Publication Date:
2011-12-24
Description:
Determining the form of key predator-prey relationships is critical for understanding marine ecosystem dynamics. Using a comprehensive global database, we quantified the effect of fluctuations in food abundance on seabird breeding success. We identified a threshold in prey (fish and krill, termed "forage fish") abundance below which seabirds experience consistently reduced and more variable productivity. This response was common to all seven ecosystems and 14 bird species examined within the Atlantic, Pacific, and Southern Oceans. The threshold approximated one-third of the maximum prey biomass observed in long-term studies. This provides an indicator of the minimal forage fish biomass needed to sustain seabird productivity over the long term.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cury, Philippe M -- Boyd, Ian L -- Bonhommeau, Sylvain -- Anker-Nilssen, Tycho -- Crawford, Robert J M -- Furness, Robert W -- Mills, James A -- Murphy, Eugene J -- Osterblom, Henrik -- Paleczny, Michelle -- Piatt, John F -- Roux, Jean-Paul -- Shannon, Lynne -- Sydeman, William J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 Dec 23;334(6063):1703-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1212928.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, UMR EME-212, Centre de Recherche Halieutique Mediterraneenne et Tropicale, Avenue Jean Monnet, Sete Cedex, France. philippe.cury@ird.fr〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22194577" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Biomass
;
Birds/*physiology
;
Charadriiformes/*physiology
;
*Ecosystem
;
Female
;
Fisheries
;
*Fishes
;
Food
;
Food Chain
;
Male
;
Nonlinear Dynamics
;
Population Density
;
Population Dynamics
;
Predatory Behavior
;
*Reproduction
;
Seawater
;
Statistics, Nonparametric
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
