La Tour du Valat

Institut de recherche pour la conservation des zones humides méditerranéennes

Titre :	Multi-trophic consequences of kelp harvest
Auteurs :	Svein-Hakon Lorentsen, Auteur ; Kjersti Sjotun, Auteur ; David Grémillet, Auteur
Type de document :	Article
Dans :	Biological Conservation (143(9) SEP 2010)
Article en page(s) :	2054-2062
Langues:	Anglais
Résumé :	Coastal kelp forest ecosystems provide important habitats for a diverse assemblage of invertebrates, fish and marine top-predators such as seabirds and sea mammals. Although kelp is harvested industrially on a worldwide scale little is known about the multi-trophic consequences of this habitat removal. We investigated how kelp fisheries, which remove feeding and nursery grounds of coastal fish, influence local food webs and the availability of food to a marine top predator, the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo). We conducted experimental harvesting of the canopy-forming kelp (Laminaria hyperborea) during a 3 year period (2001-2003) in an area at the coast of Central Norway while synoptically monitoring fish occurrence and cormorant foraging parameters. Our results demonstrate that cormorants preferentially foraged within kelp-forested areas and performed significantly more dives when feeding in harvested versus un-harvested areas suggesting lower foraging yield in the former case. In kelp areas that were newly harvested the number of small (

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