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Apex marine predator declines ninety percent in association with changing oceanic climate
Author(s) -
VEIT RICHARD,
MCGOWAN JOHN,
AINLEY DAVID,
WAHL TERENCE,
PYLE PETER
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2486.1997.d01-130.x
Subject(s) - apex predator , apex (geometry) , predator , climate change , environmental science , oceanography , ecology , oceanic climate , biology , predation , geology , anatomy
Three time series of pelagic bird abundance collected in disparate portions of the California Current reveal a 90% decline in Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus) abundance between 1987 and 1994. This decline is negatively correlated with a concurrent rise in sea‐surface temperatures; Sooty Shearwaters have declined while sea temperatures have risen. There is a nine‐month lag in the response by shearwaters to changing temperatures. The geographical scale of our study demonstrates that the decline of Sooty Shearwaters is not a localized phenomenon, nor can it be ascribed to a short‐term distributional shift. The Sooty Shearwater is the numerically dominant species of the California Current System (CCS) in summer (austral winter), with an estimated population in the late 1970s of 5 million individuals. If the observed warming of the waters of the California Current System is an irreversible manifestation of a changing global climate, then the impact upon Sooty Shearwater populations seems likely to be profound.