United States

**Abstract:**

Understanding marine predator distributions is essential if we hope to arrest their catastrophic declines. In temperate and polar seas, predictable oceanographic features create productive hotspots and predator aggregations, which are suitable for designation as protected areas. In the tropics, however, oligotrophic conditions and weaker seasonal cues limit the tendency of marine predators to form lasting concentrations and thereby impede our ability to identify important at-sea areas. Here, we track the non-breeding movements of an assemblage of tropical seabirds (n = 365 individuals, from 10 species and 10 colonies) from across the Western Indian Ocean. These species dispersed widely during non-breeding, covering the entire tropical Indian Ocean, and spent no extended periods of residency in concentrated areas. Habitat selection models revealed divergent species-specific responses to a suite of environmental parameters. This in turn created even species richness with no clear hotspots, either when considering observed tracking data or extended to predicted distributions from colonies across species entire Indian Ocean range. When evaluating the marine protected area network in the region, areas of high species richness were not well captured by MPAs, even if predicted to be fully protected. Dispersive non-breeding movements of tropical seabirds in the Western Indian Ocean are in stark contrast to widespread patterns of biodiversity hotspots at higher latitudes and suggest that at-sea conservation of tropical marine predators requires re-consideration of traditional, spatial methods. This is crucial given the long-term erosion of tropical seabird assemblages but encouraging strides towards the conservation and restoration of colonies on land.

**Authors:**

Alice Trevail¹, Malcolm Nicoll², Robin Freeman², Matthieu Le Corre³, Jill Schwarz⁴, Pierre-Andre Adam⁵, Vincent Bretagnolle⁶, Licia Calabrese⁷, Chris Feare⁸, Audrey Jaeger³, Carl Jones⁹, Camille Lebarbenchon³, Ken Norris², Sabine Orlowski³, Patrick Pinet¹⁰, Virginie Plot³, Norman Rattcliffe¹¹, Gerard Rocamora¹², Nirmal Shah¹³, Stephen Votier¹⁴

¹University of Exeter, ²The Zoological Society of London, ³Université de la Réunion, ⁴University of Plymouth, ⁵Island Conservation Society, ⁶Centre d&#39;Etudes Biologiques de Chize (CEBC-CNRS), ⁷Independent Researcher, ⁸WildWings Bird Management, ⁹Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, ¹⁰Parc national de La Réunion, ¹¹British Antarctic Survey, ¹²University of Seychelles, ¹³Nature Seychelles, ¹⁴Heriot-Watt University

3rd World Seabird Conference

Diffuse patterns of at-sea movements by tropical seabirds

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!

**Abstract:**

Understanding marine predator distributions is essential if we hope to arrest their catastrophic declines. In temperate and polar seas, predictable oceanographic features create productive hotspots and predator aggregations, which are suitable for designation as protected areas. In the tropics, however, oligotrophic conditions and weaker seasonal cues limit the tendency of marine predators to form lasting concentrations and thereby impede our ability to identify important at-sea areas. Here, we track the non-breeding movements of an assemblage of tropical seabirds (n = 365 individuals, from 10 species and 10 colonies) from across the Western Indian Ocean. These species dispersed widely during non-breeding, covering the entire tropical Indian Ocean, and spent no extended periods of residency in concentrated areas. Habitat selection models revealed divergent species-specific responses to a suite of environmental parameters. This in turn created even species richness with no clear hotspots, either when considering observed tracking data or extended to predicted distributions from colonies across species entire Indian Ocean range. When evaluating the marine protected area network in the region, areas of high species richness were not well captured by MPAs, even if predicted to be fully protected. Dispersive non-breeding movements of tropical seabirds in the Western Indian Ocean are in stark contrast to widespread patterns of biodiversity hotspots at higher latitudes and suggest that at-sea conservation of tropical marine predators requires re-consideration of traditional, spatial methods. This is crucial given the long-term erosion of tropical seabird assemblages but encouraging strides towards the conservation and restoration of colonies on land.

**Authors:**

Alice Trevail¹, Malcolm Nicoll², Robin Freeman², Matthieu Le Corre³, Jill Schwarz⁴, Pierre-Andre Adam⁵, Vincent Bretagnolle⁶, Licia Calabrese⁷, Chris Feare⁸, Audrey Jaeger³, Carl Jones⁹, Camille Lebarbenchon³, Ken Norris², Sabine Orlowski³, Patrick Pinet¹⁰, Virginie Plot³, Norman Rattcliffe¹¹, Gerard Rocamora¹², Nirmal Shah¹³, Stephen Votier¹⁴

¹University of Exeter, ²The Zoological Society of London, ³Université de la Réunion, ⁴University of Plymouth, ⁵Island Conservation Society, ⁶Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chize (CEBC-CNRS), ⁷Independent Researcher, ⁸WildWings Bird Management, ⁹Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, ¹⁰Parc national de La Réunion, ¹¹British Antarctic Survey, ¹²University of Seychelles, ¹³Nature Seychelles, ¹⁴Heriot-Watt University

symposium

**Abstract:**

In the past few decades much has been learned about the effects of oil on marine ecosystems. Specifically, the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989, the Treasure oil spill in South Africa in 2000, and most recently the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, have led to an increase in studies that have examined the effects of oil on marine ecosystems, from invertebrates to birds. Currently in the Canadian Arctic there are low levels of shipping and oil exploration-related activities as compared to many other regions globally. While current levels of shipping and other oil-related activities may be low, there are natural oil and gas seeps in the region that expose seabird to oil-related contaminants. Importantly, there are several new biochemical/molecular techniques being used in effects studies in relation to oil. We present data on oil-related contaminants in two Arctic seabird species (the think-billed murre and the black guillemot) in relation to toxicogenomic and metabolomics tools that can identify sub-lethal effects from oil exposure. This information serves as baseline information for the region, as well as a tool that can be applied throughout these species' ranges to understand how oil pollution may affect the physiology of individuals.

**Authors:**

Jennifer Provencher¹, Mark Mallory², Bruce Pauli³, Phil Thomas³, Doug Crump³, Sarma Sailendra³, Yasmeen Zahaby³

¹ECCC, ²Acadia University, ³Environment and Climate Change Canada

Using toxicogenomic tools to detect effects of oil-related contaminants in seabirds

**Abstract:**

Climate change and wide-scale environmental shifts are modifying oceanic patterns, sea ice phenology and abundance, ultimately with implications on food web dynamics. These changes alter the abundance and distribution of primary producers such as ice algae and phytoplankton, with cascading effects at higher trophic levels. Mercury (Hg) is an endocrine disrupting compound that biomagnifies in animals as a result of prey choice. As such, uptake is affected by altered food web dynamics and environmental conditions, which adds an important risk-based dimension in studies of foraging ecology. Multidimensional niche dynamics (δ13C, δ15N, THg; total mercury) were determined among female common eiders (Somateria mollissima) from 10 breeding colonies in areas within North America, Europe, and Russia. Results showed high variation in colony niche dynamics, indicated by niche size and ranges in δ13C, δ15N and THg values in relation to sea-ice presence and colony migratory status. Colonies with higher sea-ice cover during the pre-incubation period had higher median colony δ13C, δ15N and THg. Individuals at migratory colonies had relatively higher THg and δ15N, as well as lower δ13C, suggesting a greater Hg exposure, higher trophic position, and a greater reliance on phytoplankton-based prey. We concluded that variation in multidimensional niche dynamics exists amongst eider colonies which influenced THg concentrations. Further exploration of spatial ecotoxicology and niche dynamics at individual colonies is important to examine the relationships between anthropogenic pressures, foraging behaviour, and the related risks of contaminant exposure at even low concentrations which cumulatively may contribute to negative effects on population stability. Overall, multidimensional niche analysis that incorporates multiple isotopic and contaminant metrics presents an opportunity to help identify populations at risk to rapidly altered food web dynamics.

**Authors:**

Reyd Smith¹, David Yurkowski², Kyle Parkinson¹, Jérôme Fort³, Holly Hennin⁴, H. Grant Gilchrist⁴, Oliver Love¹

¹University of Windsor, ²Fisheries and Oceans Canada, ³Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), ⁴Environment and Climate Change Canada

Environmental and life-history factors influence multidimensional niche metrics (δ13C, δ15N, Hg)

**Abstract:**

Among the many threats that seabirds are facing, exposure to infectious diseases is one of growing concern. Climate change, higher connectivity among remote areas and introduced species can increase the risk of disease emergence in populations of susceptible individuals, especially in species breeding in dense aggregations. In addition to understanding factors affecting the dynamics of transmission of infectious agents among and within seabird colonies, a better knowledge of the mechanisms underlying their immune system may be of critical relevance for their conservation. Because of the importance of exposure to disease agents during the breeding season in colonial species, we predicted that seabird species exhibiting extremely long lifespan and chick-rearing period may have developed a particularly long persistence of maternal antibodies to protect young offspring. After detecting such a long persistence in the Cory's shearwater using a transgenerational vaccination experiment, we implemented a comparative approach in other seabird species and an investigation of the physiological mechanism underlying the heterogeneity in the catabolism rate of IgY antibodies. The results of the comparative study suggest that at least Procellariforms appear to have evolved a mechanism for a long persistence of maternal antibodies after hatching. Based on these results, we have been investigating whether vaccination of female albatrosses could be used to protect recurrently their nestlings against avian cholera, an infectious disease causing massive die-offs of yellow-nosed albatross offspring on Amsterdam Island. The results have direct potential conservation implications as the local yellow-nosed albatross population is threatened by the epizooties on Amsterdam Island, and the very small endemic Amsterdam albatross population is at risk of exposure to the disease agent. The study illustrates how detailed understanding of physiological mechanisms may be of great relevance for conservation.

**Authors:**

Thierry Boulinier¹, Raul Ramos², Ana Sanz-Aguilar³, Sarah Burthe⁴, Henri Weimerskirch⁵, Maud Poibleau⁶, Hanna Granroth-Wilding⁷, Paolo Catry⁸, Hubert Gantelet⁹, Audrey Jaeger¹⁰, Pablo Tortosa¹⁰, Karine Delord⁵, Eric Thilbault⁹, Vincent Bourret¹¹, Jean-Marc Thiebot¹², Petra Quillfeldt¹³, Vincent Staszewski¹⁴, Jacob Gonzalez-Solis², Francis Daunt⁴, Emma Cunningham¹⁵, Torkild Tveraa¹⁶, Christophe Barbraud⁵, Jeremy Tornos¹, Romain Garnier¹⁷, Amandine Gamble¹⁸

¹CEFE CNRS, ²University of Barcelona, ³IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), ⁴CEH, ⁵CEBC CNRS, ⁶University of Antwerp, ⁷University of Helsinki, ⁸ISPA, ⁹Ceva Biovac, ¹⁰Université La Réunion, ¹¹N/A, ¹²National Institute of Polar Research, ¹³University of Giessen, ¹⁴Boehringer Ingelheim, ¹⁵Universzity of Edinburgh, ¹⁶NINA, ¹⁷Georgetown University, ¹⁸University of California, Los Angeles

From immuno-ecology to conservation: how deciphering physiological mechanisms can help conservation

**Abstract:**

The struggle to maximize fitness is often one of energy balance and imbalance. Stress, whether explored through oxidative damage, elevated glucocorticoids, or a state of allostatic overload, may be defined as a state in which demands to repair damage and maintain homeostasis exceed the resources available. Reproduction may thus also be a stressful experience, albeit one that yields direct fitness benefits. When stress is increased survival may be compromised. A decrease in survival may be adaptive (a trade-off or cost of reproduction) but sometimes it is simply a cost, lost fitness opportunities. Telomeres are an integrative biomarker of somatic state in vertebrates that can be measured non-lethally. Telomere length is a DNA marker shown to predict lifespan and mortality in a variety of taxa, including long-lived seabirds. Here I will present what is known about the developing field of telomeric ecology in the context of seabirds and marine conservation. I will address three topics: A) Telomere length predicts survival and quality within individuals and family groups. The strength of this biomarker is that it integrates the information from many others. Telomere length shortens in response to oxidative stress, elevated glucocorticoids, and contaminants. B) Telomere length in an individual may reflect life history or foraging strategy. New results indicate that offspring telomere phenotype is affected by post-natal parental care, and thus may mediate telomere heritability. Despite being a DNA marker, telomere length is inherited in both a genetic and epigenetically-determined fashion. C) Telomere length and dynamics can act as a snapshot of a seabird population and may provide indications of population trends. Linking individual physiology to population trends at the colony level may assist conservation by identifying populations of concern.

**Authors:**

Rebecca Young¹

¹North Dakota State University

Telomere length as a biomarker of individual state: heritability, reflection of environment, and link to population trends

**Abstract:**

Seabirds are amongst the most threatened birds in the world, and incidental mortality (bycatch) in fisheries is one of the primary causes of population declines of large petrels. Albatrosses are particularly vulnerable given their life histories and because they are so wide-ranging, travelling hundreds to thousands of kilometres, and potentially encountering multiple threats in national and international waters. They are also attracted in very large numbers to fishing vessels to feed on offal or bait. Assessing their susceptibility to bycatch is essential for effective management and conservation. Wandering albatrosses at South Georgia have declined catastrophically since the 1960s, leading to the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands-led Action Plan, and their listing as one of nine global priority populations by the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP). Limited vessel-based monitoring indicate two areas of particularly high risk for wandering albatrosses; the Patagonian Shelf and Subtropical Convergence. Using novel radar-detecting loggers, we investigate the interactions of tracked wandering albatrosses with vessels in the South Atlantic. We quantify response distance and time spent following vessels during foraging trips, to map bycatch risk. This indicates where, when and from which fleets bycatch risk is greatest for wandering albatrosses, and greatly improves on previous coarse-scale analysis of overlap with fishing effort, to clearly identify areas and periods of highest susceptibility to bycatch.

**Authors:**

Ana Bertoldi Carneiro¹, Maria P. Dias, Steffen Oppel, Elizabeth Pearmain¹, Bethany L Clark, Andrew Wood², Tyler Clavelle, Richard Phillips²

¹BirdLife International, ²British Antarctic Survey

Fine scale seabird foraging behaviour in relation to fisheries

**Abstract:**

Bird species that practice obligate siblicide (originally named cainism) lay two eggs, but almost never raise more than one offspring, because the first hatched chick kills the second soon after hatching. The adaptive value of this behavior has puzzled naturalists since the times of Aristoteles. There is still no general satisfactory explanation for the evolution of this behavior, although various mechanisms have been proposed. According to the "Insurance hypothesis", by laying an extra egg, the parents may be able to protect themselves from raising an under-sized brood (or no young at all) in a given season; specifically, they are buffered against complete reproductive failure that may arise from early mortality of eggs and chicks. This study aimed to test the "Insurance hypothesis" for the laying of a second egg. We experimentally tested this hypothesis in pairs of adjacent 2-egg clutches in a colony of breeding brown boobies (Sula leucogaster), by removing one egg from experimental clutches while holding unmanipulated clutches as controls. As predicted, the experimental nests on average produced fewer hatchlings and a smaller proportion of them had a chick at 10days, i.e. 34% and 61% for experimentals and controls, respectively. This difference was almost three-fold difference at 60 days post-hatching, i.e. 12% of experimental nests vs 31% of control nests produced a fledgling. The insurance benefit of the second egg seemed to be most significant during the incubation phase, or for fertilization of the eggs, because there was no difference in success between parents that had hatched one versus two eggs among unmanipulated clutches. However, among nests that were deserted during chick rearing, parents that had hatched two eggs tended to remain longer than parents that had hatched only one egg. We conclude that the most important insurance benefit of a second egg is against egg hatching failure.

**Authors:**

Lars Hillström¹, Francisco Sanchez Tortosa²

¹University of Gävle, ²University of Cordoba

Function of obligate siblicide in the Brown booby, Sula leucogaster: an experimental test of the Insurance hypothesis.

**Abstract:**

While most bird species exhibit bi-parental care, with both parents adjusting theirs workload in respect to each other, still little is known of how this adjustment is achieved. Vocal communication has recently been pointed out as a potential mechanism of such parental care adjustment in songbirds, but remains poorly studied in seabirds. Here we examine the role of partners' vocal interactions in the parental care of a monogamous seabird, the Little Auk (Alle alle). Little Auks' breeding partners share their parental duties equally and in a coordinated manner; during the whole breeding period they frequently meet at the nest and vocalize together, which makes it a perfect system for studying the role of vocal communication in parental coordination. We investigate whether the temporal and acoustical structure of the partners' vocal interaction in the nest predict its output (relief or not of the incubating partner), and whether they are related to the duration of the previous and subsequent incubation bouts. Our results are the first attempt to answer such questions in seabirds, and we believe they will constitute a solid background for both examining the mechanisms regulating parental care and the importance of vocal communication between avian breeding partners.

**Authors:**

Marion Devogel¹, Antoine Grissot¹, Dorota Kidawa¹, Marcelo Araya-Salas², Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas¹

¹University of Gdansk, ²Universidad de San josé

Should I stay or should I go: Is vocal communication a key to coordinated parental care in a monogamous seabird, the Little Auk (Alle alle) ?

**Abstract:**

Many seabird populations are rapidly declining. For numerous colonies, only recent and/or sparse monitoring data are available that do not consider the population's long-term variability when developing management strategies. In our study, we used a broad spectrum of landscape-scale paleoenvironmental approaches on dated lake sediment cores to examine millennial-scale dynamics from two of the world's largest colonies of vulnerable Leach's Storm-petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous) on Baccalieu Island and Grand Colombier Island, both located off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Available survey data demonstrates the storm-petrel colonies have declined since the 1980s, and may have stabilized by the early 2000s. However, little is known about the timing and cause of the colony declines, nor is there information on the natural long-term variability prior to the influence of anthropogenic stressors. Our reconstructed populations, based on limnological changes from seabird-derived nutrient and metal inputs preserved in sediments, corroborate the limited survey data that suggest a recent decline, and indicate large-scale fluctuations over millennial timescales. On Baccalieu Island, two distinct colony peaks were observed during the last 1,700 years, and on Grand Colombier Island we track at least four distinct peaks over 5,500 years. The asynchronous peaks and valleys in population size of the studied colonies, coupled with in-field observations and genetic analyses, provide evidence for recruitment and mobility of storm-petrels among colonies as key dynamics in the storm-petrel metapopulation. Based on our results, we emphasize that the recent decline in storm-petrels is real and requires immediate conservation action to understand the mechanism(s) driving the decline. Our long-term perspectives highlight the need for protected area networks to sustain natural population cycles. We demonstrate paleolimnological techniques have the potential to provide a long-term context for the size and persistence of seabird populations, which can lead to more realistic conservation strategies that take into account temporal demographic dynamics across a species' range.

**Authors:**

Matthew Duda¹, Gregory Robertson², Joeline Lim¹, Jennifer Kissinger³, David Eickmeyer³, Christopher Grooms¹, William Montevecchi⁴, Linda Kimpe³, Neal Michelutti¹, Jules Blais³, John Smol¹

¹Queen's University, ²Environment and Climate Change Canada, ³University of Ottawa, ⁴Memorial University of Newfoundland

Assessing millennial-scale changes in seabird colony size using paleoenvironmental techniques: Case studies of Leach's Storm-Petrels in Eastern North America

**Abstract:**

The recent development of global databases to store data has facilitated the share of information between researchers. The field of marine conservation has been one of the most noticeable beneficiaries of such collaborations. Only now, with these multi-colony datasets that encompass numerous species and sometimes taxa (e.g. seabirds and marine mammals), are researchers able to understand the "big picture" of the importance of different marine areas, and build stronger cases to support and advocate for their effective protection. In this talk we show several examples of how the Seabird Tracking Database held By BirdLife International has been used to promote seabird conservation based on multi-colony analyses. We will give a particular focus on studies involving a large number of collaborators and that resulted in a practical conservation outcome, such as 1) the identification of a hotspot for 23 migratory species (from 105 colonies) in the North-East Atlantic, which resulted in an MPA proposal in the OSPAR convention area; 2) the identification of areas of high bycatch risk for albatrosses and petrels in the southern ocean, based on data from 36 colonies and used to inform Regional Fisheries Management Organizations on bycatch mitigation measures; and 3) the identification of Key Biodiversity Areas for the community of 10 seabird species breeding in multiple colonies at South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI), where results were used to evaluate the role of the SGSSIMPA in covering the most important sites for the conservation of top marine predators breeding at this archipelago. This presentation will be focused on the challenges faced in collating data for a large number of species, the statistical methods to deal with different types of data and on the discussion of the existing conservation gaps that can be addressed with similar approaches.

**Authors:**

Maria Dias¹, Ana Carneiro¹, Tammy Davies¹, Jonathan Handley¹, Elizabeth Pearmain¹

¹BirdLife International

The importance of multi-colony and multi-species studies for seabird conservation

**Abstract:**

Species distributions are shifting poleward in response to climate change, but not all with the same pace or pattern. In particular, colonial predators may struggle to keep pace with prey because colony formation is rare. Despite its importance, little is known about the complex process of range shifting in colonial animals. Seabirds provide a useful model, as they are tied to land in the breeding season, but their marine prey is not. Existing colonies provide defence, mates and information, but also cause intense competition for food, which is reflected in high foraging effort as individuals must travel further and search for longer. As such, smaller colonies can expand more quickly than larger colonies, particularly if nearby foraging grounds attract recruits. The presence of nearby colonies also increases foraging effort due to competition, suggesting a possible benefit to being at range margins. Here we examine foraging trip duration and range, using data obtained from bird-borne loggers, to quantify effort across a large latitudinal gradient (48.15°N to 71.23°N) in the northern gannet Morus bassanus. This wide-ranging marine predator provides a rare example of a well-documented poleward-shifting seabird. We collated data representing 850 breeding gannets from 20 of the 54 currently occupied colonies. Trip duration and range both increased substantially with colony size. However, after controlling for colony size, trip duration and range also decreased significantly with latitude suggesting suitable conditions for gannets on the northern edge of their range but poor conditions at the southern edge. Lower foraging effort at the expanding range margin may allow distribution shift in colonial species in response to environmental change if the barriers to colony formation can be overcome.

**Authors:**

Bethany Clark¹, Freydís Vigfúsdóttir², Sarah Wanless³, Keith Hamer⁴, Thomas Bodey⁵, Jez Blackburn⁶, Sam Cox⁷, Stefan Garthe⁸, David Grémillet⁹, Amélie Lescroël¹⁰, William Montevecchi¹¹, Pascal Provost¹², Ewan Wakefield¹³, Stephen Votier⁵

¹BirdLife International, ²University of Iceland, ³Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, ⁴University of Leeds, ⁵University of Exeter, ⁶British Trust for Ornithology, ⁷Centre d'Etude Biologique de Chizé, ⁸Kiel University, ⁹University of Montpellier, ¹⁰Point Blue, ¹¹Memorial University of Newfoundland, ¹²Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux, ¹³University of Glasgow

Diffuse patterns of at-sea movements by tropical seabirds

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