Projects per year
Abstract
Arctic food webs are being impacted by borealisation and environmental change. To quantify the impact of these multiple forcings, it is crucial to accurately determine the temporal change in key ecosystem metrics, such as trophic position of top predators. Here, we measured stable nitrogen isotopes (δ15 N) in amino acids in harp seal teeth from across the North Atlantic spanning a period of 60 years to robustly assess multi-decadal trends in harp seal trophic position, accounting for changes in δ15 N at the base of the food web. We reveal long-term variations in trophic position of harp seals which are likely to reflect fluctuations in prey availability, specifically fish- or invertebrate-dominated diets. We show that the temporal trends in harp seal trophic position differ between the Northwest Atlantic, Greenland Sea and Barents Sea, suggesting divergent changes in each local ecosystem. Our results provide invaluable data for population dynamic and ecotoxicology studies.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 5582-5595 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Global Change Biology |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 19 |
Early online date | 21 Jul 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2023 |
Keywords
- Amino acids
- Barents Sea
- Greenland Sea
- Harp seals
- Labrador Sea
- Multi-decadal trends
- Stable nitrogen isotopes
- Trophic position
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Multi-decadal trends in biomarkers in harp seal teeth from the North Atlantic reveal the influence of prey availability on seal trophic position'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
-
Can we detect changes in Arctic ecosyste: Can we detect changes in Arctic ecosystems
Smout, S. C. (PI)
1/02/17 → 31/07/20
Project: Standard
Datasets
-
ARISE project - Work package 3: Stable nitrogen isotopes of bulk tissue and amino-acids of ringed seals muscle and teeth's growth layer groups of harp seals from the Arctic and sub-Arctic
de la Vega, C. (Creator), Kershaw, J. L. (Creator), Yurkowski, D. J. (Creator), Ferguson, S. H. (Creator), Stenson, G. B. (Creator), Haug, T. (Creator), Biuw, M. (Creator), Frie, A. K. (Creator), Smout, S. C. (Creator), Jeffreys, R. M. (Creator) & Mahaffey, C. (Creator), British Antarctic Survey, 2021
DOI: 10.5285/6aaa53e8-3d0a-48fe-838e-31c5b5f24ce7
Dataset