Project LOMVIA: Linking Oceanography and Multi-specific, spatially-Variable Interactions of seabirds and their prey in the Arctic

北极的气候变暖速度是地球上最快的，对该地区的冰、大气和海洋产生了巨大影响。海冰的减少是气候变暖最显著的影响之一，预计在几十年内夏季北冰洋将无冰。海冰边缘是一个高生产力的栖息地，它的损失对北极食物网有着深远的影响。海冰的消退也使北极地区向渔业、航运和石油勘探开放，这可能会进一步威胁生物多样性。大西洋海水向北入侵，导致温带浮游生物和鱼类的活动范围扩大到北极沃茨，改变了食物网。作为北极国家的“近邻”，英国和德国对了解北冰洋这些变化可能带来的风险和机遇特别感兴趣。因此，NERC启动了变化中的北冰洋方案，以更好地了解变暖对北极海洋食物网的影响。这导致资助了四个出色的研究项目，这些项目涉及气候变化对北极生态系统的影响，但仍存在重大差距，包括确定鱼类和海鸟与更广泛的北极食物网之间联系的特征。海鸟在食物网的运作中发挥重要作用，具有相当大的经济和文化价值，并在北极提供重要的生态系统服务。预计气候变化将对北极海鸟栖息地产生重大影响。海冰边缘的生产力很高，是海鸟觅食的重要栖息地。它从陆地繁殖地撤退可能会导致转向其他栖息地，包括冰川融水羽流，锋区或水深特征的上升，这可能不利于觅食。向南物种向北极的活动范围扩大可能进一步影响捕食者、被捕食者和竞争性相互作用，从而增加北极物种对变暖的敏感性。所有这些过程都有可能改变北极的食物网和依赖食物网的海鸟数量。事实上，许多北极海鸟物种的数量正在下降，以应对海洋变暖。该项目侧重于两个密切相关的海鸠物种：Brünnich（北极物种）和普通（温带物种），它们占北大西洋海鸟生物量的一半以上。这项研究将在冰岛进行，冰岛代表着“微型北极”，因为极地、亚北极和温带水团的复杂水流在海岸周围交汇，在相对较小的区域内造成海洋学和海冰条件的巨大空间梯度。过去十年的变暖事件改变了鱼类分布，对海鸟繁殖成功和种群趋势产生了不利影响。我们将研究栖息地的利用和食物网的联系，和竞争之间的变化，这两个物种的海鸠在这些梯度的环境变异性和量化的反应，栖息地的可用性的殖民地的大小。为了实现这一目标，我们组建了一个国际团队，他们在野生动物遥测，稳定同位素分析和生态建模的最新技术方面处于世界领先地位。我们的项目将提高我们对北极海鸟栖息地利用、海洋分布和饮食的了解，这将有助于为循证保护战略提供信息，包括海洋空间规划和生态敏感的渔业管理。我们已制订广泛而详细的影响计划，以确保项目的研究结果能达致政策和管理成果，并能惠及更广泛的公众。

The rate of climate warming in the Arctic is among the most rapid on the planet, with dramatic effects upon ice, atmosphere and oceans of the region. Loss of sea ice is one of the most striking effects of warming, and an ice-free summer Arctic Ocean is predicted within a few decades. Sea ice margins are a highly productive habitat and its loss has profound influences on Arctic food-webs. The retreat of sea ice also opens the Arctic up to fisheries, shipping and oil exploration which may further threaten biodiversity. Intrusion of Atlantic water northwards has resulted in temperate plankton and fish species extending their range into Arctic waters which has altered food-webs. As the "nearest neighbours" of the Arctic states, the UK and Germany have a particular interest in understanding the risks and opportunities that these changes in the Arctic Ocean may present. Accordingly, NERC launched the Changing Arctic Ocean programme to better understand impacts of warming upon Arctic marine food-webs. This resulted in funding of four excellent research projects that address the effects of climate change upon Arctic ecosystems, but significant gaps remain, including that of characterising the linkages of fish and seabirds to the wider Arctic food-web. Seabirds play a significant role in the functioning of food-webs, have considerable economic and cultural value and deliver important ecosystem services in the Arctic. Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on seabird habitats in the Arctic. The sea ice margin is highly productive and forms an important foraging habitat for seabirds. Its retreat away from their land-based breeding colonies can cause switching to other habitats, including meltwater plumes from glaciers, frontal zones or upwellings over bathymetric features which may be less productive for foraging. The range expansion of southerly species into the Arctic may further affect predator, prey and competitive interactions, thus increasing Arctic species' sensitivity to warming. All these processes are likely to alter Arctic food-webs and populations of seabirds that depend upon them. Indeed, many Arctic seabird species populations are in decline in response to ocean warming. This project focuses on two closely related guillemot species: Brünnich's (an Arctic species) and common (a temperate one) which comprise over half of the seabird biomass in the north Atlantic. The study will be conducted in Iceland which represents an "Arctic in miniature" owing to complex current flows from Polar, sub-Arctic and temperate water masses meeting around the coast and creating dramatic spatial gradients in oceanography and sea ice conditions within a relatively small area. A warming event over the past decade has altered fish distributions and adversely affected seabird breeding success and population trends. We will examine variation in habitat use and food-webs links of, and competition among, the two species of guillemot across these gradients in environmental variability and quantify the response of colony size to habitat availability. To achieve this we have assembled an international team who are world-leaders in the latest techniques in wildlife telemetry, stable isotope analysis and ecological modelling. Our project will improve our understanding of Arctic seabird habitat use, marine distribution and diets which will help to inform evidence-based conservation strategies, including marine spatial planning and ecologically sensitive fisheries management. We have formulated a broad and detailed impact plan to ensure the projects findings achieve policy and management outcomes, as well as reaching a wider public audience.