Shifts in the diet of top predators can be linked to changes in environmental conditions. In this study, we
tested relationships between environmental variation and seasonal changes in diet of a top predator, the grey-headed albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma, breeding at Bird Island, South Georgia in an austral summer of 1999/2000. Oceanographic conditions in that year around South Georgia were abnormal (i.e. anomalously high sea surface temperature to a relative 19-year long-term mean). The diet of grey-headed albatrosses showed high seasonal variation, shifting from cephalopods (42.9 % by mass) in late February to Antarctic krill Euphausia superba (58.3 %) in late April, and grey-headed albatrosses breeding performance
was low (16.8 %). This study shows these albatrosses did not manage to find sufficient alternative prey and highlight the risk to top predators if there is an increase in the frequency or severity of food shortages in Antarctic waters
Xavier, J.C., Louzao, M., Thorpe, S.E., Ward, P., Hill, C., Roberts, D., Croxall, J.P., Phillips, R.A. 2013. Detecting intra-annual variations in the feeding ecology of a top predator in relation to environmental change: can they adapt successfully? Marine Biology 160:1597–1606.
tested relationships between environmental variation and seasonal changes in diet of a top predator, the grey-headed albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma, breeding at Bird Island, South Georgia in an austral summer of 1999/2000. Oceanographic conditions in that year around South Georgia were abnormal (i.e. anomalously high sea surface temperature to a relative 19-year long-term mean). The diet of grey-headed albatrosses showed high seasonal variation, shifting from cephalopods (42.9 % by mass) in late February to Antarctic krill Euphausia superba (58.3 %) in late April, and grey-headed albatrosses breeding performance
was low (16.8 %). This study shows these albatrosses did not manage to find sufficient alternative prey and highlight the risk to top predators if there is an increase in the frequency or severity of food shortages in Antarctic waters
Xavier, J.C., Louzao, M., Thorpe, S.E., Ward, P., Hill, C., Roberts, D., Croxall, J.P., Phillips, R.A. 2013. Detecting intra-annual variations in the feeding ecology of a top predator in relation to environmental change: can they adapt successfully? Marine Biology 160:1597–1606.
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