Abstract
Southwest Greenland provides wintering grounds for 70% (∼460,000) of the northern common eider (Somateria mollissima borealis) population. From 241 gullet samples (esophagus and proventriculus content) collected over three winters (1999–2002) near Nuuk, we identified 39 species consumed by the eiders. In contrast to studies elsewhere, fresh mass of the diet was dominated by soft-bottom species: the bivalve Mya eideri (32.8%) and the polychaete Pectinaria spp. (24.2%). The hard-bottom blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), usually the dominant prey of common eiders, was only the fourth most important diet species (7.5%). Overall, bivalves accounted for 56% of the diet. Twenty-seven prey species were minor foods with aggregate fresh mass of only 5.5%. Diets of males and females were similar, whereas juveniles consumed greater mass of crustaceans and less of bivalves. Diet diversity was higher in mid-winter than late winter, and higher in coastal habitats than in fjords. Within one important wintering area the results indicate that optimal size of blue mussels may be depleted over winter.
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, the Danish National Environmental Research Institute, and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency as part of the Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic (Dancea). We wish to thank Lotte Rasmussen and Kristian Wæver, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, for laboratory assistance, and thanks to local hunters and fishermen from Nuuk, who made data collection possible. For guidance and verification of the eider diet, we are indebted to Godtfred H. Petersen and Tom Schiøtte, Zoological Museum, Copenhagen, and to Philip Lambert at the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria.
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Merkel, F.R., Jamieson, S.E., Falk, K. et al. The diet of common eiders wintering in Nuuk, Southwest Greenland. Polar Biol 30, 227–234 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-006-0176-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-006-0176-8