Are we stealing food from the birds? Developing the evidence base to develop targets for ecologically sustainable fisheries

我们是在偷鸟的食物吗？

• 批准号: 2457876
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2457876
• 关键词: stealing; food; birds; Developing; evidence

BackgroundSeabirds play a crucial role in marine food webs, but globally they have shown marked population declines in recent decades with 28% of species now threatened with extinction. They face a number of threats at sea including commercial fisheries (through competition and bycatch), climate change and pollution. They also face serious challenges on land, including alien invasive predators, habitat degradation and human disturbance, and there is considerable concern about the detrimental impacts off offshore renewable developments. The sensitivity of seabirds to these threats, their significant cultural and economic importance in coastal countries like the UK, and excellent monitoring data documenting their population trends, have led to seabird abundance and breeding success being adopted as OSPAR common indicators of the state of marine biodiversity. However, in order to fully understand the interactions between seabirds, other marine predators, prey species, and human activities, it is essential to quantify spatio-temporal dynamics at this ecosystem scale. We know that many seabird species forage heavily on pelagic fish, and tracking and modelling studies have provided us with a good knowledge of the spatial distribution of predation pressure from seabirds in the seas surrounding the UK. But extending this to the wider food web is limited by the difficulty in mapping the distribution of prey species within these foraging ranges. This project combines seabird ecology, fisheries monitoring, and ecological data science to overcome this barrier, integrating newly-available data from fisheries acoustics with trawl surveys along with catch and effort data from commercial fishing vessels, and combining this with spatially-resolved estimates of seabird predation pressure and seabird diet, to identify overlap between foraging zones, fisheries and marine protected areas. This crucial information will feed in to the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan, helping to prioritise actions that will embed the ecosystem approach into sustainable fisheries management whilst conserving seabird populations.ObjectivesThe overall objective of this project is to better understand the complex interactions between seabirds, their prey, other competing predators, and commercial fisheries, in order to inform management efforts to drive sustainable fisheries whilst maintaining healthy seabird populations. To achieve this, the student will:Model the spatial distribution of piscivorous fish and prey alongside fisheries in the Celtic and North SeasApply a multi-species functional response model for seabirds to identify their prey requirementsInvestigate temporal change in prey availability, alongside consumption requirements of piscivorous fish and seabirds and mortality/production at seabird coloniesIdentify whether fisheries catch in the area is creating a detrimental impact on seabird breeding success and/or if competition between piscivorous fish and seabirds might exacerbate this impact.Novelty and TimelinessThis project is novel in using macroecological data science methods to integrate seabird ecology with fisheries science and monitoring, and will for the first time unite models of seabird predation with a detailed spatio-temporal understanding of the distribution of prey, competing predators, and fisheries. It will provide timely support for the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan, and contribute to the UK Marine Strategy in which seabird declines were demonstrated and suggested to be linked to declines in prey, thus filling an evidence gap that will enable the development of ecosystem-based management measures. It will also address the pressing issue of the ecological compatibility of fisheries, essential to implement both the "sustainability objective" and "ecosystem objective" of the UK Fisheries Bill as Britain prepares to leave the Common Fisheries Policy.

背景海鸟在海洋食物网中起着至关重要的作用，但在全球范围内，它们的数量在近几十年来显着下降，28%的物种现在面临灭绝的威胁。他们在海上面临着许多威胁，包括商业渔业（通过竞争和混捕）、气候变化和污染。它们还面临着陆地上的严重挑战，包括外来入侵捕食者、生境退化和人类干扰，人们对近海可再生能源开发的有害影响相当关切。海鸟对这些威胁的敏感性，它们在英国等沿海国家的重要文化和经济意义，以及记录其人口趋势的出色监测数据，导致海鸟丰度和繁殖成功率被采纳为OSPAR海洋生物多样性状况的共同指标。然而，为了充分了解海鸟，其他海洋捕食者，猎物物种和人类活动之间的相互作用，它是必要的量化时空动态在这个生态系统的规模。我们知道，许多海鸟物种饲料严重的中上层鱼类，跟踪和建模研究为我们提供了一个很好的知识，从海鸟在英国周围的海洋捕食压力的空间分布。但是，将其扩展到更广泛的食物网是有限的，因为很难在这些觅食范围内绘制猎物物种的分布图。该项目将海鸟生态学、渔业监测和生态数据科学相结合，以克服这一障碍，将来自渔业声学的新数据与拖网调查沿着商业渔船的渔获量和努力量数据相结合，并将其与海鸟捕食压力和海鸟饮食的空间分辨估计相结合，以确定觅食区、渔业和海洋保护区之间的重叠。这一重要信息将反馈到政府的25年环境计划，有助于优先采取行动，将生态系统方法嵌入可持续渔业管理，同时保护海鸟population.ObjectivesThe总体目标，这个项目是为了更好地了解海鸟之间的复杂相互作用，他们的猎物，其他竞争的捕食者，和商业渔业，以便为管理工作提供信息，推动可持续渔业，同时维持健康的海鸟种群。为了实现这一目标，学生将：模拟凯尔特海和北海渔业中食鱼鱼类和猎物的空间分布应用海鸟的多物种功能反应模型来确定它们的猎物需求调查猎物可用性的时间变化，以及食鱼鱼类和海鸟的消费需求和海鸟栖息地的死亡率/产量确定该地区的渔业捕捞是否对海鸟繁殖的成功造成不利影响，或者食鱼鱼类和海鸟之间的竞争是否会加剧这种影响。新奇和及时性这个项目在使用宏观生态学数据科学方法将海鸟生态学与该项目将有助于加强对渔业科学和监测的研究，并将首次将海鸟捕食模型与对猎物、竞争性捕食者和渔业分布的详细时空了解结合起来。它将为政府的25年环境计划提供及时的支持，并为联合王国海洋战略做出贡献，该战略证明了海鸟的减少并建议将其与猎物的减少联系起来，从而填补了证据空白，从而能够制定基于生态系统的管理措施。它还将解决渔业生态兼容性的紧迫问题，这对于在英国准备退出共同渔业政策之际实施《联合王国渔业法案》的“可持续性目标”和“生态系统目标”至关重要。