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Relationships between sea ice concentration, sea surface temperature and demographic traits of thin-billed prions

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Abstract

Understanding the effects of environmental variations on ecosystems is a major topic in ecology. In this study, we estimated demographic parameters of a seabird population, the thin-billed prion (Pachyptila belcheri) at Kerguelen Islands, and then tested for relationships with inter-annual variations of climatic indices, using long-term capture–recapture data. The annual adult survival probability was 0.825±0.009 and the breeding success was 0.519±0.090. Sea surface temperature anomalies were negatively related with breeding success. By contrast, winter sea ice concentration in the Antarctic seasonal ice zone seemed to negatively influence adult survival. This suggests a connection between sub-Antarctic and Antarctic ecosystems. The actual context of large climatic changes in the Austral Ocean seems to explain a large part of the decreasing trends observed for both the breeding success and the adult survival. Thus, a decrease of the population size of thin-billed prions at Kerguelen could be strongly suspected in the near future.

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Acknowledgements

We particularly thank all the field workers involved in the monitoring of thin-billed prions on Mayes Island without whom this study could not have been possible. We thank H. Weimerskirch for managing the long-term studies at Kerguelen, D. Besson for data processing, and G. Beauplet, M. Frederiksen, I. Hempel, P. Quillfeldt and two anonymous referees for helpful comments on the manuscript. This study is a part of the program no. 109 supported by the Institut Paul Emile Victor and by the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises.

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  1. Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 79360, Villiers en Bois, France

    Marie Nevoux & Christophe Barbraud

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  1. Marie Nevoux
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  2. Christophe Barbraud
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Correspondence to Marie Nevoux.

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Nevoux, M., Barbraud, C. Relationships between sea ice concentration, sea surface temperature and demographic traits of thin-billed prions. Polar Biol 29, 445–453 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-005-0075-4

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