20/11/2017
A new study has found that sea
surface temperatures have a direct impact on the diet of European Shag,
highlighting problems that future climatic warming and resultant sea surface temperature
increases might impose on its populations.
Long-term changes in climate are
affecting the abundance, distribution and phenology (or seasonal timing of life
habits) of species across all trophic levels (or discrete hierarchies in an
ecosystem). Short-term climate variability is also having a profound impact on
species and their interactions. Crucially, species will experience long- and
short-term variation simultaneously, and both are predicted to change, yet
studies tend to focus on only one of these temporal scales. Apex predators are
sensitive to long-term climate-driven changes in prey populations and
short-term effects of weather on prey availability, both of which could result
in changes of diet.
The study investigated temporal trends and effects of long- and short-term environmental variability on chick diet composition in a North Sea population of European Shags between 1985 and 2014. The proportion of their principal prey, Lesser Sandeel, declined from 99 per cent (1985) to 51 per cent (2014), and estimated sandeel size declined from 104.5 to 92.0 mm over the same time period.
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