TABLE 3 



Seabird abundance (number per hour I recorded during 

 15-minute station counts in the southern Chukchi Sea by water type. 



Northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) 



Short-tailed shearwater (Puffimis lenuirostris) 



Red phalarope (Phalaropus fulicaria) 



phalarope sp. (P)uilaropus sp.) 



Pomarine jaeger (Stercorahus pomarinus) 



Long-tailed jaeger {Stercorahus longicaudus) 



jaeger sp. (Stercorariiis sp.) 



Herring gull (Larus argenratus) 



Glaucous gull [Larus liyperhoreus) 



Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) 



Sabine's gull (Xema sabiiii) 



Arctic tern {Sterna paradisaea) 



Common murre {Uria aalge) 



Thick-billed murre ( Uria lomvia) 



murre sp. {Uria sp.) 



Kittlitz's murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) 



Parakeet auklet {Cyclorrhynchus psittacula) 



Least auklet {Aethia pusilla) 



Crested auklet {Aethia cristatella) 



auklet sp. {Aethia sp.) 



Tufted puffin {Fratercula cirrhata) 



Homed puffin (Fratercula comiculata) 



TOTAL 



648.2 



67.0 



11.9 



TABLE 4 



Kruskal-Wallis rank sum results for 



abundances of all seabirds among water 



mass types. 



Arctic tundra and use offshore marine areas primarily in fall 

 after breeding is terminated (i.e.. red phalarope. Pomarine and 

 long-tailed jaegers. Sabine's gull). Arctic tern and Kittlitz's 

 murrelet are rare anywhere in the Chukchi Sea, and too few 

 were recorded in this survey to certainly detect water mass 

 affinities. Gulls and all alcids were generally most abundant in 

 areas near colonies and large population sources, although the 

 three gulls (herring and glaucous, black-legged kittiwake) 

 occurred in SCW in greater abundances than the geographic 

 distribution of their Chukchi Sea breeding populations would 

 suggest. 



Long-distance migrants (northern fulmar, short-tailed 

 shearwaters) gave the strongest and least ambiguous evidence 

 for preferred use of a specific water mass. Neither species 

 breeds locally, and both must pass north through Bering Strait 

 to reach the Chukchi Sea during late summer (NOAA, 1988). 

 Because each water mass is equidistant from the origins of the 

 birds, their affinity for SCW is best explained by favorable 

 foraging conditions within this water mass. Fulmars and 

 shearwaters may have been attracted to SCW because of higher 

 productivity, because the strong horizontal transition between 

 SCW and BSAW (Fig. 2) concentrated prey, or because the 

 highly stratified water column ( Figs. 4-6) offered a more stable 

 foraging environment. Although BSAW is known to be up to 



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