United States

**Abstract:**

Marine conservation requires regulation of potentially harmful practices so that they do not adversely impact species, communities and ecosystems. While many approaches to identify sites critical to the conservation of species are specific to individual taxa, an overarching framework - yet to be applied to seabirds - has recently been developed which allows for the identification of sites critical to the persistence of all biodiversity; the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) framework. These objectively defined sites will allow us to identify locations where conservation action is most critical. Furthermore, they play a critical role toward meeting the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development, as the coverage of KBAs by protected areas is already an indicator of these global goals. Utilising tracking datasets spanning 1991-2015, and published estimates of colony locations and abundances, we present a multi-taxa approach to identify KBA sites for species suited to site-based conservation measures. We apply this approach to albatrosses, large petrels, penguins and seals which breed at South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and Antarctica. We utilise methodologies applicable to numerous seabird species: the use of tracking data to identify critical at-sea sites, and a modified foraging radius approach incorporating a density decay function in boundary delineation from colonies. As the world looks to expand economic development opportunities in the marine environment, we showcase how the KBA framework can be used to inform conservation action for top marine predators, inform decision makers about management measures such as time-area closures, research and monitoring priorities, and help the delineation of Marine Protected or Marine Managed Areas. Our approach has broad applicability to the development of future projects investigating species distributions and for the retrospective analysis of animal tracking data.

**Authors:**

Jonathan Handley¹, Elizabeth Pearmain¹, Steffen Oppel², Ana Carneiro¹, Carolina Hazin¹, Richard Phillips³, Norman Ratcliffe³, Iain Staniland³, Thomas Clay⁴, Victoria Warwick-Evans³, Phil Trathan³, Maria Dias¹

¹BirdLife International, ²Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, ³British Antarctic Survey, ⁴University of Liverpool

3rd World Seabird Conference

A step toward saving the seabirds: Marine spatial planning informed through the application of the Key Biodiversity Area framework to seabird distribution data

Welcome Seabirders!  

Welcome to Virtual World Seabird Conference 3 - vWSC3! Whether you are in your office or lab, at home, in a coffee shop or bar poaching some wifi, or at a remote field site or research vessel – we are very excited to welcome you to the third ever World Seabird Conference. 

We would like to thank ALL of you for being so patient as WSC3 was scheduled, postponed, rescheduled, revised to virtual, and scheduled again. Throughout all those iterations there was one message that remained perfectly clear – seabirders were eager to meet and share their science. If we could not meet in person then virtual it would have to be, but a 3rd WSC was something everyone wanted. That support and commitment helped the WSU Board of Directors and Member Societies sort through all of the challenges they faced to plan and hold this conference. 

The list of those that need to be thanked is long and, while we plan on recognizing many during the live closing plenary, it is important to do so here in writing as well. 

The Australasian Seabird Group was our Local Host for our plan to meet in Hobart, Tasmania. They invested substantial time and effort to find venues and plan events that we unfortunately were not able to visit. Nonetheless we appreciate their work on behalf of WSC3 and encourage all of you to thank them when you see their members in Gathertown or elsewhere during our virtual meeting. Their willingness to host created the initial excitement for WSC3 and without that our vWSC would not have been possible.

We also wish to thank the Science Program Committee, the Virtual Committee, and the Early Career Scientist Committee for their hard work planning the logistics, events, and schedule for vWSC3. These committees also had to deal with changing parameters and short timelines that made what is always a challenging task even more challenging. The Travel Awards Committee also invested time and effort in developing procedures for awarding travel funds that ultimately would not be implemented. 

Our ability to shift from an in-person to a virtual meeting, and to do so in a way that would be financially feasible, was due to the effective efforts of The International Fundraising Committee and to our financial sponsors. The IFC raised funds to support WSC3 and then, through the good relationships they built with sponsors, ensured we could re-envision how those funds could be used to support a virtual conference that would be affordable and high-quality.

We all owe the WSU Board of Directors and the Representatives of the Member Societies a great deal of thanks. They are the ones who manage the WSU and, for the past 18 months, have had to have a series of challenging meetings and conversations, have had to make a series of difficult choices, have had to do all of that while considering the short- and long-term health of WSU and the World Seabird Conferences, and did this while also managing their own challenges at their day jobs. We are grateful for their diligence, patience, foresight, and throughout all of the meetings, their collegiality. Also – a 6-year term is quite a commitment!

There would not be a WSC3 without a successful WSC1 and WSC2. Thanks go to the Pacific Seabird Group for their support of WSC1 in Victoria, Canada, and to the African Seabird Group for their support of WSC2 in Cape Town, South Africa. In each of these endeavors and for our current conference we were fortunate to work with a dependable and trustworthy partner in Podium Conferences. Michelle Smith and Marischal de Armond have become valued members of our team and have not only helped us plan conferences but have assisted and advised the WSU Chairs and Board on issues above and beyond conference planning. 

As we embark on our vWSC3 week we extend to all of you our thanks for showing up, for being patient, and most importantly for the work you do with seabirds. We are all part of a unique, global community that shares an interest, a fascination, and a passion for birds that make a living in our world’s oceans. We have advanced the science, conservation, and management of seabirds as well the ecosystems they inhabit. We are consistently impressed and motivated by the work you do. 

The WSU formed in 2010 because we saw the need for a global organization to address challenges at a global level. Over the past 11 years WSU has grown, adapted, and evolved to become the community that this week is making vWSC3 a reality. Enjoy the week, appreciate and support the friends and colleagues you have made in the community, and if you see us in a virtual hallway please stop and say hello! 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve all of you and the WSU over the past few years,

Nicholas Carlile, Interim Chair, WSU<br>
Patrick Jodice, 2nd Chair of the WSU<br><br>

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Join us for four days of science, networking and virtual engagement with delegates from around the world!

technical paper

**Abstract:**

Population levels, habitat use, and concentrations of heavy metal have been examined in Barnegat Bay since 1976. Colony sites were monitored several times/year during this period. The number of nesting pairs of Common Terns, Black Skimmers, Laughing Gulls, and Herring Gulls decreased significantly. Similarly, the number of nesting colonies of terns and skimmers decreased, although reproductive success did not decrease as rapidly as did the number of nesting pairs of terns and skimmers. Loss of nesting colonies resulted in decreases in the number of nesting pairs, as suitable habitat in the bay for terns and skimmers was limited. Great Black-backed Gulls have increased markedly, partly because they are expanding southward along the Atlantic coast, and they are significantly larger than the other species, allowing them to outcompete other smaller species of gulls. Laughing Gulls have also declined, but their declines were mainly due to control (e.g. shooting) of them at nearby Kenney airport. However, even when the shooting ceased, their numbers continued to decline, largely because of competition with Herring Gulls for nesting sites on the marshes. Similarly, Great Egrets have increased as nesting birds in Barnegat Bay, while Snowy Egrets and others egrets and night-herons have declined. The most notable change in Barnegat Bay is a loss of nesting islands, and degradation of some of the remaining habitat, due mainly to sea level rise. Sea level rise is greater in the northeastern Atlantic coast than in other parts of the world (due to both rising sea level and subsidence). Many islands have disappeared or become sub-optimal for nesting. Except for mercury, most metals have declined over this same time period, indicating they are not likely to contribute to the overall declines. Over the years this research has been funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (Estuaries Program), NJ Department of Environmental Protection (Endangered and Nongame Species Project), Trust for Public Lands, Rutgers University, and the Tiko Fund.

**Authors:**

Joanna Burger¹, Michael Gochfeld¹

¹Rutgers University

Effects of Sea Level Rise on Nesting Populations of Colonial Birds in Barnegat Bay: 1976 to 2020

**Abstract:**

With the earth's increasing surface temperature, the augmentation of extreme climatic events such as tropical cyclones and storms has been predicted. However, studies on the impact of such events on island and remote atoll ecosystems are still lacking in literature. Farquhar Atoll (Seychelles) was hit by the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Western Indian Ocean Region (Cyclone Fantala) in April 2016. We assessed the impact of the Cyclone Fantala on the Farquhar ecosystem, focusing in particular on vegetation and seabirds. The data collection on vegetation was carried out immediately after and one year after the climatic event took place giving the opportunity of investigating both resistance and resilience of the different taxa included in this study. We assessed in total 25ha of terrestrial habitat. Overall, we found that the destruction and regeneration (one year after the cyclone) of the indigenous tree/shrub species were respectively lower and higher than non-native tree/shrub species, making them more resistant and resilient. The number of breeding seabirds' and their habitat selection pre and post cyclone were also assessed and we found that the Red-footed Booby population doubled the year after the cyclone and since then had a highly positive trend. The individuals also swapped nesting sites from Casuarina trees (non-native) to native shrubs. The number of pairs of the other seabirds breeding on the island remained stable. We can conclude that atolls left in their natural state are more resistant and resilient than deeply modified ones. Such information is fundamental to inform atoll ecosystem management in Seychelles and elsewhere in order to minimise the impact of destructive climatic events on target species.

**Authors:**

Licia Calabrese¹, Aurelie Duhec¹, Thomas Collier¹, Richard Jeanne¹

¹Island Conservation Society

Resistance and resilience of vegetation and seabird community in a tropical atoll impacted by a strong cyclone

**Abstract:**

Here we describe the seabird assemblage recorded adjacent to the Amazon River mouth, the greatest freshwater input in the marine environment globally, in North Brazil. Through two ship-based surveys conducted between March and May 2015, 219 seabird counts were carried out (118 during navigation and 101 point-counts). A total of 443 individuals of 21 species were recorded. The species composition was almost all migrant taxa from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Associations between bird assemblages (grouped by seabird families) and environmental variables were accessed through univariate, two-part multiple regression models and canonical correspondence analysis. Seabirds aggregate in two main areas, each related to different mesoscale oceanographic features: the tidal mixing and saline front at the mouth of the Amazon River and the ring-formation zone on the border with French Guiana. For Procellariidae and Hydrobatidae, associations with sea surface temperature and distance from the coast were important. These groups were mainly observed in the ring-formation zone, which entraps Amazon River water in the core of the rings, and storm-petrels also occurred at the 20-m isobath, where the advection process carries river' waters to the surface causing local zooplankton enhancement. On the other hand, for Sternidae, Laridae and Stercorariidae, chlorophyll-a and bathymetry were the most important factors. Their distributions were associated with the mouth of the Amazon River, where primary productivity is high. The oceanographic characteristics of these aggregation zones make them ecologically important areas for meso- and megafaunal marine taxa, particularly seabirds.

**Authors:**

Nicholas Daudt¹, Suzana Martins¹, Eduardo Kirinus¹, Leandro Bugoni¹

¹Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG

Seabird assemblage at the mouth of the world's largest river, the Amazon River

**Abstract:**

Foraging is an efficient way to study the effects of environmental variability on marine top predators, as they integrate both direct effects through increased energetic costs at sea and indirect effects through modification of prey accessibility. Using a 19-year automated monitoring system of ~400 individuals (> 45,000 trips), we investigated short-term and interannual variability in foraging performances (trip duration and mass gain) of the little penguin (Eudyptula minor), an inshore seabird living in a climate change hotspot. We found marked seasonal patterns in foraging performances with clear optimum periods but no decrease along the breeding season. The advantage of being an early or late breeder within a season varied with the overall timing of the population breeding, showing a complex interplay between the individual and population scales. Although foraging was less variable at the inter-annual scale, we still highlighted three groups of low, average and good annual foraging performances in each breeding stage. Overall annual performances were affected mainly by late chick-rearing (i.e. post-guard), and low performances during this stage were associated with significantly lower breeding success than years of average or high foraging performances. To understand how the environment might explain such variability in foraging performances, we studied simultaneously the effect of currents, waves and tides, which might directly affect penguin costs at sea and the effects of productivity and vertical stratification, which might affect penguin foraging indirectly through a modification of prey availability. Short-term poor conditions in foraging (at the trip scale) were mostly associated with increased waves and currents and secondarily driven by a decreased and shallower stratification. These results show that short-term variations in the environment may be sufficient to affect seabird breeding significantly through foraging performances. Although these performances are often thought to depend on prey accessibility mainly, we showed the primary role of parameters directly affecting seabirds costs while at sea. Finally, a good synchrony between birds' phenology and primary production cycles explained high foraging performances at the inter-annual scale, highlighting the importance of animal phenology, a parameter known to be highly affected by climate change.

**Authors:**

Nicolas Joly¹, Andre Chiaradia², Jean-Yves Georges¹, Claire Saraux¹

¹CNRS, ²Phillips Island Nature Parks

Environmental effects on foraging performances in an inshore seabird: a combination of phenology and short-term variability.

**Abstract:**

Multi-colony studies showed that when large seabird colonies are spatially close to each other, segregation of foraging areas can often occur. We aimed at 1) characterizing the foraging behaviour of a Mediterranean procellariiform, the Scopoli's shearwater Calonectris diomedea; 2) investigating whether foraging segregation is used to reduce intraspecific competition between colonies in four adjacent islands of the Tuscan Archipelago (C Mediterranean, Italy). The reconstructed GPS routes of 26 breeding birds from the islands of Giannutri (No. breeding pairs 80-145), Cerboli (50-85), Pianosa (150-250) and Argentarola (35-50) were analysed during the chick rearing period, identifying the main behavioural patterns (resting, travelling, foraging) though a segmentation analysis (EMbC). Foraging areas were identified by means of the Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) and the Local Convex Hull (LoCoH) methods, applied on the locations categorized as foraging. The presence of foraging segregation among colonies was investigated using a hierarchical clustering on the utilization distribution overlap between individuals. As expected, LoCoH estimated smaller foraging areas with less portions of mainland included than KDE (mean difference KDE-LoCoH: 1125.75 km2, CI: 773.86 - 1477.63 km2), indicating that the former method could better perform than standard KDE in seabird studies. All tracked birds nesting on Pianosa foraged close to the island (LoCoH mean ± SD: 769 ± 308 km2), while individuals from other colonies explored wider areas (1615 ± 780 km2). Overall, individual foraging behaviour was similar within colonies, showing spatial segregation among colonies. The highest level of segregation was observed between birds from Pianosa and Giannutri, that formed two distinct clusters using non-overlapping foraging areas. This multi-colonies study provides information about the habitat use in foraging behaviour of Scopoli's shearwaters and seems to confirm the segregation of foraging areas among neighbouring colonies.

**Authors:**

Elisa Simi¹, Nicola Baccetti², Francesca Giannini³, Dimitri Giunchi¹, Camilla Gotti⁴, Francesco Pezzo⁴, Enrica Pollonara⁵, Lorenzo Vanni¹, Marco Zenatello⁴, Giulia Cerritelli¹

¹Department of Biology, University of Pisa, ²Ozzano dell'Emilia, ³Arcipelago Toscano National Park, ⁴ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), ⁵Centro Ornitologico Toscano

Small-scale foraging segregation in breeding Scopoli's shearwater

**Abstract:**

Precise and accurate retrospective geolocation of marine predators via their tissues' isotopic composition relies on quality reference maps of relevant isotopic gradients ("isoscapes") together with a good working knowledge of any discrimination factors which may offset their isotopic composition from baseline isotopic values. For the first time, we investigated inter-specific differences among predator level isoscapes across the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean. We combined fine-scale GPS tracking data and concurrent blood plasma δ13C and δ15N values of eight species of seabirds (three albatross, two giant petrel and three penguin species) breeding at Marion Island to produce species- and guild-specific isoscapes. Our study revealed latitudinal spatial gradients in both δ13C and δ15N for far-ranging seabirds (i.e. albatrosses and giant petrels) as well as inshore - offshore gradients for closer ranging seabirds (i.e. penguins). However, at the species level, latitudinal spatial gradients were not reflected in the δ13Cof two and δ15N isoscapes of three of the five far-ranging species studied. It is therefore important, when possible, to estimate and apply species-specific isoscapes or have a good understanding of any factors and pathways affecting marine predators' isotopic composition when studying the foraging ecology of marine predators via tissue stable isotope compositions. Using a multi-species approach we provide evidence of large and regional scale systematic spatial variability of δ13C and δ15N at the base of the marine food web that propagates through trophic levels and is reflected in the isotopic composition of top predators' tissues.

**Authors:**

Tegan Carpenter-Kling¹, Pierre Pistorius¹, Ryan Reisinger², Yves Cherel², Maelle Connan³

¹Marine Apex Predator Research Unit (MAPRU), Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, FitzPatrick I, ²Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chize, UMR 7372 du CNRS-La Rochelle Université, ³Marine Apex Predator Research Unit (MAPRU), Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, Department of

You are where you ate: A critical assessment of marine predator isoscapes within the Southern Indian Ocean

**Abstract:**

How will seabirds find food as the marine environment changes? Building on optimal foraging theory, we construct a simple model of energy change in a foraging seabird. We explore the success and risk of individual foraging strategies, and explore how robust they are to environmental change and uncertainty. Environmental uncertainty results in individuals only having partial knowledge of their surroundings, creating a trade-off between exploring and exploiting the environment whilst foraging. Furthermore, the position on this trade-off curve appears to be personality-dependent. In a patchy environment, bolder birds are explorers, moving quickly between patches, whilst shyer birds are exploiters, moving slowly between higher quality patches. Using trade-off curves, we explore the success of individuals within populations, and deduce that whilst foraging in a population of bold individuals, shy birds are the most successful foragers, and vice versa. This may help explain why evolution favours populations containing variation in personality.

**Authors:**

Poppy Jeffries¹, Samantha Patrick², Jonathan Potts¹

¹University of Sheffield, ²University of Liverpool

Modelling the effects of personality on seabird foraging behaviour

**Abstract:**

A better understanding of how bio-physical factors influence seabirds can help predict how they may respond to environmental change. In recent years, the use of acoustic echosounders to understand seabird foraging patterns in relation to prey distribution has grown rapidly. Analyses of multi-frequency acoustic data can also give insight to prey composition, such as the discrimination of fish and zooplankton. However, primarily due to sampling difficulties, extensive sample processing and net-avoidance behaviour, net-sampling to groundtruth acoustically visual layers is often limited, especially when operating from small vessels. Further, few ecological studies have investigated the relationship between the physical properties of the water column (current velocities, temperature, salinity) and biological layers (phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish). Studies including phytoplankton activity generally use an indicator, chlorophyll a fluorescence, as a predictor for higher trophic levels. Here, we use a combination of acoustic and optical sensors to map and visualise phyto-and zooplankton vertical distribution in relation to seabird at-sea distributions. For this, we mounted a fast-sampling holographic camera (holocam) recording high-magnification images of suspended particles (phytoplankton, zooplankton, detritus) to a hand-held CTD measuring salinity, temperature, depth and chlorophyll a. Profiles were collected during a small-boat acoustic survey in the Irish Sea (Aug 2019) which consisted of seabird observations during transects in both shallow coastal areas as well as deeper, pelagic waters. These, visual observations, optical and acoustic data together recorded concurrent information on seabird behaviour and the bio-physical properties of the water column, respectively. We show how data from the holocam can aid verification of phyto-and zooplankton in scattering layers and show preliminary analysis of how the bio-physical properties of the water column related to seabird distributions. Especially during more opportunistic, small-boat surveys, our approach may provide a viable alternative in the absence of net sampling in studies investigating productivity, trophodynamics and patchiness in pelagic ecosystems.

**Authors:**

Lilian Lieber¹, Sally O'Meara², Alex Nimmo-Smith³

¹Queen's University Belfast, ²Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, ³The University of Plymouth

Combining optical, active acoustic and physical sensors to characterize water column properties in relation to seabird at-sea distributions

**Abstract:**

Individuals often vary widely in their movement behaviour. Sometimes, this variation can be explained by plastic adjustments to prevailing conditions, but a growing evidence base shows that individuals can also be highly consistent in how they utilize space, once environmental conditions have been controlled for. The causes of this among-individual variation remain largely unknown, and in particular, the extent to which genetic variation contributes to total phenotypic variation in movement behaviour has seldom been examined in a wild population; despite being necessary for understanding the evolutionary potential of potentials. In this study, we combine a large-scale longitudinal tracking data set with an extensive social pedigree to estimate heritability in a suite of foraging-related movement behaviours (e.g. trip duration, etc) - for an ocean sentinel species, the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans. We focus on foraging trips undertaken during the incubation period, when adult birds face strong constraints brought about by the competing needs of self-maintenance, chick feeding, and partner relief. Our preliminary results suggest repeatability in foraging-related movement behaviours. Power analyses revealed the potential to detect heritability in foraging traits. However, based on our current assessment, heritability in mean trait values appear very low (< 0.1), suggesting that other mechanisms are likely to explain individual variation in foraging behaviour.

**Authors:**

Jack Thorley¹, Joanie Van de Walle², Stephanie Jenouvrier², Henri Weimerskirch³, Samantha Patrick¹

¹University of Liverpool, ²Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, ³CNRS - Université de la Rochelle

The heritability of foraging behaviour in wandering albatrosses

**Abstract:**

The knowledge of the distribution of seabirds is one of the most important factors in order to establish adequate protection and conservation measures. Seabirds are highly mobile animals making necessary to determine their distribution areas by relating environmental and oceanographic variables to the occurrence of seabirds. In most studies, Chlorophyll Concentration or Sea Surface Temperature are the most important environmental factors that determine its distribution. However, obtaining data at the local level and more directly related to the ecology of the birds, we could determinate if the real variable determining the distribution of seabirds is the predator-prey relationship. In this study, we aim to answer the question about what factors really determine the distribution of seabirds at a regional level obtaining direct information between the occurrence of seabirds and the prey they feed on. We analyse data from oceanographic campaigns to evaluate the fishing stock of the Gulf of Cádiz for 11 years, obtaining information on the distribution of fish species in their different stages (egg, larval, early-juvenile, adult), which are prey and food base for two endangered and protected species of seabirds: Balearic Shearwater and European Storm Petrel.

**Authors:**

Andres de la Cruz Muñoz¹, Gonzalo Muñoz Arroyo¹

¹University of Cadiz

A step toward saving the seabirds: Marine spatial planning informed through the application of the Key Biodiversity Area framework to seabird distribution data

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