Abstract
AbstractThe conservation of migratory marine species, including pelagic seabirds, is challenging because their movements span vast distances frequently beyond national jurisdictions. Here, we aim to identify important aggregations of seabirds in the North Atlantic to inform ongoing regional conservation efforts. Using tracking, phenology, and population data, we mapped the abundance and diversity of 21 seabird species. This revealed a major hotspot associated with a discrete area of the subpolar frontal zone, used annually by 2.9–5 million seabirds from ≥56 colonies in the Atlantic: the first time this magnitude of seabird concentrations has been documented in the high seas. The hotspot is temporally stable and amenable to site‐based conservation and is under consideration as a marine protected area by the OSPAR Commission. Protection could help mitigate current and future threats facing species in the area. Overall, our approach provides an exemplar data‐driven pathway for future conservation efforts on the high seas.
Highlights
Many seabird species are wide-ranging, traveling thousands of kilometers across jurisdictional and international waters, only returning to land to breed (Harrison et al, 2018)
Seabirds play key roles in marine ecosystems making their conservation critical (Grémillet et al, 2018). Their high mobility makes this challenging, because seabirds rely on multiple, often geographically distant ecosystems, all of which need some form of protection for successful conservation (Dunn et al, 2019)
This encompasses the deeper waters of the North Atlantic, between 35 and 62◦N and from 10 to 42◦W west of Iberia/France and west of the 200 m depth contour off the British Isles (Figure 1)
Summary
Many seabird species are wide-ranging, traveling thousands of kilometers across jurisdictional and international waters, only returning to land to breed (Harrison et al, 2018). Such migratory species are increasingly exposed to the expanding cumulative human impacts in the oceans (Halpern et al, 2019). Seabirds play key roles in marine ecosystems making their conservation critical (Grémillet et al, 2018). Their high mobility makes this challenging, because seabirds rely on multiple, often geographically distant ecosystems, all of which need some form of protection for successful conservation (Dunn et al, 2019). This is further complicated by the lack of an effective governance mechanism for areas beyond national jurisdictions (De Santo et al, 2019), and often incomplete knowledge of their distribution throughout all life-history stages (Carneiro et al, 2020)
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