The impact of different hydrographic conditions and zooplankton communities on provisioning Little Auks along the West coast of Spitsbergen

Composition and abundance of zooplankton were studied simultaneously with feeding ecology of planktivorous Little Auks (Alle alle) in two different sea shelf areas of West Spitsbergen, Norway, in summer 2007. Zooplankton was collected adjacent to bird colonies in Magdalenefjorden (influenced by Atlantic West Spitsbergen Current) and Hornsund (dominated by the Arctic Sørkapp Current). In spite of different hydrological situations, the abundance of prey preferred by Little Auks, Arctic Calanus glacialis copepodids stage V, among zooplankton was similar in both localities. However, there was much more of Atlantic Calanus finmarchicus on the shelf outside Magdalenefjorden compared to Hornsund, resulting in different abundance ratios of Arctic to Atlantic copepods in the two areas (1:14 and 1:1, respectively). Even greater differences between the two areas occurred in the ratio of C. glacialis CV to other zooplankters, amounting to 1:40 in Magdalenefjorden and 1:6 in Hornsund. In both Little Auk colonies food brought by parents to their chicks contained mainly C. glacialis CV, albeit the proportion of this copepod in meals was significantly higher in Hornsund. Meals delivered to Little Auk chicks in Hornsund had also higher zooplankton numbers, biomass and energy content. In Magdalenefjorden, on the other hand, a higher number of feedings and longer duration of foraging trips were recorded. These differences became more apparent with increasing energy requirements of the fast growing nestlings. This was probably a consequence of lower relative abundance of the Little Auks’ preferred prey in the sea adjacent to Magdalenefjorden colony. It seems that searching for the preferred food items, such as C. glacialis, among abundant but less favored C. finmarchicus, may require more time and energy demanding foraging behavior. As a consequence, foraging effort of the Little Auk parents from Magdalenefjorden was higher, and feeding efficiency lower, than those of birds from Hornsund. Increasing influx of warm Atlantic waters that bring boreal zooplankton to the Arctic Seas may have negative impacts on Little Auks’ time and energy budgets and eventually on their breeding success and range of breeding distribution.