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Destruction of Guillemot Colonies in the Southern Barents Sea and the Factors That Determine It

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Abstract

Features of the dynamics of numbers of the common guillemot (Uria aalge) and Brünnich’s guillemot (U. lomvia) have been analyzed based on long-term monitoring data obtained from colonies from the southern Barents Sea coast. Since the 2000s, the numbers of guillemots in colonies have been shown to decrease gradually. In 2019–2021, most of the guillemot colonies of the southern Barents Sea coast disappeared. Two factors have been found to affect the dynamics of guillemot colonies in the last few decades within their winter–spring range indirectly, through changes in the availability of the main food resources: the fishing industry and change in oceanographic conditions. The former affects only the birds from southwestern Barents Sea colonies, but the latter is relevant within the whole winter–spring area from the Barents Sea to the western areas of the North Atlantic and affects the guillemots’ living conditions in the most critical periods of their life. In the future this may cause significant changes in the location of guillemot colonies in the southern Barents Sea.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the Federal State Budgetary Institution Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve for the opportunity to work in the protected area, the Marine Heritage Association, the head of the program “Open Ocean: Arctic Archipelagos” M.V. Gavrilo, and the crew of the yacht Alter Ego for their invaluable assistance in solving transport issues.

Funding

This work was carried out on the research topic “Seabirds of the Arctic and Subarctic: Biology, Physiology, Parasitology” (state registration no. 121091600102-3) within the framework of a State Assignment of the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, and within the framework of the SeaTrack international program.

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  1. Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 183010, Murmansk, Russia

    Yu. V. Krasnov & A. V. Ezhov

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  1. Yu. V. Krasnov
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  2. A. V. Ezhov
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Correspondence to Yu. V. Krasnov or A. V. Ezhov.

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Translated by L. Solovyova

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Krasnov, Y.V., Ezhov, A.V. Destruction of Guillemot Colonies in the Southern Barents Sea and the Factors That Determine It. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 50, 2286–2293 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359023090170

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