Supplementary material from "Living on the edge of a shrinking habitat%3A the ivory gull, Pagophila eburnea , an endangered sea-ice specialist"

• Main Authors: Gilg, Olivier, Istomina, Larysa, Heygster, Georg, Strøm, Hallvard, Gavrilo, Maria V., Mallory, Mark L., Gilchrist, Grant, Aebischer, Adrian, Sabard, Brigitte, Huntemann, Marcus, Mosbech, Anders, Yannic, Glenn
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Figshare 2016
• Subjects: Ecology; FOS Biological sciences; Arctic; Svalbard; Canada; Greenland; Norway; ivory gull; Pagophila eburnea; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3517344.v1; https://figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Living_on_the_edge_of_a_shrinking_habitat_the_ivory_gull_i_Pagophila_eburnea_i_an_endangered_sea-ice_specialist_/3517344/1

The ongoing decline of sea ice threatens many Arctic taxa, including the ivory gull. Understanding how ice-edges and ice concentrations influence the distribution of the endangered ivory gulls is a prerequisite to the implementation of adequate conservation strategies. From 2007 to 2013, we used satellite transmitters to monitor the movements of 104 ivory gulls originating from Canada, Greenland, Svalbard-Norway and Russia. Although half of the positions were within 41km of the ice-edge (75%25 within 100km), approximately 80%25 were on relatively high concentrated sea ice. Ivory gulls used more concentrated sea ice in summer, when close to their high-Arctic breeding ground, than in winter. The best model to explain the distance of the birds to the ice-edge included the ice concentration within approximately 10km, the month and the distance to the colony. Given the strong links between ivory gull, ice-edge and ice concentration, its conservation status is unlikely to improve in the current context of sea-ice decline which, in turn, will allow anthropic activities to develop in regions that are particularly important for the species.