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Penguins and Seals Transport Limiting Nutrients Between Offshore Pelagic and Coastal Regions of Antarctica Under Changing Sea Ice

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Abstract

Large animals such as sea birds and marine mammals can transport limiting nutrients between different regions of the ocean, thereby stimulating and enhancing productivity. In Antarctica this process is influenced by formation and breakup of sea ice and its influence on the feeding behaviour of predators and their prey. We used analyses of bioactive metals (for example, Fe, Co, Mn), macronutrients (for example, N) and stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) in the excreta of Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae) and emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) as well as Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) from multiple sites, among multiple years (2012–2014) to resolve how changes in sea ice dynamics, as indicated by MODIS satellite images, were coincident with prey switching and likely changes in nutrient fluxes between the offshore pelagic and coastal zones. We also sampled excreta of the south polar skua (Stercorarius maccormicki), which preys on penguins and scavenges the remains of both penguins and seals. We found strong coincidence of isotopic evidence for prey switching, between euphausiids (Euphausia superba and E. crystallorophias) and pelagic/cryopelagic fishes (for example, Pleuragramma antarcticum) in penguins, and between pelagic/cryopelagic fishes and Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) in Weddell seals, with changes in sea ice cover among years. Further, prey switching was strongly linked to changes in the concentrations of nutrients (Fe and N) deposited in coastal environments by both penguins and seals. Our findings have important implications for understanding how the roles of large animals in supporting coastal productivity may shift with environmental conditions in polar ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Robbins, S. Rupp, M Lamare, O Shatova, Rebecca McMullin, Simon Trotter and the staff of New Zealand’s Scott Base as well as the United States Antarctic Program at McMurdo Station for their assistance with logistics and fieldwork. We are also grateful to Robert van Hale and Dianne Clark at the Isotrace research group, in the Department of Chemistry, who carried out stable isotope analysis on samples used in the research presented here. Monetary support was provided by grants from Antarctica New Zealand, The Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden Fund and the University of Otago Graduate Research School to SRW, with additional support provided by Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California San Diego Academic Senate to DS and JJL.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Science, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand

    Stephen R. Wing, Lucy C. Wing & Sorrel A. O’Connell-Milne

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand

    David Barr

  3. Centre for Trace Element Analysis, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand

    David Barr

  4. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California, 92093-0227, USA

    Dale Stokes & James J. Leichter

  5. Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, College of General Studies, Boston University, 871 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA

    Sal Genovese

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  1. Stephen R. Wing
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Correspondence to Stephen R. Wing.

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The authors each contributed substantially to the study’s conception, data analysis and manuscript preparation. SAO and DB were responsible for preparation of field samples and analysis of trace metal and stable isotope data. LCW, DS, SG and JJL collected samples and contributed to analysis of data. SRW was involved in each aspect of the study and was primarily responsible for statistical analysis and initial manuscript preparation.

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Wing, S.R., Wing, L.C., O’Connell-Milne, S.A. et al. Penguins and Seals Transport Limiting Nutrients Between Offshore Pelagic and Coastal Regions of Antarctica Under Changing Sea Ice. Ecosystems 24, 1203–1221 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00578-5

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