Seabirds and climate change

One of our most active areas of research is how seabirds would be affected by climate change, and how monitoring of seabirds could tell us about the impacts of climate change on coastal and marine environments. Rapid climatic changes are taking place in the seas around the UK, and this has led to major changes in the abundance, distribution and seasonal cycles of many marine organisms. These changes are particularly marked and rapid in the North Sea, and could have serious consequences for seabirds breeding on the Isle of May.

Seabirds can be affected by changing climate both directly, e.g. if extreme weather becomes more frequent, or indirectly, through changes in their food supply. The evidence suggests that in most cases indirect effects are more important, and these are most likely to affect seabirds through their main prey species, the lesser sandeel. Unfortunately, this important forage fish is very difficult to study, and little is known about how it is affected by increasing sea temperatures.

Our seabird studies indicate that in recent warmer years, birds have been struggling to find sufficient food for their chicks, because the sandeels have been either too few, too small, too lean, or have not been available at the right time. Several species of seabirds breed later and less successfully, and survival of adult birds is also lower in warmer years. However, these relationships are complex and may not hold for other regions.

A further sign of the problems seabirds have in finding appropriate food is that in 2005, a new prey species was reported for several species and several colonies. The snake pipefish does not seem to be appropriate food for seabird chicks, as it is of low nutritional value and very difficult to swallow.

If you want to know more about climate change in the North Sea and how it affects seabirds, you can contact Francis Daunt or Sarah Wanless.

These recent scientific papers may also be of interest:

Frederiksen, M., Daunt, F., Harris, M.P. & Wanless, S. (2008) Stochastic weather drives survival and population dynamics in a long-lived seabird. Journal of Animal Ecology, 77, 1020-1029

Frederiksen, M., Mavor, R A & Wanless, S (2007) Seabirds as environmental indicators: the advantages of combining data sets. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 352, 205-211

Harris, M.P., Newell, M., Daunt, F., Speakman, J.R. & Wanless, S. (2008) Snake pipefish Entelurus aequoreus are poor food for seabirds. Ibis, 150, 413-415

Frederiksen, M., Edwards, M, Mavor, R A & Wanless, S (2007) Regional and annual variation in black-legged kittiwake demography is related to sea surface temperature. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 350, 137-143

Harris, M. P., Beare, D., Toresen, R., Nøttestad, L., Kloppmann, M., Dörner, H., Peach, K., Rushton, D. R. A., Foster-Smith, J. & Wanless, S. (2007). A major increase in snake pipefish (Entelurus aequoreus) in northern European seas since 2003: potential implications for seabird breeding success. Marine Biology, 151, 973-983.

Frederiksen, M., Furness, R. W. & Wanless, S. (2007) Regional variation in the role of bottom-up and top-down processes in controlling sandeel abundance in the North Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 337, 279-286.

Wanless, S., Frederiksen, M., Daunt, F., Scott, B. E., & Harris, M. P. (2007) Black-legged kittiwakes as indicators of environmental change in the North Sea: evidence from long-term studies. Progress in Oceanography, 72, 30-38

Reed, T. E., Wanless, S., Harris, M. P., Frederiksen, M., Kruuk, L. E. B., & Cunningham, E. J. A. (2006) Responding to environmental change: plastic responses vary little in a synchronous breeder. Proceedings of the Royal Society 273, 2713-2719.

Daunt, F., Afanasyev, V., Silk, J.R.D. & Wanless, S. (2006) Extrinsic and intrinsic determinants of winter foraging and breeding phenology in a temperate seabird. Behavioural Ecology & Sociobiology 59,381-388

Frederiksen, M., Edwards, M., Richardson, A. J., Halliday, N. C. & Wanless, S. (2006) From plankton to top predators: bottom-up control of a marine food web across four trophic levels. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75, 1259-1268.

Crespin, L., Harris, M.P., Lebreton, J.-D., Frederiksen, M. & Wanless, S. (2006) Recruitment to a seabird population depends on environmental factors and on population size. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75, 228-238.

Daunt, F., Wanless, S., Peters, G., Benvenuti, S., Sharples, J., Gremillet, D. & Scott, B. (2006). Impacts of oceanography on the foraging dynamics of seabirds in the North Sea. In: Top predators in marine ecosystems: their role in monitoring and management. (eds I.L. Boyd, S. Wanless & K. Camphuysen). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp177-190.

Harris, M.P., Anker-Nilssen, T., McCleery, R.H., Erikstad, K.E., Shaw, D.N. & Grosbois, V. (2005) Effect of wintering area and climate on the survival of adult Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica in the eastern Atlantic. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 297, 283-296.

Wanless, S., Harris, M.P., Redman, P. & Speakman, J. (2005) Low energy values of fish as a probable cause of a major seabird breeding failure in the North Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 294, 1-8.

Frederiksen, M., Harris, M.P., Daunt, F., Rothery, P. & Wanless, S. (2004) Scale-dependent climate signals drive breeding phenology of three seabird species. Global Change Biology, 10, 1214-1221.

Durant, J.M., Stenseth, N.C., Anker-Nilssen, T., Harris, M.P., Thompson, P.M. & Wanless, S. (2004). Marine birds and climate fluctuations in the North Atlantic. Marine ecosystems and climate variation: the North Atlantic region (eds N.C. Stenseth, G. Ottersen, J.W. Hurrell & A. Belgrano), pp. 95-105. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Wanless, S., Wright, P.J., Harris, M.P. & Elston, D.A. (2004) Evidence for decrease in size of lesser sandeels Ammodytes marinus in a North Sea aggregation over a 30-yr period. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 279, 237-246.