Detecting change in seabird distributions at sea in arctic and sub-arctic waters over six decades

• Main Authors: Gjerdrum, Carina, Wong, Sarah, Johansen, Kasper Lambert, Lieske, David, Fifield, Dave, Hedd, April, Boertmann, David, Merkel, Flemming Ravn, Mosbech, Anders, ML, Mallory
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Fulmar; Greenland; Alle alle; Black-legged Kittiwake; Dovekie; Fulmarus glacialis; North Atlantic; Northern Fulmar; rissa tridactyla; thick-billed murre; Uria lomvia; uria
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/a836c156-2cf6-4b34-84b2-6796cfd06880

In the western North Atlantic and eastern Arctic, data on the distribution and abundance of seabirds at sea have been collected by the Canadian Wildlife Service from two main survey programs using ships of opportunity. The first, PIROP (Programme intégré de recherches sur les oiseaux pélagiques) collected quantitative information on seabird occurrence from 1965-1992 and the second, ECSAS (Eastern Canada Seabirds at Sea) from 2006-present. Combining the ECSAS data with data collected off the west coast of Greenland from 1988-2015 by the Danish Centre for Environment and Energy, we developed predictive models to investigate how ice cover and ocean processes influence the distribution thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia), northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), dovekie (Alle alle), and black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) in summer and autumn between Canada and Greenland. We used the PIROP data to examine how the distribution of these four species has changed over the last six decades. We discuss the results in relation to ocean climate variability, but also the challenges that exist when comparisons span such long time periods, including monitoring programs with changing priorities, differences in data-collection methodologies, and advances in technologies that are difficult to apply to historic datasets.