Sarah N.P. Wong

Sarah N.P. Wong
Environment & Climate Change Canada-Canadian Wildlife Service

PhD

About

39
Publications
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Publications

Publications (39)
Article
Seabirds are important sentinels of climate and ecosystem change, but many breeding populations are difficult to monitor because of the remoteness and inaccessibility of their colonies, and the sometimes cryptic nature of their nests and burrows. Large‐scale monitoring of seabird populations at sea can also be used to estimate population trends and...
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Systematic surveys of marine birds from ships were first conducted by the Canadian Wildlife Service in Atlantic Canada in 1965, and then expanded to the Canadian Arctic in 1969 under PIROP (Programme intégré de recherches sur les oiseaux pélagiques). PIROP surveys ended in 1992, then resumed in 2006 under the Eastern Canada Seabirds at Sea program...
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Spatial planning for marine areas of multi-species conservation concern requires in-depth assessment of the distribution of predators and their prey. Northern Gannets Morus bassanus are generalist predators that predate several different forage fishes depending on their availability. In the western North Atlantic, gannets employ different dive tact...
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In the Arctic, chemical contaminants, shipping, oil pollution, plastic pollution, changing habitats in relation to climate change and fisheries have been identified as environmental stressors to seabirds such as Fulmarus glacialis (northern fulmar; qaqulluk; ᖃᖁᓪᓗᖅ), but rarely have these stressors been considered within a cumulative effects framewo...
Article
2023. Experts' opinions on threats to Leach's Storm-Petrels (Hydrobates leucorhous) across their global range. Avian Conservation and Ecology 18(1):11. https://doi. ABSTRACT. Seabirds are declining globally, though the threats they face differ among and within species and populations. Following substantial population declines at several breeding co...
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Wind patterns shape migratory pathways and detours of many procellariiform bird species that seasonally migrate between hemispheres. These seabirds are long-lived, and the period of immaturity is presumed to be a time of development and learning the environment, specifically how to use wind to their advantage. We assess how wind encountered by indi...
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The Arctic is changing rapidly due to climate change, which is allowing unprecedented levels of vessel traffic to transit the region. Vessel traffic can negatively affect marine wildlife in a number of ways, particularly in areas where vessels overlap with high concentrations of ecologically important species, and the significance of these impacts...
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Common eiders Somateria mollissima have been a focus of conservation and management efforts in eastern North American for over a century; however, the complex population structure and multiple subspecies make assessing the status of populations challenging. The coastlines of Nova Scotia, Canada, are an important wintering area for common eiders, an...
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Hydrobates leucorhous (Leach’s Storm-Petrel) is widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but its North American populations are declining. The causes and extent of the decline are uncertain, making continued population monitoring and identification of colonies a priority for the management of this species. Detailed long-term studies o...
Article
Marine birds are frequently found dead on beaches, either from natural or from anthropogenic causes. Complete necropsies of those carcasses can provide valuable information, particularly for pelagic species, such as Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) and shearwaters, which come to land only to breed and for which information on diseases that may...
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Hydrobates leucorhous (Leach’s Storm-petrel) is widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but colonies in Atlantic Canada are declining. We assessed the diet of Leach’s Storm-petrels from colonies at Country and Bon Portage islands, NS, Canada, and Kent Island, NB, Canada, during the chick-rearing period in 2018 and 2019. Prey composit...
Article
The Leach's storm-petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous) is one of the most abundant and widely distributed marine birds in the North Atlantic but is under global population decline, possibly linked to marine pollution. We determined levels of ingested plastic and hepatic total mercury (THg) in recently fledged juveniles that stranded in Newfoundland and L...
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Watershed acidification and poor water quality can deleteriously affect amphibian populations. Between 1990 and 2008, we sampled 333 small, permanent (inundated year round) waterbodies that drain forested areas in the Algoma, Muskoka and Sudbury regions of central Ontario, Canada to determine whether water chemistry parameters, fish presence, and w...
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Aim Climate change is altering marine ecosystems worldwide and is most pronounced in the Arctic. Economic development is increasing leading to more disturbances and pressures on Arctic wildlife. Identifying areas that support higher levels of predator abundance and biodiversity is important for the implementation of targeted conservation measures a...
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The Canadian Arctic hosts millions of marine birds annually, many of which aggregate in large numbers at well-defined sites at predictable times of the year. Marine habitats in this region will be under increasing threats from anthropogenic activities, largely facilitated by climate change and long-term trends of reduced sea ice extent and thicknes...
Article
Millions of seabirds use the waters off Baffin Island. Considering current and future vessel activity in this region, it is important to understand where vulnerability to anthropogenic threats is highest to enable sound wildlife management and regulatory decisions. Using kernel density analysis on at-sea survey data spanning 1970 to 1983 and 2007 t...
Article
During late summer and early autumn, the Bay of Fundy, Canada, is an important foraging area for many species of post-breeding and migratory seabirds, yet there has been limited effort to quantify the number of birds using these waters. Furthermore, the numbers of phalaropes Phalaropus spp. using this region as a stopover during autumn migration is...
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Shearwaters are among the most abundant seabirds globally and breeding birds often travel thousands of kilometres during foraging trips to productive marine areas. Great Shearwaters Ardenna gravis are endemic breeders of the Tristan da Cunha Archipelago with a population of 5–6 million breeding pairs making them key top predators within the South A...
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Changes in clutch and egg size in many avian species have been linked to seasonal variation, female physiological state, and laying date during breeding season. These reproductive variables have also been linked to population status and habitat variables. Recent declines in Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) populations in the Atlantic region may be a...
Chapter
In the face of increasing extinction rates, it is vital to have estimates of relative and absolute species abundance and their relationship to important factors. For species that live in the oceans or large lakes, this can be a difficult task. Here, we present a method for estimating absolute abundance from a single binary acoustic time series. The...
Article
Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are widely distributed in all oceans, but they are clumped geographically, generally in areas associated with high primary and secondary productivity. The warm, clear waters of the Sargasso Sea are traditionally thought be low in productivity, however recent surveys have found large numbers of sperm whales ther...
Article
The conservation status of basking sharks Cetorhinus maximus in eastern Canadian waters is not clearly understood, in part because population densities and abundances have not been recently estimated. On September 11, 2009 and 2011, aerial surveys of basking sharks were conducted in the lower Bay of Fundy, Canada. Flyover tests of a wooden shark si...
Article
The distribution and thickness of sea ice in the Arctic is changing rapidly, resulting in changes to Arctic marine ecosystems. Seabirds are widely regarded as indicators of marine environmental change, and understanding their distribution patterns can serve as a tool to monitor and elucidate biological changes in the Arctic seas. We examined the at...
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We can examine the evolution of multilevel societies using comparative studies. Intraspecific omparisons are valuable because confounding factors are reduced. Female sperm whales live in multilevel societies. However, studies at several locations have found substantial and consistent differences in social structure between the eastern Pacific and N...
Article
During nesting periods, seabirds are known to exhibit considerable inter-annual variability in diets, yet little is known about the diets of pelagic seabirds during non-breeding periods. Over 5 yr (2005 to 2009), we studied dietary partitioning between sympatric greater and sooty shear-waters, Puffinus gravis and P. griseus, during migratory stagin...
Article
We examined the marine distribution and behavior of newly fledged juvenile (hatching year; HY) and adult (after hatching year; AHY) Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) off southwest Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to test whether assumptions associated with estimating productivity are met in this area. Productivity estimates for murrel...
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The forest fragments surrounding the 192-ha Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary (BFMS) in central Ghana contain small populations of Colobus vellerosus. Data were collected on activity budget, ranging patterns and habitat use of 3 groups living in these small fragments in August-November 2003, and compared to 3 BFMS groups. Fragment groups spent less ti...
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The forest fragments surrounding the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary (BFMS) in central Ghana shelter small populations of Colobus vellerosus. Little is known about these populations or the ability of the fragments to support them, despite the fact that these fragments represent potentially important habitat for the colobus in this region. We compare...
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The Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary (BFMS) is inhabited by a growing population of Ursine colobus (Colobus vellerosus), a species that is listed as vulnerable. Smaller, degraded forest fragments that surround the BFMS also contain C. vellerosus and may provide an important habitat for the monkeys. Our objectives were to 1) determine the current popu...
Article
A census of the Grand Manan Archipelago, New Brunswick, Canada, found nine seabird species nesting at 22 sites. Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) and Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) were the most widely distributed species, with a combined 89% of all breeding seabirds in the region. Although fewer, the Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) and...

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