Movement Ecology and Risk Assessment of Atlantic Seabirds

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Climatic and human influences pose major environmental challenges. For marine ecosystems, it is critical that we understand how top predators use ocean habitat to better assess impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. The proposed research applies newly developed miniature animal-borne tracking and activity devices on Atlantic seabirds to investigate how they cope with environmental variability, perturbation and change. Investigations target behavioral ecology at divergent spatial (and temporal) scales - a) foraging behavior by parental seabirds constrained to move from and return to a fixed breeding site, and b) ocean-basin migrations and winter habitat use by free-roaming seabirds without breeding constraints. Tracking research is integrated with vessel- and colony-based studies of prey distributions and diets and with physiological indices. Specific studies investigate parental foraging flexibility in relation to changing energy demands and prey conditions, and the migratory movements and wintering areas of juveniles and adults and their implications for population connectivity. The closure of the eastern Canadian cod fishery in 1992 is used as an unprecedented ocean-basin experiment that will allow quantitative evaluation of the effects of massive gillnet removals and fishing discard reductions on subsequent seabird population trajectories. An overarching risk assessment of climatic and anthropogenic influences provides program integration. My research goal is to use scientific knowledge to promote proactive conservation practice and sustainability.