Makin' some noise:Et studie af menneskelige trusler for polarlomvien (appa, Uria lomvia ) i Grønland
The thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) is the culturally most important seabird species in Greenland. It is declining in most areas of Greenland and have shown local extinctions. Resent research indicates that at least some of the population decline can be linked to drivers in the wintering areas, whe...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Århus Universitet
2021
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| Online Access: | https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/6c7cc877-3bba-4ebf-a336-ef73a357bcec https://natur.gl/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2021_Labansen_PhDthesis_withGLSummary.pdf |
| Summary: | The thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) is the culturally most important seabird species in Greenland. It is declining in most areas of Greenland and have shown local extinctions. Resent research indicates that at least some of the population decline can be linked to drivers in the wintering areas, whereas the role of local breeding conditions largely is unknown. We used a suit of different methods to investigate local drivers during the breeding period, suspected to play a role for the population decline in Greenland. The first part of this thesis provides a brief introduction to historical and current challenges for the murre population in Greenland and describes the research questions. The second part consists of four scientific papers. We investigated the effects of gunshots with an experimental approach and show that there was large variation in the distance of first reaction, and that most responded at distances greater than the current no-disturbance zone allow. We also quantified marine traffic using underwater acoustics, which proved to be a promising tool to study vessel activity. Marine traffic near a declining colony was five times larger, compared to at a stable nearby colony. Local ecological knowledge indicates and confirms the assumption that human disturbances are far less common today than 2-3 decades ago, but that they still occur. A need for a higher information level from authorities was also identified. Lastly, statistical analyses on the impact of various local drivers on murre population trends in Greenland showed that both local human factors and the local climate, derived from global warming, have had an impact on population development in Greenland. Drivers linked to global climate change are difficult to mitigate, which make management measures to diminish negative effects of local anthropogenic drivers even more important. |
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