts, and the structure of Antarctic seabird communities: putting the eastern Bellingshausen Sea in perspective. Deep Sea Research II, 58, 1695–1709.Google Scholar
Schlitzer, R. 2009. Ocean data view, version 4. http://odv.awi.de.Google Scholar
Smetacek, V. Nicol, S. 2005. Polar ocean ecosystems in a changing world. Nature, 437, 362–368.Google Scholar
Tasker, M.L., Jones, P.H., Dixon, T. Blake, B.F. 1984. Counting seabirds at sea from ships: a review of methods employed and a suggestion for a standardized approach. The Auk, 101, 567–577.Google Scholar
Veit, R.R. 1995. Pelagic communities of seabirds in the South Atlantic Ocean. Ibis, 137, 1–10.Google Scholar
Veit, R.R. Hunt, G.L. 1991. Broadscale density and aggregation of pelagic birds from a circumnavigational survey of the Southern Ocean. The Auk, 108, 790–800.Google Scholar
Watkins, B.P. 1981. Seabird observations at Bouvet Island. South African Journal of Antarctic Research, 10/11, 38–40.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Commins Supplementary Material

Table S1

Download Commins Supplementary Material(File)
File 36.4 KB