Seabirds - Science topic

El palangre de superficie es un arte pesca dirigido a la captura de peces pelágicos, el cual puede enganchar especies vulnerables como tiburones, tortugas, aves y mamíferos marinos. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue analizar la incidencia de estos grupos en la pesca de barcos nodrizas ecuatorianos. La base de datos fue proporcionada por el Insti...

The present study aimed to investigate the occurrence and molecular identity of piroplasmids, haemosporidians and Anaplasmataceae agents in Procelariiformes birds and Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) rescued in different coastal regions of Brazil. Between 2015 and 2022, blood samples (n = 52) from twelve species of Procelariiformes and...

In the Gulf of California, seabirds carry heavy loads to feed their chicks, making their takeoff capacity crucial for foraging. While some studies explore this, few consider the lift force, induced power, or aerobic vs. anaerobic performance. Moreover, the differences between individuals—such as size or sex—remain largely unexamined, leaving gaps i...

Tropical marine habitats are among the most biodiverse on Earth but are facing accelerated local and global threats. Well-planned marine protected areas (MPAs) are a countermeasure for biodiversity loss and an alternative to maintain ecosystem services and their sustainable uses. Despite the need to improve the ecological representativeness of the...

This paper summarises myctophid distribution from surveys from the Crozet to Kerguelen regions of the Southern Indian Ocean. These fish play a crucial role in the marine ecosystem trophic web as they are important prey for seabirds and marine mammals. This study integrates both the subtropical and Southern Ocean species from surveys from 2017 to 20...

In the context of global environmental changes, cognition (i.e., the processing of information) is thought to play a key role in how animals cope with novel and unpredictable conditions. Yet, the same environmental changes can alter or impair animals’ cognitive entities (e.g., memory, learning). For example, in seabirds, fatty acids (omega-3 and om...

Wildlife in coastal zones is often affected by anthropogenic and environmental factors that intensify at the interface of land and water. Seabirds are particularly susceptible to disturbances when they breed in large, dense colonies, such as direct harm from extreme weather and interference, or exposure of eggs and chicks to predators due to indire...

Seabirds are among the most threatened vertebrates, under pressure from fisheries bycatch, climate change, overfishing, and human disturbance. In France, demographic studies have highlighted adult survival as a key factor in population trends, which calls for large-scale marine conservation efforts. In this context, the Natura 2000 policy requires...

The U.S. Pacific Islands (USPIs) comprise a globally significant region for seabirds, with some of the largest and most diverse assemblages of tropical seabird species in the world. To help direct seabird conservation in USPIs, we conducted a survey of 75 regional seabird experts and compared results with our own technical risk assessments based on...

Microplastics (MPs) pollution has emerged as a significant global issue, posing potential threats to diverse ecosystems and wildlife species. Scientists have been documenting the presence of plastics in aquatic environments since the 1950s. Annually, approximately 8 million tonnes of plastic waste make its way into the oceans, a consequence of the...

Background: Breeding pelagic seabirds feed over wide areas. Their diet and space use can therefore provide proxies for otherwise be difficult to observe environmental conditions but interpretation of these proxies requires knowledge of foraging range. Antarctic sea ice regulates global climate, but a paucity of data on its past extent causes uncert...

Invasive rodents severely impact native species, especially on oceanic islands. House mice Mus musculus are known predators of seabird chicks, and there is growing concern about their attacks on adult birds. On sub-Antarctic Marion Island, the single largest breeding site for wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans, invasive mice, the sole introduce...

Ecosystem-based fisheries management requires the successful integration of ecosystem information into the fisheries management process. In the Northeast Pacific Ocean, ecosystem data collection and accessibility have achieved successful milestones, yet application to the harvest specification process remains challenging. The synthesis, interpretat...

O Guia de Boas Práticas para a Observação de Aves Marinhas, publicado em 2025 pelo ICMBio, foi elaborado para orientar observadores e gestores sobre como praticar a observação de aves marinhas de forma ética e responsável no Brasil. Fruto da cooperação de diversos especialistas e financiado pelo GEF, o guia integra o Plano de Ação Nacional para a C...

The polar sea-ice zones are highly productive and seasonal habitats that support large populations of vertebrate predators. In the Antarctic, snow petrels (Pagodroma nivea) are regarded as highly ice-dependant, yet knowledge of their habitat use and foraging distribution during the breeding period comes largely from ship-based observations. Snow pe...

The Patagonian Sea is a highly productive marine ecosystem and a hotspot for seabird diversity and density in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean. Reports of unusual mortality events are relatively scarce in this region, likely due to under detection and investigation. In this study, we report on four unusual mortality events affecting seabirds in the Pat...

The brown noddy (Anous stolidus) is a charadriiform seabird of the family Laridae that inhabits tropical and subtropical rocky and sandy areas across all oceans. It can often be observed at sea, foraging alongside flocks of boobies and other terns. Although it is a marine bird, it feeds at the surface and does not dive, unlike most tern species. Pa...

The distributions of birds on the islands of Aitutaki were surveyed 3–13 Oct 2024. We document 22 resident and migratory species across the 17 islands of the almost-atoll Aitutaki, with regionally important colonies of red-tailed tropicbirds (Phaethon rubricauda), red-footed boobies (Sula sula), and wedge-tailed shearwaters (Ardenna pacifica), as w...

Aim Penguins are seabirds exclusively found in the Southern Hemisphere, with their existence dating back to the late Cretaceous. Despite their exceptional dispersal capabilities, which allow them to inhabit a wide range of environments—from polar regions to temperate zones, and even near the Equator—penguins are absent in the Northern Hemisphere. T...

Many marine ectotherms have historically adapted to local climate change by evolving smaller body sizes, reducing their energy demands in warmer waters but limiting their dispersal and speciation rate. Whether endothermic marine species respond similarly remains unclear, as temperature minimally affects their size diversity, and the drivers of thei...

This study investigates the presence of avian coronaviruses (CoVs), Avian influenza viruses (AIVs), and Avian rotaviruses group A (AvRVs) in seabird populations inhabiting the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA), isolated and remote oceanic islands situated in the equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean. In July 2022, 95 environmental fe...

Sexual segregation in feeding ecology is widely documented in seabirds. The Imperial Cormorant (Leucocarbo atriceps) shows sexual differences in diet composition and feeding behaviour but no studies have yet simultaneously characterised different dimensions of female (F) and male (M) trophic niches during the incubation period. Patterns of sexual s...

Information on seabird diet is key to understanding their ecological role in the marine food web. The Mediterranean Sea is a biodiversity hotspot that is experiencing a series of growing threats, including overfishing and climate change. The Scopoli’s (Calonectris diomedea) and Yelkouan shearwaters (Puffinus yelkouan), two marine predators in the r...

Sex differences in foraging behaviour can arise in monomorphic species when reproductive roles differ. How these differences shape foraging behaviour during the pre-laying period—an understudied reproductive stage in seabirds—remains unclear. In a monomorphic procellariform seabird, the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), we compare foraging behav...

Invasive mammal eradications are commonplace in island conservation. However, post‐eradication monitoring beyond the confirmation of target species removal is rarer. Seabirds are ecosystem engineers on islands and are negatively affected by invasive mammals. Following an invasive mammal eradication, the recovery of seabird populations can be necess...

Bycatch poses a significant threat to seabird populations globally. On the southern coast of mainland Portugal, mitigation measures were tested to reduce seabird interactions with fishing vessels. Between 2021 and 2023, this study evaluated the effectiveness of a visual deterrent (a 'scarybird' device), an acoustic deterrent (megaphone broadcasts),...

The widespread use of petroplastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene has led to pervasive microplastic (MP) pollution across environmental compartments, raising serious ecological and public health concerns. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the environmental toxicity Review Article Puranik et al.; Int. J. Environ. Clim. Change, vo...

The currently circulating high‐pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) virus of the subtype H5 causes variable illness and death in wild and domestic birds and mammals, as well as in humans. This virus evolved from the Goose/Guangdong lineage of the HPAI H5 virus, which emerged in commercial poultry in China in 1996, spilled over into wild birds, and...

Coral reefs receive both passive and active nutrient subsidies, supplied via oceanographic processes and animal-mediated transfer, which can bolster reef productivity and resilience to disturbance. We examined the relative importance of these two pathways across lagoonal and seaward reefs, reefs of different depths, and those around islands either...

Seabirds can disperse widely when searching for prey, particularly during nonbreeding periods. Conservation measures predominately focus on protecting breeding colonies, while spatial protection at sea is often based on knowledge of the distribution of breeding adults, despite accumulating evidence that marine habitats used by immature birds someti...

Understanding the dynamics of coastal marine ecosystems is fundamental for assessing environmental health and addressing anthropogenic impacts. This study analyzes a decade-long dataset of high-resolution Chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) measurements collected hourly from August 2012 to December 2022 at the E1 meteo-oceanographic buoy (Böhm et al. 2...

Parental food provisioning is crucial in avian breeding ecology, with significant implications for parental cooperation, sibling competition, and chick survival. Traditional methods for assessing food provisioning in marine birds involve direct observation, video recording, or more invasive techniques like chick weighing and regurgitation induction...

Aim Predicting species' potential distributions and niches requires multi‐scale data encompassing the past and present. Increasingly, researchers have advocated using historical context to inform ecological niche models (ENMs). Two key sources of past distributions are fossils and historical records. Fossils are subject to sampling and taphonomy bi...

Coastal areas are an important source of food and a valuable tourism asset for communities, but also highly dynamic and heterogeneous environments. Understanding how marine species respond to the variability of their habitat is essential to sustainably manage coastal resources. Here we investigate the distribution of highly mobile marine species in...

Seabirds are responsible for transporting marine material to oceanic islands, and attempts are being made to restore their function on many islands where they have become extinct. However, little is known about the original island ecosystems prior to disturbance. Minamiiwoto, located in the Ogasawara Islands, is an uninhabited oceanic island that r...

The spread of high pathogenicity avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b into Antarctica represents a major threat to polar wildlife. Here we report on the detection and genomic analysis of HPAIV H5N1 in a kelp gull ( Larus domincanus ), a pintado petrel ( Daption capense ), and an Antarctic fur seal ( Arctocephalus gazella ) during the 2...

Coastal seabirds are valuable indicators of ecological change in nearshore marine systems impacted by human activities. This study examined how human population growth and urban expansion have influenced the long-term dietary patterns of karoro (southern black-backed gull Larus dominicanus) in Auckland, Aotearoa | New Zealand. Specifically, we asse...

1. Energy intake is a fundamental currency in ecology that is critical to reproductive success, survival and lifetime fitness. Measuring foraging success in wild animals via biologgers has been a long-standing challenge. 2. Flying animals gain mass during foraging, and they must counteract the associated increased gravitational force by creating ad...

In the Mediterranean, the dune–beach ecosystem is characterized by the presence of thick deposits of dead leaves of the endemic seagrass Posidonia oceanica, called banquettes (Dune–Beach–Banquette ecosystem—DBB). This ecosystem plays an important role in the coupling between sea and land. The banquettes provide important ecosystem services: protect...

Introduction Estimated white blood cell (WBC) counts are a valuable tool for assessing individual and population health in wildlife and domestic animals due to their role in the response to environmental stressors and disease. These measures are infrequently used in the study of wild seabird species, despite their utility when used alongside other...

Among species reproducing sexually, mating strategies represent a major component of individual fitness. The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is an extremely diverse set of genes responsible for immunological recognition and defence against pathogens. Although MHC dissimilarity between mates has been proposed to drive mate choice through incr...

Recent advancements in deep learning and aerial imaging have transformed wildlife monitoring, enabling researchers to survey wildlife populations at unprecedented scales. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) provide a cost-effective means of capturing high-resolution imagery, particularly for monitoring densely populated seabird colonies. In this study,...

On December 23, 1994, I departed for Tirana. My motivation for accepting this responsibility was that Albania held a unique strategic significance, and developing cultural relations with its people after the communist era was extremely important. After a twenty-day solo trip to Albania and renting a place for work on Kavaja Street in Tirana, I quic...

Incidental catch of seabirds (bycatch) in fisheries has been identified as a major threat to the conservation of seabird populations. Acquiring accurate, detailed data on seabird bycatch is an ongoing challenge to effective integrated ecosystem management of commercial fisheries. To collect detailed data on seabird bycatch in the Greenland halibut...

Understanding climate change impacts in combination with other anthropogenic stressors, such as chemical pollution, is critical to identifying vulnerable marine ecosystems. This paper presents a systematic review and conceptual model mapping evidence of the marine environmental fate and biological effects of persistent organic pollutants with shift...

We provide an overview of 25 years of research at the East Bay Mainland Research Station, in the Qaqsauqtuuq Migratory Bird Sanctuary, Southampton Island, Nunavut. The earliest research at the site targeted waterfowl and seabirds, but work since 2000 has focused on shorebirds. The site offers the longest running study of breeding shorebirds in the...

Seabird populations along the Alaskan coast have been rapidly declining due to anthropogenic climate change and other associated factors. This study examines the effects of sea surface temperature (SST) and fishing activity on the abundance of Alaskan seabird species. We downloaded bird observation data from the International Pacific Halibut Commis...

Marine litter, including Floating Marine Macro-Litter (FMML) and microplastics (MP), poses a major threat to marine ecosystems. This study investigates the seasonal distribution of FMML and MP in the Ebro Delta, a key Mediterranean wetland, and evaluates the potential risk to three tern species (family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae) that rely on the...

Low temperatures and nutrient limitation have shaped Arctic plant communities, which are now affected by biome‐wise changes in both climate and nutrient cycling. Rising temperatures are favouring taller plant species with more resource‐acquisitive traits across the Arctic tundra. Simultaneously, declines in seabird populations may reduce subsidies...

Globally, plastic pollution is acknowledged as a serious human-caused problem for marine and coastal ecosystems. The main sources of these pollutants in the many ways they enter the ocean are land-based and sea-based. Megaplastic, mesoplastic, macroplastic, and microplastic are among the various sizes and kinds of plastic pollutants that are found...

High pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) has caused widespread sickness and mortality in poultry and wildlife, especially since the emergence of a novel H5 virus belonging to clade 2.3.4.4b in 2021. The ongoing panzootic caused by this lineage has infected an unprecedented diversity of species across the globe. Here, we analyse outbreak notificati...

The Pacific Project exposed U.S. sailors to biowarfare and chemical agents. Forty years later, some of these sickened warriors are still ‘lost’ at sea. Mention that you're a biologist at a party, and half the people in the room will begin to yawn. The other half will be intrigued, and someone will say that they always wanted to be Jacques Cousteau....

News on New Delhi's foreign policy has recently been among the top stories in the media. On April 11, 2005, India started a strategic partnership with China, and, on June 29, 2005, signed a 10-year defense agreement with the United States. Western observers, however, have paid less attention to an ambitious Indian move in the military field: Projec...

Seabirds are widely considered sentinels of their coastal ecosystems. However, biological associations between specific marine and terrestrial factors and seabird health are less well understood. Here, we investigate the associations between habitat‐scale processes and variability in body condition of breeding little penguins Eudyptula minor, acros...

Individual behavioural consistency has been identified throughout the animal kingdom and is commonly observed in foraging behaviour. Foraging consistency has been linked to several extrinsic (e.g., prey availability) and intrinsic factors (e.g., age, sex), including animal personality, and can influence fitness. We investigated consistency in the f...

A visual summary of the success of the Mana Island 2024/25 seabird season, thus far the most successful on record.

Behavioral coordination between mated pairs plays a critical role in the reproductive success of many species practicing bi-parental care. In pelagic seabirds such coordination may help cope with the challenges posed by spatially heterogeneous and limited food availability. This study investigated the relationship between parental coordination and...

Parasitism is a known cause of morbidity and mortality in wildlife species and may exacerbate population declines in species threatened by changing landscapes. The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is an unusual seabird that forages in the ocean but uses trees in old growth and late successional forests for nesting. Populations have decli...

The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a seabird species characterized by great diving capabilities and transoceanic migratory behavior. These movements contribute to the dispersion of the species during migration, and episodes of mortality associated with migration may be a normal event in the dynamic of the Atlantic puffin populations. This...

The Faroe Shelf, located on the North Atlantic’s Iceland-Scotland ridge, has historically hosted a rich ecosystem with large seabird populations. However, substantial declines in their population sizes have been observed over the past half century. This study introduces and documents comprehensive decades-long data series from 1972-present on offsp...

Climate change is impacting marine ecosystems through physical changes (e.g., increased marine heatwaves, long-term warming) that can manifest biologically at all trophic levels. In the California Current Ecosystem (CCE), a productive and economically important eastern boundary upwelling system, the effects of these physical changes are observed th...

The present work aimed to develop composites using natural fiber matrices from kapok (Ceiba pentandra (L) Gaerth), chitosan and castor oil, applying two different adhesion methods– compression and natural non-pressed mixture– to remove oil from geese feathers affected by oil spill accidents. The test results indicate a sorption capacity of 20.72 g/...

Between 2011 and 2022 near-annual pelagic birding trips were undertaken to the Banco da Fortuna (Bank of Fortune) off Graciosa, the Azores to search for pelagic vagrants and to see local speciality seabirds including the endemic Monteiro's Storm Petrel. This article reviews the birds recorded on these trips over this period and details some of the...

In 2023, we published a comprehensive synthesis of impacts of pink salmon on marine ecosystems, and many marine species including all species of Pacific salmon, forage fishes, seabirds, and southern resident killer whales (MEPS). The lead author was invited to present some of these these findings, plus newly published evidence showing the impact of...

Invasive cat predation on island-breeding seabirds is a well-known example of impacts reducing insular biodiversity. The affected islands show drastic seasonal changes in primary prey for cats (i.e., seabirds), yet no studies have detected the timing of cats’ dietary shift to seabirds. Using camera trapping, opportunistic information gathering, and...

Contributors to Adélie penguin (Pycoscelis adeliae) breeding phenology patterns reveal a link with environmental variables impacted by climate change. Traditional methods to monitor colony breeding phenology are resource intensive. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is an alternative method that should be explored to help gather large-scale data nee...

High pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 2.3.4.4b poses a substantial conservation threat to ecosystems, populations, and species globally, with its continued spread into new regions increasing concern for potential ecological consequences. During surveys in February-March 2025, we confirmed the virus presence at the southern extent of its kn...

The South Shetland Islands, a critical area for primary productivity within the Southern Ocean, are significantly affected by global climate change. Seabirds and marine mammals, highly sensitive to ecological changes, are considered sentinel species within the ecosystem. Monitoring top predators and identifying Areas of Ecological Significance (AES...

Modelling a species ecology and abundance provides important insights into its habitat preferences, population trends and distribution. This can be used to inform conservation efforts, highlighting populations at risk of extinction and regions in need of protection. Here, we studied how environmental factors relate to common dolphin (Delphinus delp...

Although fisheries bycatch is the greatest threat to many migratory marine megafauna, it remains unclear how population exposure to bycatch varies across the global range of threatened species. Such assessments across multiple populations are crucial for understanding variation in impacts and for identifying the management bodies responsible for re...

Seabirds exhibit physiological adaptations that allow them to forage in the marine environment and undertake long-distance migrations during non-reproductive periods. As a result, they face various natural and anthropogenic pressures, which can lead to extreme fatigue and even death. Stranded bodies that float in the sea can wash ashore, providing...

Colony-based observations indicate that Swallow-tailed Gulls Creagrus furcatus go to sea only at night. Here, we use GPS tracking technology to reveal the species' exclusively nocturnal foraging behavior at four colonies in the Galápagos Islands. All nocturnal trips proved to be foraging effort in pelagic waters 19-103 km from nests during breeding...

Large‐scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs; > 1000 km²) provide important refuge for large mobile species, but most do not encompass species' ranges. To better understand current and future LSMPA value, we concurrently tracked nine species (seabirds, cetaceans, pelagic fishes, manta rays, reef sharks) at Palmyra Atoll and Kingman Reef (PKMPA) in th...

1. Changes in activities following seasonal cycles can affect social interactions, which in turn influence social network structures. Because such activities are often sex-related, their effect on the social environment can affect males and females differently, particularly during periods of high activity such as the breeding season. While the effe...

Quantitative assessment of contaminant exposure in seabirds in a changing Arctic environment, using mechanistic modelling and global emission estimates.

Globally, seabirds remove a prey biomass equivalent to commercial fishery landings, suggesting likely competition for resources that will vary spatially and seasonally. Using extensive aerial surveys combined with species-specific energetic requirements, we calculated and mapped at-sea removal of prey biomass by seabirds during the breeding and non...

In the current warming climate, many organisms in seasonal environments advance their timing of reproduction to benefit from resource peaks earlier in spring. For migrants, the potential to advance reproduction may be constrained by their migration strategies, notably their ability to advance arrival at the breeding grounds. Recent studies show var...

Various bird species feed on a variety of insects, ticks and other external parasites, dead and wounded tissue, clots and blood, secretions and organic debris found on the body of other vertebrates (hosts or clients). Herein I present an overview of so called cleaner birds based on literature records, field observations, and photo surveys. I found...

The Triton Initiative has evaluated environmental technologies and methodologies, focusing on the detection and tracking of marine wildlife, since 2018. This study builds upon an initial flight trial of a tethered balloon system (TBS) and sensor package conducted on behalf of the Triton Initiative in 2022, and further investigates the capabilities...