MT2.2 Large seabird and pinniped colonies

MT2. Supralittoral coastal biome

MT2

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/MT2.2

Brief description

Large concentrations of roosting or nesting seabirds and semiaquatic mammals such as seals and walrus are found on relatively isolated islands and shores. These animals consume large amounts of marine resources but spend many weeks and months on land, accumulating high concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients. The abundance and relatively large body size of individuals disrupt the growth of vegetation. The combination of these factors means that microbial activity is high and soil invertebrates are abundant, but plant diversity is usually low, and land based grazers and predators are usually absent.

Key features

Localised areas of bare or vegetated ground with diverse microbial communities at the ocean interface receiving massive nutrient subsidies and disturbance from large concentrations of roosting or nesting seabirds and pinnipeds that function as mobile links between land and sea.

Overview of distribution

Scattered globally on islands and coastlines, but most common in polar and subpolar regions.

Map description

We used spatial data on Nitrogen (N) and Phosphor (P) deposition from seabird colonies (Otero et al. 2018) as an indicators of the distribution of this functional group. Original point data was in decimal degrees rounded to 6 arc-min resolution, for the maps we aggregated data to square grid cells of 250 km. We used a threshold of >1000 and <100000 kg/yr N to select minor occurrences and a threshold of >100000 kg/yr N for major occurrences..

Map code and version: MT2.2.IM.orig v1.0. DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): SBZ Gorta; SF Bokhorst; JC. Ellis; DA Keith.1

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Indicative Map (code: MT2.2.IM.orig, version v1.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Ellis JC (2005) Marine Birds on land: A review of plant biomass, species richness, and community composition in seabird colonies Plant Ecology 181, 227–241
  • Otero XL, De La Peña-Lastra S, Pérez-Alberti A, Ferreira TO, Huerta-Diaz MA (2018) Seabird colonies as important global drivers in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles Nature Communications 9, 246
  • S. N. Riddick, U. Dragosits, T. D. Blackall, F. Daunt, S. Wanless and M. A. Sutton (2012) The global distribution of ammonia emissions from seabird colonies Atmospheric Environment 55 (2012), pp. 319-327 DOI:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.02.052

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Otero XL, De La Peña-Lastra S, Pérez-Alberti A, Ferreira TO, Huerta-Diaz MA (2018) Seabird colonies as important global drivers in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles Nature Communications 9, 246

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎