| Summary: | Over the past decades the Baltic/Wadden Sea flyway population of Common Eiders has suffered a population loss of an estimated 40%. This has invoked increased conservation concern and challenged management because the causes underlying this decline remain largely unknown. The prolonged negative population trend entailed a ban on shooting females imposed in Denmark in 2014 to be evaluated in 2018. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the population effect of the imposed hunting ban and to investigate the role of different environmental drivers in shaping flyway population dynamics. These tasks were completed by estimating long time-series of colony-specific survival rates based on an extensive number of ringed Eider females. Using the known cause of death of recovered individuals I estimated the mortality due to hunting and explored the population consequences of maintaining the current ban on females. Moreover, I investigated the effect on female survival of available potential drivers of variation. Finally, I predicted the future population consequences of hypothetical changes in the environment.
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