El Nino/Southern Oscillation-driven rainfall pulse amplifies predation by owls on seabirds via apparent competition with mice.

ABSTRACT: Most approaches for assessing species vulnerability to climate change have focused on direct impacts via abiotic changes rather than indirect impacts mediated by changes in species interactions. Changes in rainfall regimes may influence species interactions from the bottom-up by increasing primary productivity in arid environments, but subsequently lead to less predictable top-down effects. Our study demonstrates how the effects of an EL Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-driven rainfall pulse ricochets along a chain of interactions between marine and terrestrial food webs, leading to enhanced predation of a vulnerable marine predator on its island breeding grounds. On Santa Barbara Island, barn owls (Tyto alba) are the main predator of a nocturnal seabird, the Scripps's murrelet (

SUBMITTER: Thomsen SK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6234882 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature