Department of Vertebrate Ecology and Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdańsk, Wita Stwosza 59, 80-308, Gdańsk, Poland.
, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 5;14(1):20686. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-71823-3.
The warming of the Arctic had lead to a diverse range of impacts on local biota, including northward shifts of some species range. Here, we report past and present distribution and abundance of an Arctic zooplanktivorous seabird, the little auk Alle alle in West Greenland south of 74° N, and examine the changes in sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice concentration (SIC) in the birds foraging areas in 1850-2007. We estimated the little auk population in the studied region to be 5,200 pairs in the 1930s, 6,000-6,500 pairs in the 1940-1970s and 70-80 pairs by the 2000s. We found that periods with increased SST and reduced SIC, especially in the last few decades, coincided with little auk population declines. Besides, years with little auk presence in breeding sites were characterized by either low SST and low to moderate SIC or higher SST but moderate to high SIC. Observed contraction of the breeding range and a decrease in abundance of the little auk may be attributed to more complex climate-driven changes in the marine ecosystem at finer spatial and temporal scales and/or cannot be easily detected given the coarseness of data used. It is possible that the population in this region has never been very numerous being subjected to local impacts such as disease, bycatch, predation, etc. The climate warming that is currently being observed, along with corresponding shifts in zooplankton communities, may lead to extirpation of the studied little auk populations.
北极变暖导致了当地生物多样性的广泛影响，包括一些物种分布范围的北移。在这里，我们报告了过去和现在在西格林兰北纬 74°以南的北极浮游动物食性海鸟北极海鹦 Alle alle 的分布和数量，并研究了 1850 年至 2007 年鸟类觅食区的海面温度（SST）和海冰浓度（SIC）的变化。我们估计，在研究区域，20 世纪 30 年代北极海鹦的数量为 5200 对，20 世纪 40 年代至 70 年代为 6000-6500 对，20 世纪 00 年代为 70-80 对。我们发现，SST 升高和 SIC 降低的时期，尤其是在过去几十年，与北极海鹦数量的减少相吻合。此外，在繁殖地有北极海鹦存在的年份，其 SST 要么较低，SIC 要么较低到中等，要么 SST 较高，但 SIC 为中等到高。繁殖范围的收缩和北极海鹦数量的减少可能归因于海洋生态系统在更精细的时空尺度上更复杂的气候驱动变化，或者由于所用数据的粗糙性，这些变化不容易被检测到。该地区的种群数量可能一直不多，因为受到疾病、兼捕、捕食等当地因素的影响。目前观察到的气候变暖，以及浮游动物群落的相应变化，可能导致研究中的北极海鹦种群灭绝。
