Broad-scale trophic shift in the pelagic North Pacific revealed by an oceanic seabird

Ostrom, Peggy H.; Wiley, Anne E.; James, Helen F.; Rossman, Sam; Walker, William A.; Zipkin, Elise F.; Chikaraishi, Yoshito

doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.2436

i

Broad-scale trophic shift in the pelagic North Pacific revealed by an oceanic seabird

2017
By Ostrom, Peggy H. ; Wiley, Anne E. ; James, Helen F. ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Personal Author:

Ostrom, Peggy H. ; Wiley, Anne E. ; James, Helen F. ; Rossman, Sam ; Walker, William A. ; Zipkin, Elise F. ; Chikaraishi, Yoshito
NOAA Program & Office:

NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; AFSC (Alaska Fisheries Science Center)
Description:

Human-induced ecological change in the open oceans appears to be accelerating. Fisheries, climate change and elevated nutrient inputs are variously blamed, at least in part, for altering oceanic ecosystems. Yet it is challenging to assess the extent of anthropogenic change in the open oceans, where historical records of ecological conditions are sparse, and the geographical scale is immense. We developed millennial-scale amino acid nitrogen isotope records preserved in ancient animal remains to understand changes in food web structure and nutrient regimes in the oceanic realm of the North Pacific Ocean (NPO). Our millennial-scale isotope records of amino acids in bone collagen in a wide-ranging oceanic seabird, the Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis), showed that trophic level declined over time. The amino acid records do not support a broad-scale increase in nitrogen fixation in the North Pacific subtropical gyre, rejecting an earlier interpretation based on bulk and amino acid specific δ15N chronologies for Hawaiian deep-sea corals and bulk δ15N chronologies for the Hawaiian petrel. Rather, our work suggests that the food web structure in the NPO has shifted at a broad geographical scale, a phenomenon potentially related to industrial fishing.
Keywords:

Climatic Changes Sea Birds Climatic Changes Sea Birds
Source:

Proc Biol Sci. 2017 Mar 29;284(1851):20162436.
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2436
Pubmed ID:

28356448
Pubmed Central ID:

PMC5378076
Document Type:

Journal Article
Place as Subject:

Pacific Ocean
Rights Information:

Other
Compliance:

PMC
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:bb8f20f76e43ef7ec420512f79f4992b5f832179215a32ab150f1cbf6176433c965a3828e7da595ed4d6b17a406c776e13f379faa12ba98580c8ec7c05a7ffd1
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/26241/noaa_26241_DS1.pdf
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[PDF - 428.26 KB ]

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