Journal
BIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 12, Issue 11, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0277
Keywords
Arctic; ice concentration; ice-edge; seabird; satellite tracking; satellite microwave radiometers
Categories
Funding
- Kenneth Molson Foundation [58-0-205568]
- Environment Canada [K4E21-12-0850]
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [41-0-205561]
- National Geographic Society
- Prix Gore-Tex initiative
- Fondation Avenir Finance
- Arctic Ocean Diversity Census of Marine Life Project
- CNES
- CLS
- Sagax expeditions
- Magasins Intermarche
- Societe Henry Maire
- Lestra
- MSR
- MSR, Vitagermine
- Moulin des Moines
- GREA
- Joint Norwegian-Russian Commission on Environmental Protection and Russian national programme [IPY 2007/08]
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The ongoing decline of sea ice threatens many Arctic taxa, including the ivory gull. Understanding how ice-edges and ice concentrations influence the distribution of the endangered ivory gulls is a prerequisite to the implementation of adequate conservation strategies. From 2007 to 2013, we used satellite transmitters to monitor the movements of 104 ivory gulls originating from Canada, Greenland, Svalbard-Norway and Russia. Although half of the positions were within 41 km of the ice-edge (75% within 100 km), approximately 80% were on relatively highly concentrated sea ice. Ivory gulls used more concentrated sea ice in summer, when close to their high-Arctic breeding ground, than in winter. The best model to explain the distance of the birds from the ice-edge included the ice concentration within approximately 10 km, the month and the distance to the colony. Given the strong links between ivory gull, ice-edge and ice concentration, its conservation status is unlikely to improve in the current context of sea-ice decline which, in turn, will allow anthropogenic activities to develop in regions that are particularly important for the species.
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