Cape Vera Project

Cape Vera Project

Cape Vera (76°15′N, 89°15′W) is located on northern Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, ∼500 km west of Greenland. Approximately 11,000 pairs of Northern Fulmars nest on the coastal cliffs every summer (Gaston et al. 2009) and from there they feed on fish and marine invertebrate prey, sometimes hundreds of kilometers away (Mallory et al. 2008, 2010). A series of ponds are located at various distances below these cliffs, with each pond receiving different amounts of ornithogenic inputs (Blais et al. 2005). There are visible differences among these ponds, with a clear decrease in nutrients, algal biomass, and cholesterol (represented with the “seabird index”) with increasing distance from the bird colony (Keatley et al. 2009; Cheng et al. 2016). These ponds and the environment surrounding the Northern Fulmar colony have provided a foundation for using paleolimnology to track seabird biovectors, resulting in over a decade of research and respective publications, listed below.

Picture of Nesting Northern Fulmars on a cliff colony at Cape Vera

Nesting Northern Fulmars on a cliff colony at Cape Vera

Related Publications

Blais, J.M., Kimpe, L.E., McMahon, D., Keatley, B.E., Mallory, M.L., Douglas, M.S.V., and Smol, J.P. 2005. Arctic seabirds transport marine-derived contaminants. Science 309: 445. Click here for media release

Blais, J.M., Kimpe, L.E., McMahon, D., Keatley, B.E., Mallory, M.L., Douglas, M.S.V., and Smol, J.P. 2005. Tracing contaminants with δ¹⁵N measurements: Response. Science 310: 443.

Blais, J.M., Macdonald, R.W., Mackay, D., Webster, E., Harvey, C. and Smol, J.P. 2007. Biologically mediated transport of contaminants to aquatic ecosystems. Environmental Science & Technology 41: 1075-1084.

Michelutti, N., Blais, J.B., Liu, H., Keatley, B.E., Douglas, M.S.V., Mallory, M.L. and Smol, J.P. 2008. A test of the possible influence of seabird activity on the ²¹⁰Pb flux in high Arctic ponds at Cape Vera, Devon Island, Nunavut: implications for radiochronology. J. Paleolimnology 40:783-791.

Brimble, S.K., Blais, J.M., Kimpe, L.E., Mallory, M.L., Keatley, B.E., Douglas, M.S.V., and Smol, J.P. 2009. Bioenrichment of trace elements in a series of ponds near a northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) colony at Cape Vera, Devon Island. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 66: 949-958.

Brimble, S.K., Foster, K.L., Mallory, M.L., Macdonald, R., Smol, J.P. and Blais, J.M. 2009. High Arctic ponds receiving biotransported nutrients from a nearby seabird colony are also subject to potentially toxic loadings of arsenic, cadmium, and zinc. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 28: 2426-2433.

Michelutti, N., Liu, H., Smol, J.P., Kimpe, L.E., Keatley, B., Mallory, M., Douglas, M.S.V., and Blais, J.M. 2009. Accelerated delivery of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in recent sediments near a large seabird colony at Cape Vera, Devon Island, Arctic Canada. Environmental Pollution 157: 2769-2775.

Michelutti, N., Keatley, B.E., Brimble, S., Blais, J.M., Liu, H., Douglas, M.S.V., Mallory, M.L., and Smol, J.P. 2009. Seabird-driven shifts in Arctic pond ecosystems. Proceedings of the Royal Society (Lond), Series B 276: 591-596.

Keatley, B.E., Douglas, M.S.V., Blais, J.M., Mallory, M.L., and J.P. Smol, J.P. 2009. Impacts of seabird-derived nutrients on water quality and diatom assemblages from Cape Vera, Devon Island, Canadian High Arctic. Hydrobiologia 621: 191-205.

Brimble, S.K., Foster, K.L., Mallory, M.L., Macdonald, R., Smol, J.P., and Blais, J.M. 2009. High Arctic ponds receiving biotransported nutrients from a nearby seabird colony are also subject to potentially toxic loadings of arsenic, cadmium, and zinc. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 28: 2426-2433.

Griffiths, K., Michelutti, N., Blais, J.M., Kimpe, L.E., Smol, J.P. 2010. Comparing nitrogen isotopic signals between bulk sediments and invertebrate remains in High Arctic seabird-influenced ponds. J Paleolimnology 44: 405-412.

Choy, E.S. Gauthier, M., Mallory, M.L., Smol, J.P., Douglas, M.S.V., Lean, D., and Blais, J.M. 2010. An isotopic investigation of mercury accumulation in terrestrial food webs adjacent to an Arctic seabird colony. State of the Total Environment 408: 1858-1867.

Choy, E.S., Kimpe, L.E., Mallory, M.L., Smol, J.P., and Blais, J.M. 2010. Contamination of an arctic terrestrial food web with marine-derived persistent organic pollutants transported by breeding seabirds. Environmental Pollution 158: 3431-3438.

Michelutti, N., Mallory, M.L., Blais, J.B., Douglas, M.S.V., and Smol, J.P. 2011. Chironomid assemblages from seabird-affected High Arctic ponds. Polar Biology 34: 799-812.

Keatley, B.E., Blais, J.M., Douglas, M.S.V., Gregory-Eaves, I., Mallory, M.L., and Smol, J.P. 2011. Historical seabird population dynamics and their effects on Arctic pond ecosystems: a multi-proxy paleolimnological study from Cape Vera, Devon Island, Arctic Canada. Fundamental and Applied Limnology 179: 51-66.

Foster, K.L., Kimpe, L.E., Brimble, S.K., Liu, H., Mallory, M.L., Smol, J.P., Macdonald, R.W., and Blais, J.M. 2011. Effects of seabird vectors on the fate, partitioning, and signatures of contaminants in a High Arctic ecosystem. Environmental Science & Technology 45: 10053-10060.

Stewart, E.M., Michelutti, N., Blais, J.M., Mallory, M., Douglas, M.S.V., and Smol, J.P. 2013. Contrasting the effects of climatic, nutrient, and oxygen dynamics on subfossil chironomid assemblages: A paleolimnological experiment from eutrophic high Arctic ponds. J. Paleolimnology 49: 205-219.

Cheng, W., Sun, L., Kimpe, L.E., Mallory, M.L., Smol, J.P., Gallant, L.R., Li, J., and Blais, J.M. 2016. Sterols and stanols preserved in pond sediments track seabird biovectors in a High Arctic environment. Environmental Science & Technology 50: 9351-9360.

More publications from Cape Vera