Sébastien Descamps
Extreme snowstorms lead to large-scale seabird breeding failures in Antarctica
Descamps, Sébastien; Hudson, Stephen; Sulich, Joanna; Wakefield, Ewan; Grémillet, David; Carravieri, Alice; Orskaug, Sebastian; Steen, Harald
Authors
Stephen Hudson
Joanna Sulich
Dr Ewan Wakefield ewan.wakefield@durham.ac.uk
Post Doctoral Research Associate
David Grémillet
Alice Carravieri
Sebastian Orskaug
Harald Steen
Abstract
Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that negatively impact wildlife, from individuals to whole ecosystems1. In polar environments, such events include heat waves2, anomalous sea ice concentrations3 and storms4. Polar seabirds are adapted to withstand harsh conditions, and although extreme weather events affect their breeding success and other demographic rates, they are thought to affect only a part of the population. Complete breeding failure of an entire population due to extreme environmental conditions is rarely observed5. Here we report how exceptional storm activity in Dronning Maud Land (DML), Antarctica, in the austral summer of 2021/2022 caused almost complete and large-scale breeding failures of the area’s three most common seabird species — Antarctic petrel (Thalassoica antarctica), Snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea) and South polar skua (Stercorarius maccormicki).
Citation
Descamps, S., Hudson, S., Sulich, J., Wakefield, E., Grémillet, D., Carravieri, A., Orskaug, S., & Steen, H. (2023). Extreme snowstorms lead to large-scale seabird breeding failures in Antarctica. Current Biology, 33(5), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.12.055
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Online Publication Date | Mar 13, 2001 |
Publication Date | 2023 |
Deposit Date | Jun 26, 2023 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 26, 2023 |
Journal | Current Biology |
Print ISSN | 0960-9822 |
Publisher | Cell Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 33 |
Issue | 5 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.12.055 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1169196 |
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Copyright Statement
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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