Differential responses of seabirds to environmental variability over 2  years in the continental shelf and oceanic habitats of southeastern Bering  Sea

Yamamoto, Takashi; Kokubun, Nobuo; Kikuchi, Dale M.; Sato, Nobuhiko; Takahashi, Akinori; Will, Alexis P.; Kitaysky, Alexander S.; Watanuki, Yutaka

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2405-2016

Articles | Volume 13, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2405-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Catastrophic reduction of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean...

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2405-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 8

Research article

|

26 Apr 2016

Research article |

| 26 Apr 2016

Differential responses of seabirds to environmental variability over 2 years in the continental shelf and oceanic habitats of southeastern Bering Sea

Takashi Yamamoto, Nobuo Kokubun, Dale M. Kikuchi, Nobuhiko Sato, Akinori Takahashi, Alexis P. Will, Alexander S. Kitaysky, and Yutaka Watanuki

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2405-2016-supplement

Data sets

CoastWatch West Coast Regional Node, BloomWatch 180 NOAA http://coastwatch.pfel.noaa.gov/coastwatch/CWBrowserWW180.jsp

Alaska Marine Ecosystem Considerations, Ice Retreat Index NOAA http://access.afsc.noaa.gov/reem/ecoweb/dataWindow.php?Data=IRI

Download

Article (534 KB)
Full-text XML

Short summary

In the southeastern Bering Sea, red-legged kittiwakes did not change their foraging locations largely in relation to the differences in marine environment between 2 years probably due to their reliance on myctophids, while thick-billed murres showed fluctuations in physiological condition and flexible foraging behavior on the shelf. These results suggest that the responses of ecosystem dynamics and seabirds to climate variability may differ between the oceanic basin and shelf regions.