From: University of British Columbia
Published July 10, 2015 09:27 AM
Seabird Populations on the Decline
UBC research shows world’s monitored seabird populations have dropped
70 per cent since the 1950s, a stark indication that marine ecosystems
are not doing well.
Michelle Paleczny, a UBC master’s student and researcher with the
Sea Around Us project, and co-authors compiled information on more
than 500 seabird populations from around the world, representing 19 per
cent of the global seabird population. They found overall populations
had declined by 69.6 per cent, equivalent to a loss of about 230 million
birds in 60 years.
“Seabirds are particularly good indicators of the health of marine
ecosystems,” said Paleczny. ”When we see this magnitude of seabird
decline, we can see there is something wrong with marine ecosystems. It
gives us an idea of the overall impact we’re having.”
The dramatic decline is caused by a variety of factors including
overfishing of the fish seabirds rely on for food, birds getting tangled
in fishing gear, plastic and oil pollution, introduction of non-native
predators to seabird colonies, destruction and changes to seabird
habitat, and environmental and ecological changes caused by climate
change.
Seabirds tend to travel the world’s oceans foraging for food over
their long lifetimes, and return to the same colonies to breed. Colony
population numbers provide information to scientists about the health of
the oceans the birds call home.
Albatross, an iconic marine bird that lives for several decades, were
part of the study and showed substantial declines. Paleczny says these
birds live so long and range so far that they encounter many dangers in
their travels. A major threat to albatross is getting caught on longline
fishing hooks and drowning, a problem that kills hundreds of thousands
of seabirds every year.
“Our work demonstrates the strong need for increased seabird
conservation effort internationally,” said Paleczny. “Loss of seabirds
causes a variety of impacts in coastal and marine ecosystems”
Seabirds play an important role in those ecosystems. They eat and are
eaten by a variety of other marine species. They also transport
nutrients in their waste back to the coastal ecosystems in which they
breed, helping to fertilize entire food webs.
The study, published in
PLOS ONE, is the first to estimate overall change in
available global seabird population data. It is a collaboration between
UBC researchers Paleczny, Vasiliki Karpouzi and Daniel Pauly and Edd
Hammill, a lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney in
Australia.
Continue reading at the
University of British Columbia.
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From: University of British Columbia
Published July 10, 2015 09:27 AM
Seabird Populations on the Decline
UBC research shows world’s monitored seabird populations
have dropped 70 per cent since the 1950s, a stark indication
that marine ecosystems are not doing well.
Michelle Paleczny, a UBC master’s student and researcher
with the Sea Around Us project, and co-authors
compiled information on more than 500 seabird populations
from around the world, representing 19 per cent of the
global seabird population. They found overall populations
had declined by 69.6 per cent, equivalent to a loss of about
230 million birds in 60 years.
“Seabirds are particularly good indicators of the health
of marine ecosystems,” said Paleczny. ”When we see this
magnitude of seabird decline, we can see there is something
wrong with marine ecosystems. It gives us an idea of the
overall impact we’re having.”
The dramatic decline is caused by a variety of factors
including overfishing of the fish seabirds rely on for food,
birds getting tangled in fishing gear, plastic and oil
pollution, introduction of non-native predators to seabird
colonies, destruction and changes to seabird habitat, and
environmental and ecological changes caused by climate
change.
Seabirds tend to travel the world’s oceans foraging for
food over their long lifetimes, and return to the same
colonies to breed. Colony population numbers provide
information to scientists about the health of the oceans the
birds call home.
Albatross, an iconic marine bird that lives for several
decades, were part of the study and showed substantial
declines. Paleczny says these birds live so long and range
so far that they encounter many dangers in their travels. A
major threat to albatross is getting caught on longline
fishing hooks and drowning, a problem that kills hundreds of
thousands of seabirds every year.
“Our work demonstrates the strong need for increased
seabird conservation effort internationally,” said Paleczny.
“Loss of seabirds causes a variety of impacts in coastal and
marine ecosystems”
Seabirds play an important role in those ecosystems. They
eat and are eaten by a variety of other marine species. They
also transport nutrients in their waste back to the coastal
ecosystems in which they breed, helping to fertilize entire
food webs.
The study, published in
PLOS ONE, is the first to estimate overall
change in available global seabird population data. It is a
collaboration between UBC researchers Paleczny, Vasiliki
Karpouzi and Daniel Pauly and Edd Hammill, a lecturer at the
University of Technology, Sydney in Australia.
Continue reading at the
University of British Columbia.
Pelican image via Shutterstock.
http://news.ubc.ca/2015/07/09/global-trends-show-seabird-populations-dropped-70-per-cent-since-1950s/
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