Iceland's Massive Seabird Colonies In Free-fall: "All The Chicks Are Dead" [View all]

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No one knows exactly how many Arctic terns there are, but Iceland is believed to hold nearly one-third of the world’s population, perhaps 500,000 pairs. Petersen and colleagues are conducting a census of Iceland’s terns for the first time in a decade. Their findings will be part of the first-ever circumpolar Arctic tern review, coordinated by the Arctic Council’s biodiversity working group.

Dire reports are already coming in from elsewhere. Petersen’s longtime colleague, Sverrir Thorstensen, gets a phone call from a friend counting terns in Iceland’s largest colony, Hrisey Island. Ten years ago, there were 15,000 pair in this colony off the north coast; the decade before, there were 25,000. With a grim face, Thorstensen relays the news of the latest count: “Very simple answer. All the chicks are dead.”

The retired biology teacher from Akureyri is the No. 2 bird-bander in Iceland. He’s banded 62,000 birds in the past 35 years. When he visited the colony himself earlier in the season, things looked good: lots of nests, lots of eggs. “All dead,” he repeats now, in a low voice. “There are hundreds lying dead.”

Our high-carbon lifestyle is turning up the oceans’ thermostat, and seabirds are feeling the heat. Some will escape by heading north – scientists say a redistribution is already underway. But there’s a cap on how far north they can go. More and more species will be trying to cram into a confined space. Sea cliffs and burrow-grounds are limited, and building nests in the open leaves them vulnerable to predators, which also are moving north. At the same time, civilization’s toxic stew is swirling its way north, where it may also contribute to the seabirds’ decline. Levels of mercury, which can damage nervous systems and interfere with reproduction, are rising in marine wildlife throughout the North Atlantic. For other chemicals, the scenario varies by location and foraging behavior. For example, while the banned pesticide DDT has declined in most areas, it remains high in glaucous gulls in Arctic Norway. Brominated flame retardants are ubiquitous, and the perfluorinated coatings called PFCs are holding steady or even increasing in northern Canada’s kittiwakes, fulmars and murres. In Iceland, levels of the legacy pollutants polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other contaminants are so high in murre eggs that authorities recently warned people not to eat them.

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http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2014/aug/wingedwarnings3empty-nests-of-the-north