Recent marine heatwaves have had pervasive effects on marine ecosystems, from declines in primary production to die-offs of top predators. Seabird mortalities are often observed in association with heatwaves, but population impacts are not well understood. In this work, we report the rapid mortality of approximately half of Alaska’s common murre ( Uria aalge ) population in response to an extreme marine heatwave. Between the 7-year period before (2008–2014) and after (2016–2022) the heatwave, murre numbers plummeted 52 to 78% at 13 colonies across two large marine ecosystems. We calculated a loss of 4.00 million common murres, the largest documented wildlife mortality event in the modern era. No evidence of recovery has yet been observed, suggesting that these ecosystems may no longer support historic numbers of seabird top predators.

中文翻译：

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海洋热浪后常见海鸥的灾难性和持续性损失


最近的海洋热浪对海洋生态系统产生了普遍影响，从初级产量下降到顶级捕食者的死亡。海鸟死亡通常与热浪有关，但人们对种群的影响尚不清楚。在这项工作中，我们报告了阿拉斯加大约一半的普通海鸦 （ Uria aalge ） 种群因极端海洋热浪而迅速死亡。在热浪之前 （2008-2014） 和之后 （2016-2022） 的 7 年期间，两个大型海洋生态系统中 13 个群落的海鸥数量下降了 52% 至 78%。我们计算出损失了 400 万只普通海鸦，这是现代有记录的最大野生动物死亡事件。尚未观察到恢复的证据，这表明这些生态系统可能不再支持历史数量的海鸟顶级捕食者。