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Upwelling-generated plankton strandlines: important predictable food sources for seabirds at Husvik, South Georgia

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Abstract

Sustained strong offshore winds generate upwelling in the fjords of northern South Georgia. Deepwater plankton is “pumped” by upwelling towards sandy beaches at the heads of the fjords; calanoid copepods, chaetognaths and pteropods are stranded by the sand “filter” in large quantities on falling tides. Local benthonic species (harpacticoid copepods and amphipods) are present in the plankton but do not strand. Strandlines are very rich (<4 kg wet mass m-2) and provide large fractions of the food of kelp gulls, sheathbills and terns in the austral summer. Birds can only exploit fresh strandlines, since air-drying of the plankton soon makes it too salty to eat.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Marine Biological Station, KA28 OEG, Millport, Isle of Cumbrae, Scotland

    J. Davenport

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  1. J. Davenport
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Communicated by J. Mauchline, Oban

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Davenport, J. Upwelling-generated plankton strandlines: important predictable food sources for seabirds at Husvik, South Georgia. Marine Biology 123, 207–217 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00353612

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00353612

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