Polar cod and capelin in diets of thick-billed murres, comparing a recent study with 30 years ago: low, mid, and high Arctic locations in eastern Canada

LifeLinkedtoIce diets of thick billed murres

This chart shows the breakdown by species of identified fish in stomach samples of murres. Polar cod continue to dominate the diets of high Arctic murres, but capelin appear to have replaced polar cod in the low Arctic, where ice has retreated to the greatest extent. Capelin have also appeared in the mid Arctic, where the species was absent in 1985 samples but present in a third of the samples from 2007/08.
From Provencher et al. 2012 [209]

 

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) 

The data can be downloaded freely. Users are requested to reference the source.

Eamer, J., Donaldson, G.M., Gaston, A.J., Kosobokova, K.N., Lárusson, K.F., Melnikov, I.A., Reist, J.D., Richardson, E., Staples, L., von Quillfeldt, C.H. 2013. Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change. CAFF Assessment Series No. 10. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, Iceland. ISBN: 978-9935-431-25-7.

 

 

209. Provencher, J.F., Gaston, A.J., O’Hara, P.D., and Gilchrist, H.G. 2012. Seabird diet indicates changing Arctic marine communities in eastern Canada. Marine Ecology-Progress Series 454: 171-+. doi:10.3354/meps09299.

 

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