Winged ghosts wandering the oceans: the global spatial ecology and conservation of the world’s smallest and elusive seabirds, the storm petrel (Hydrobatidae & Oceanitidae), across the Mediterranean and the North East Atlantic Ocean

全球社会都在致力于减缓全球变化的绿色过渡进程，并在海洋环境方面做出了巨大努力。然而，对低碳技术的大量投资和迅速转向可再生能源（即海上风能和太阳能发电场）在很大程度上影响了海洋环境。这些可再生能源基础设施的发展需要避免对海洋和沿海生境造成有害影响。同样，国际渔业政策最近优先考虑海洋水产养殖，以确保许多国家的全球粮食和营养安全，而不知道它们对海洋环境的真实的影响。了解自由放养动物的空间生态，包括它们的分布、移动和迁徙、它们的物候和饮食，可以更好地管理和保护。例如，保护迁徙种群的努力只集中在繁殖区，不能保护这些种群免受沿着迁徙路线或非繁殖区面临的威胁。动物的运动和迁徙也很重要，因为它们影响着许多物种的行为、生活史甚至解剖学。此外，迁徙和觅食行为在物种和种群内部和之间可能不同，因此，必须确定在每一级使用的路线和非繁殖区，尤其是因为它们也可能与不同的威胁有关。此外，对不同种群的研究也有助于了解物种的空间生态是否受遗传和/或环境变量的驱动。确定迁徙物种的移动和非繁殖分布的一种方法，最近甚至是最小的物种，是使用光级地理定位仪。此外，现在可以通过最小的GPS设备（仅0.95 g）跟踪精细的运动。风暴海燕（家庭Hydrobatidae和Oceanitidae）是最小的海鸟，他们通常只在繁殖期间在殖民地的陆地上时才能被研究人员接触到。因此，在这段时间之外，当它们在海上的某个地方时，它们的研究特别具有挑战性，在此期间，它们会迁徙，通常会换羽。已知大多数物种在繁殖季节优先以浮游鱼类和浮游动物为食，这些猎物通常沿着一定比例的微塑料。尽管风暴海燕与近海人类活动的相互作用已得到部分研究，但本提案旨在收集关于这些研究不足的分类群的全球空间生态学的关键知识，并有助于评估关于海洋生物多样性和人类活动对沿着欧洲海洋生物多样性的影响的知识差距。

Global societies are engaged in green transition processes to mitigate global changes, with large efforts focussed on marine environments. However, the large investment in low-carbon technologies and the rapid shift to renewable energy sources (i.e. offshore wind and solar farms) largely affects marine environments. The development of these renewable energy infrastructures needs to avoid detrimental impacts on marine and coastal habitats. Similarly, international fishery policies have recently prioritised marine aquaculture to ensure global food and nutrition security of many states, without knowing their real impact on marine environments. Understanding the spatial ecology of free-ranging fauna including their distributions, movements and migrations, their phenology and their diets, lead to better management and conservation. For instance, conservation efforts of migratory populations that focus solely on breeding areas cannot safe-guard these populations against threats faced along migration routes or in non-breeding areas. Animal movement and migration are also important because they influence the behaviour, the life histories and even the anatomy of many species. Moreover, migratory and feeding behaviours may differ within and among species and populations, and therefore, it is essential to identify the routes and non-breeding areas used at each of these levels, all the more so because they may also be associated with different threats. Furthermore, the study of different populations can also help understand whether the spatial ecology of the species is driven by genetic and/or environmental variables. One way to determine the movements and non-breeding distributions of migratory species, recently even for the smallest species, is by using light-level geolocators. In addition, fine-scale movements can be tracked now by the smallest GPS device from just 0.95 g. Storm petrels (families Hydrobatidae and Oceanitidae) are the smallest seabirds and they are normally only accessible to researchers when at land in the colonies during breeding. They are thus particularly challenging to study outside this period when they are somewhere at sea and during which they migrate and usually moult their feathers. Most species are known to feed preferentially on ichthyoplankton and zooplankton during the breeding season, and often these prey is consumed along with a relevant proportion of microplastics. Even though the interaction of storm petrels with offshore anthropogenic activities has been partially studied, the present proposal aims at gathering key knowledge on the global spatial ecology of these poorly researched taxa, and contributing to assess knowledge gaps on marine biodiversity and anthropogenic impacts on it along European seas.