Nearly two million seabirds nest
along the Norwegian coast north of the Arctic Circle. How do they decide where
to nest?
Date: May 13, 2016
Source: Norwegian University of
Science and Technology
Seabirds nest by the hundreds of
thousands in colonies along the Norwegian coast. By combining an ocean current
model with fish larvae transport modeling and bird population numbers,
researchers have uncovered the factors that help determine the location of
seabird nesting colonies.
Ninety per cent of Norway's two
million pairs of cliff-nesting seabirds are located in nesting colonies above
the Arctic Circle.
But why are these colonies
located exactly where they are? Much of the 1200-km stretch of coastline from
the Arctic Circle to Norway's easternmost point, on the Russian border, has
features that ought to be attractive to birds that nest in colonies, mainly
steep, protected cliffs that are essentially inaccessible to terrestrial
predators.
Using computer models to describe
ocean currents and the transport of floating fish larvae, researchers were able
to show that bird colonies are located in areas where currents and the shape of
the coastline cause fish larvae to concentrate.
More simply stated, "the
birds are where the food is," said Hanno Sandvik, a biologist from the
Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics at the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology (NTNU) and first author of a paper published inNature Communications on
Friday.
This may seem like a self-evident
fact, but the research team is the first ever to be able to essentially predict
where seabird colonies should be, based on fish larvae "hot spots"
that show up in computer models of how fish larvae are transported along the
coast.
"We are starting from where
the prey is," Sandvik said. "We know where the prey is (because of
the computer models). Then, based on what we know about where their prey is,
where should the colonies be?"
Spotting a pattern in hot spots
The idea for the study came about
several years ago, when researchers met to discuss a different project for
which oceanographers from the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR) had
created a coastal current and fish larvae transport model.
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