Apex marine predator declines ninety percent in association with changing oceanic climate |
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| Authors: | RICHARD VEIT JOHN MCGOWAN DAVID AINLEY TERENCE WAHL & PETER PYLE |
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| Institution: | Department of Zoology, Box 351800, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195–1800, USA,;Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA,;H.T. Harvey and Associates, PO Box 1180, Alviso, CA 95002, USA,;3041 Eldridge, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA,;Point Reyes Bird Observatory, 4990 Shoreline Highway, Stinson Beach, CA 94970, USA |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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