Data from: Distribution maps of cetacean and seabird populations in the North-East Atlantic ...

• Main Author: Waggitt, James
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2019
• Subjects: Detection Function; North Sea; Celtic Sea; Bay of Biscay; English Channel; Irish Sea; Hebrides; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mw6m905sz; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.mw6m905sz

1. Distribution maps of cetaceans and seabirds at basin and monthly scales are needed for conservation and marine management. These are usually created from standardised and systematic aerial and vessel surveys, with recorded animal densities interpolated across study areas. However, as individual surveys have restricted spatial and temporal coverage, distribution maps at basin and monthly scales have previously not been possible. 2. This study develops an alternative approach consisting of: (1) collating diverse survey data to maximise spatial and temporal coverage, (2) using detection functions to estimate variation in the surface area covered (km2) among these surveys, standardising measurements of effort and animal densities, (3) developing species distribution models (SDM) that overcome issues with heterogeneous and uneven coverage. 3. 2.68 million km of survey data in the North-East Atlantic between 1980 and 2018 were collated and standardised. SDM using Generalized Linear Models (GLM) and General ... : Distribution maps were created from Species Distribution Models using 1790375km and 1143587km of cetecean and seabird at-sea surveys, respectively. ...