Seabird Sessions are back – join virtually on December 16, 2024!
Hosted via the World Seabird Union, Seabird Sessions is a casual online discussion about recent seabird papers held on Zoom.
The next Seabird Sessions will be held on December 16, 2024 at 1330 GMT. While this time is not ideal for everyone, Seabird Sessions will be recorded and there will be more of these going forward!
Zoom link: click here
Meeting ID: 841 1270 0001
Passcode: 332149
Richards, C., Cooke, R., Bowler, D.E., Boerder, K. and Bates, A.E., (2024). Bycatch-threatened seabirds disproportionally contribute to community trait composition across the world. Global Ecology and Conservation, 49, p.e02792.
Abstract: Human pressures in the ocean are restructuring biological communities, driving non-random extinctions, and disrupting marine ecosystem functioning. In particular, fisheries bycatch, the incidental mortality of non-target species, is a major threat to seabirds worldwide. Direct bycatch data are often scarce. Instead, leveraging trait-based analyses with fine-scale fisheries data could answer fundamental questions about spatial patterns of bycatch-threatened species and facilitate targeted conservation strategies. Here, we combine a dataset of species’ traits and distribution ranges for 361 seabird and sea duck species with spatially resolved fishing effort data for gillnet, longline, trawl, and purse seine gears. First, we quantify geographic patterns of seabird community traits. Second, we describe how community traits could shift under local extinction scenarios in areas where bycatch-threatened seabirds spatially overlap with fishing activities. These objectives allow us to highlight the collective contribution of species currently threatened from bycatch to ecosystem functioning. We reveal distinct spatial variation in the community weighted mean of five seabird traits (body mass, generation length, clutch size, diet guild, and foraging guild) are evident. Moreover, our results show that fisheries bycatch is selectively removing a distinct suite of traits from the community within particular oceanic regions. Specifically, fisheries bycatch is threatening species with larger body masses, slower reproductive speeds (smaller clutch sizes and longer generation lengths), and specialised diet and foraging guilds. The spatial non-uniformity of the community trait shifts suggests that within specific marine regions, communities have limited redundancy and therefore may have less insurance to buffer against declines in ecosystem functioning. Our extinction scenario warns that seabirds currently threatened from fisheries bycatch substantially contribute to community functional composition. Management actions that incorporate species’ traits and fine-scale fisheries datasets as tools for marine spatial planning will add an important dimension when evaluating the success of conservation initiatives.
Carneiro, A.P., Dias, M.P., Clark, B.L., Pearmain, E.J., Handley, J., Hodgson, A.R., Croxall, J.P., Phillips, R.A., Oppel, S., Morten, J.M. and Lascelles, B., (2024). The BirdLife Seabird Tracking Database: 20 years of collaboration for marine conservation. Biological Conservation, p.110813.
Abstract: The BirdLife Seabird Tracking Database (STDB) was established in 2004 to collate tracking data to address the incidental mortality of seabirds in fisheries and to contribute to identification of sites at sea relevant to establishment of Marine Protected Areas. After 20 years, the STDB has grown to hold ca. 39 million locations for 168 species from >450 breeding sites. The STDB has become a powerful tool to support marine conservation by facilitating the compilation of robust multi-species data to address broad-scale questions, made possible by continuous collaboration with the scientific community. The STDB has facilitated major marine conservation outcomes, including the designation of the first marine protected area to be identified solely using tracking data. Advocacy based on analyses demonstrating overlaps between seabirds and fisheries have led to the adoption of seabird-bycatch mitigation measures by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations. The STDB has also provided compelling evidence for migratory connectivity in the ocean, and been crucial in informing many policy instruments at scales from national (e.g. protection and management of important sites identified from tracking data), to regional (e.g. working with Regional Conventions), to global (e.g. the identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas). This review presents an overview of 1) how the STDB started and gained traction, 2) its current status in terms of data coverage and gaps, 3) methodological developments, 4) conservation successes, 5) the opportunities and challenges experienced in managing this global database, and 6) research priorities and future directions for seabird tracking studies.
Dr. Grant Humphries
Black Bawks Data Science Ltd, Director
World Seabird Union, Vice Chair
Oceanites, Director of Science
+447719 647652
https://www.blackbawks.net
