The organizers of POLAR2018 are now accepting session proposals for the joint SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) and IASC (International Arctic Science Committee) Open Science Conference “Where the Poles meet“, which will be held in Davos, Switzerland over 19 - 23 June 2018.  A template to submit session proposals, including a brief session description, the contact information of the session conveners and other details, are available on the conference website.

Antarctic-breeding Light-mantled Albatrosses fly in unison, photograph by Aleks Terauds

“We are looking for sessions that cover a broad range of topics across the spectrum of Polar and high altitude research, such as, but not limited to, climate, glaciology, social and human sciences, ice sheets, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, biology, astronomy, geology, economic aspects, sustainable development, technology and education. There will be oral and poster sessions as well as e-poster sessions with a mini-oral.

The organizing committee strongly encourages session topics that encapsulate research conducted in both the Arctic and Antarctic.  We also encourage including early career scientists as conveners and encourage diversity regarding conveners’ nationalities, gender, and where possible, indigenous peoples.

The tasks of the conveners include:

-  soliciting submissions for their session;
-  reviewing the abstracts submitted for the session;
-  working with the International Scientific Organizing Committee to arrange the programme of their session, including oral and poster presentations; and
-  chairing the session.

Depending on the session proposals received, the International Scientific Organizing Committee might have to merge similar sessions where necessary and appropriate.”

Dates to remember: session proposal submission deadline: 30 November 2016; notification of lead conveners: 31 March 2017.  Further deadlines can be found here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 September 2016

As part of the Large Marine Vertebrate project (Grandes Vertebrados Marinos), the Laboratorio de Recursos Pelágicos of the Dirección Nacional de Recursos Acuáticos (DINARA) from Uruguay has equipped several species of large marine vertebrates, including sharks, tunas and sea turtles, and more recently seabirds with tracking devices. 

In early July 2016 ACAP-listed Southern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea epomophora were equipped with satellite transmitters from on board the research vessel R.V. Aldebarán in Uruguayan waters.  Three individuals, one female and two males, have been tracked for nearly two months, providing novel data on the movements of these seabirds during the non-breeding period.  One week after being equipped one male began his migration back to Australasia, travelling across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans for about 20 days to reach a well-defined area east of the Great Australian Bight.  To date, the two other birds have remained in the south-western Atlantic: one bird has utilized waters on the continental shelf of Uruguay and Argentina, while the other has mainly stayed in waters off southern Brazil and Uruguay.

Southern Royal Albatross at sea

Read about the Uruguayan research in Spanish here.

With thanks to Andrés Domingo and Sebastián Jimenez.

Juan Pablo Seco Pon, ACAP News Correspondent, 14 September 2016

Ben Lascelles (BirdLife International, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published in the journal Diversity and Distributions utilizing at-sea tracking data, including of ACAP-listed Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans, to identify marine sites of conservation importance.

The paper’s abstract follows:

Aim.  Enhanced management of areas important for marine biodiversity are now obligations under a range of international treaties.  Tracking data provide unparalleled information on the distribution of marine taxa, but there are no agreed guidelines that ensure these data are used consistently to identify biodiversity hotspots and inform marine management decisions.  Here, we develop methods to standardize the analysis of tracking data to identify sites of conservation importance at global and regional scales.

Location.  We applied these methods to the largest available compilation of seabird tracking data, covering 60 species, collected from 55 deployment locations ranging from the poles to the tropics.

Methods.  Key developments include a test for pseudo-replication to assess the independence of two groups of tracking data, an objective approach to define species-specific smoothing parameters (h values) for kernel density estimation based on area-restricted search behaviour, and an analysis to determine whether sites identified from tracked individuals are also representative for the wider population.

Results.  This analysis delineated priority sites for marine conservation for 52 of the 60 species assessed.  We compiled 252 data groupings and defined 1052 polygons, between them meeting Important Bird and Biodiversity Area criteria over 1500 times.  Other results showed 13% of data groups were inadequate for site definition and 10% showed some level of pseudo-replication.  Between 25 and 50 trips were needed within a data group for data to be considered at least partially representative of the respective population.

Main conclusions.  Our approach provides a consistent framework for using animal tracking data to delineate areas of global conservation importance, allowing greater integration into marine spatial planning and policy.  The approaches we describe are exemplified for pelagic seabirds, but are applicable to a range of taxonomic groups.  Covering 4.3% of the oceans, the sites identified would benefit from enhanced protection to better safeguard the threatened species populations they contain.”

Wandering Albatross display, photograph by Rowan Treblico

Reference:

B. G. Lascelles, B.G., Taylor, P.R., Miller, M.G.R., Dias, M.P., Oppel, S., Torres, L., Hedd, A., Le Corre, M., Phillips, R.A., Shaffer, S.A., Weimerskirch, H. & Small, C. 2016.  Applying global criteria to tracking data to define important areas for marine conservation.  Diversity and Distributions 22: 422-431.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 September 2016

Lauren Roman (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia) and colleagues have published in the online and open-access journal PLOS One on levels of marine debris in Australian sea birds, including procellariform seabirds, with high levels reported in Flesh-footed Puffinus carnepeis, Short-tailed P. tenuirostris and Wedge-tailed P. pacificus Shearwaters.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Anthropogenic debris in the world’s oceans and coastal environments is a pervasive global issue that has both direct and indirect impacts on avifauna. The number of bird species affected, the feeding ecologies associated with an increased risk of debris ingestion, and selectivity of ingested debris have yet to be investigated in most of Australia’s coastal and marine birds. With this study we aim to address the paucity of data regarding marine debris ingestion in Australian coastal and marine bird species. We investigated which Australian bird groups ingest marine debris, and whether debris-ingesting groups exhibit selectivity associated with their taxonomy, habitat or foraging methods. Here we present the largest multispecies study of anthropogenic debris ingestion in Australasian avifauna to date. We necropsied and investigated the gastrointestinal contents of 378 birds across 61 species, collected dead across eastern Australia. These species represented nine taxonomic orders, five habitat groups and six feeding strategies. Among investigated species, thirty percent had ingested debris, though ingestion did not occur uniformly within the orders of birds surveyed. Debris ingestion was found to occur in orders Procellariiformes, Suliformes, Charadriiformes and Pelecaniformes, across all surveyed habitats, and among birds that foraged by surface feeding, pursuit diving and search-by-sight. Procellariiformes, birds in pelagic habitats, and surface feeding marine birds ingested debris with the greatest frequency. Among birds which were found to ingest marine debris, we investigated debris selectivity and found that marine birds were selective with respect to both type and colour of debris. Selectivity for type and colour of debris significantly correlated with taxonomic order, habitat and foraging strategy. This study highlights the significant impact of feeding ecology on debris ingestion among Australia’s avifauna.”

Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Photograph by Alan Burger

Reference:

Roman, L., Schuyler, Q.A., Hardesty, B.D. & Townsend, K.A. 2016.  Anthropogenic debris ingestion by avifauna in eastern Australia.  PLOS One doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158343.

John Cooper, SACAP Information Officer, 12 September 2016