APPLICATION OF TRACKING AND DATA-LOGGING TECHNOLOGY IN RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION OF SEABIRDS

Abstract

The Auk A Quarterly Journal of Ornithology Vol. 125 No. 2 April 2008 The Auk 125(2):253–264, 2008  The American Ornithologists’ Union, 2008�� Printed in USA. Perspectives in Ornithology Application of Tracking and Data-logging Technology in Research and Conservation of Seabirds A lan E. B urger 1,3 and S cot t A. S haffer 2,4 Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3N5, Canada; and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95060-5730, USA Seabirds are the most conspicuous and mobile of all pe- applications, illustrate the roles that seabirds might play in mon- lagic marine organisms. Because most species breed colonially, itoring this watery planet, and discuss the application of new researchers can study statistically large technology in the conservation and samples with relative ease. These attri- management of seabirds. We focus butes have long made seabirds valuable here on La Grangian approaches, . advances in electronic for interpreting conditions in the sur- concerned with a sequence of data technology have greatly changed rounding oceans (Furness and Cam- values at points occupied by an in- phuysen 1997, Boyd et al. 2006, Piatt et dividual organism (Schneider 1994), the way we study seabirds, al. 2007). Until recently, such studies in contrast to studies of populations were usually based on data obtained or communities made at colonies or providing unprecedented insights at breeding colonies or from vessels, from vessels or aircraft. into their locomotion, physiology, but in the past two decades, advances in electronic technology have greatly A dvancing T echnology foraging behavior, migration, changed the way we study seabirds, demographics, and exposure to providing unprecedented insights into The burgeoning market for consumer their locomotion, physiology, foraging electronics and communication (e.g., anthropogenic risks at sea.” behavior, migration, demographics, satellite and cell-phone communica- and exposure to anthropogenic risks at tion) is partly responsible for the ad- sea. In oceans that are rapidly chang- vances and miniaturization of sensors, ing as a result of human activities and global climate change, this memory storage, and batteries that are revolutionizing marine or- information from tagged birds is timely and essential for developing nithology (see reviews in Wilson et al. 2002a, Ropert-Coudert and conservation and management strategies for such wide-ranging or- Wilson 2005). We review some recent developments, focusing on ganisms. In addition, seabirds are increasingly being viewed as tools devices that tell us where birds go (satellite tracking, geolocators, for oceanography and climatology—capable of providing essential global positioning system [GPS] loggers, and depth recorders) and physical and biological information on the sea itself. what they are doing (sensors coupled with data loggers). Here, we highlight some of the exciting new techniques Tracking devices.—Before 1990, conventional VHF radio tags and data that are emerging, discuss some current and future were used to monitor colony attendance and near-colony foraging E-mail: aburger@uvic.ca Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, California 92407, USA. The Auk, Vol. 125, Number 2, pages 253–264. ISSN 0004-8038, electronic ����������������  2008 by The American Ornithologists’ Union. All rights reserved. Please ISSN������������ direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, http://www. ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp DOI: 10.1525/auk.2008.1408