Description
Summary:without first obtaining permission from the original contributor(s). Results and conclusions general to large geographic areas may be cited without permission. This report updates previous reports. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Data are being collected annually for selected species of marine birds at breeding colonies on the far-flung Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and at other areas in Alaska to monitor the condition of the marine ecosystem and to evaluate the conservation status of species under the trust of the Fish and Wildlife Service. The strategy for colony monitoring includes estimating timing of nesting events, rates of reproductive success (e.g., chicks per nest), and population trends of representative species of various foraging guilds (e.g., off-shore diving fishfeeders, offshore surface-feeding fish-feeders, diving plankton-feeders) at geographically-dispersed breeding sites. This information enables managers to better understand ecosystem processes