Michelle Reynolds (Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaii, U.S.A.) and colleagues have published in the open-access online journal PloS ONE on the risk sea-level rise imposes on seabirds on the low-lying atolls in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

The paper’s abstract follows:

More than 18 million seabirds nest on 58 Pacific islands protected within vast U.S. Marine National Monuments (1.9 million km2).  However, most of these seabird colonies are on low-elevation islands and sea-level rise (SLR) and accompanying high-water perturbations are predicted to escalate with climate change.  To understand how SLR may impact protected islands and insular biodiversity, we modeled inundation and wave-driven flooding of a globally important seabird rookery in the subtropical Pacific.  We acquired new high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and used the Delft3D wave model and ArcGIS to model wave heights and inundation for a range of SLR scenarios (+0.5, +1.0, +1.5, and +2.0 m) at Midway Atoll.  Next, we classified vegetation to delineate habitat exposure to inundation and identified how breeding phenology, colony synchrony, and life history traits affect species-specific sensitivity.  We identified 3 of 13 species as highly vulnerable to SLR in the Hawaiian Islands and quantified their atoll-wide distribution (Laysan albatross, Phoebastria immutabilis; black-footed albatross, P. nigripes; and Bonin petrel, Pterodroma hypoleuca).  Our models of wave-driven flooding forecast nest losses up to 10% greater than passive inundation models at +1.0 m SLR.  At projections of + 2.0 m SLR, approximately 60% of albatross and 44% of Bonin petrel nests were overwashed displacing more than 616,400 breeding albatrosses and petrels.  Habitat loss due to passive SLR may decrease the carrying capacity of some islands to support seabird colonies, while sudden high-water events directly reduce survival and reproduction.  This is the first study to simulate wave-driven flooding and the combined impacts of SLR, groundwater rise, and storm waves on seabird colonies.  Our results highlight the need for early climate change planning and restoration of higher elevation seabird refugia to prevent low-lying protected islands from becoming ecological traps in the face of rising sea levels.”

Low-lying colony of Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses

Click here for a press release on the publication and here for an earlier item on sea level rise and albatrosses in ACAP Latest News.

Reference:

Michelle H. Reynolds, M.H., Courtot, K.N., Berkowitz, P., Storlazzi, C.D., Moore, J. & Flint, E. 2015.  Will the effects of sea-level rise create ecological traps for Pacific island seabirds?  PloS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136773.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 September 2015

Tanya Haupt (Department of Environmental Affairs, Oceans and Coasts Branch, Roggebaai, South Africa) and colleagues have reported in the journal Antarctic Science on the role of Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans on Marion Island on providing a warm environment in their nests for moth caterpillars.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“On sub-Antarctic Marion Island, wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) nests support high abundances of tineid moth, Pringleophaga marioni, caterpillars.  Previous work proposed that the birds serve as thermal ecosystem engineers by elevating nest temperatures relative to ambient, thereby promoting growth and survival of the caterpillars.  However, only 17 days of temperature data were presented previously, despite year-long nest occupation by birds.  Previous sampling was also restricted to old and recently failed nests, though nests from which chicks have recently fledged are key to understanding how the engineering effect is realized. Here we build on previous work by providing nest temperature data for a full year and by sampling all three nest types.  For the full duration of nest occupancy, temperatures within occupied nests are significantly higher, consistently by c. 7°C, than those in surrounding soils and abandoned nests, declining noticeably when chicks fledge.  Caterpillar abundance is significantly higher in new nests compared to nests from which chicks have fledged, which in turn have higher caterpillar abundances than old nests.  Combined with recent information on the life history of P. marioni, our data suggest that caterpillars are incidentally added to the nests during nest construction, and subsequently benefit from an engineering effect.”

A male Wandering Albatross stands over its chick, Albatross Valley, Prince Edward Island, photograph by John Cooper

Click here to read about an earlier paper on this theme.

Reference:

Haupt, T.M., Sinclair, B.J., Shaw, J.D.  & Chown, S.L. 2015.  Further support for thermal ecosystem engineering by wandering albatross.  Antarctic Science DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0954102015000383.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 September 2015

Five positions are open for ornithological field assistants for a 13-month sojourn at South Africa’s Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean from April next year.  Field work will include studies of the ecology and conservation of eight ACAP-listed species, such as Grey-headed Thalassarche chrysostoma and Wandering Diomedea exulans Albatrosses.  Opportunities exist for using field data collected towards higher degrees.

Wandering Albatross guards its chick on Marion Island with Prince Edward Island on the horizon, photograph by John Cooper

“Applicants must be physically fit, self-motivated and willing to work in remote isolation as part of a small team. Applicants must have a good head for heights and knowledge of basic rope safety techniques to access [albatrosses] which breed on cliffs.  Experience in handling seabirds is essential.  Experience in hiking is a strong recommendation as Marion Island is a cold, wet and windy environment, and the only access to [some] study sites is by walking up to eight hours per day over rough terrain in rubber boots.”

Studies will include “recording breeding success, estimating adult survival, assessing foraging distributions by deploying and recovering a range of data loggers, and sampling chick diet.  They also will contribute towards long-term seabird monitoring programmes and assist with data collection on a range of seabird species, including deploying and recovering tracking devices and obtaining diet samples from selected seabirds.”

“The successful applicants will spend a full year (April 2016 to May 2017) at Marion Island. There is no option to return to South Africa before May 2017.  The ability to work and live with small groups of people is thus essential. Although the base is well equipped with e-mail, fax and satellite telephone facilities, the applicants have to be self-sufficient and self-motivated.”

Read more on the positions here.  Applications must be received by 5 October.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 September 2015

Anton Wolfaardt, Convenor of ACAP’s Seabird Bycatch Working Group will be attending the 11th Annual Scientific Committee Meeting of the South East Atlantic Fishery Organization (SEAFO) from 30 September to 9 October in Windhoek, Namibia.  This will be the first time that ACAP has attended a meeting of SEAFO, which came into force in 2003.

SEAFO is an intergovernmental fisheries science and management body whose primary purpose is to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of all living marine resources in the South East Atlantic Ocean, and to safeguard the environment and marine ecosystems in which the resources occur.  The Convention Area excludes the Exclusive Economic Zones of the coastal states in the region (Angola, Namibia, South Africa and South Atlantic islands which are Overseas Territories of the United Kingdom).  Currently SEAFO has seven Contracting Parties (click here).

Paired bird-scaring lines deployed behind a southern African trawler, painting by Bruce Pearson

In 2012 SEAFO adopted Conservation Measure 25/12: On Reducing Incidental By-catch of Seabirds in the SEAFO Convention Area which replaced a similar CM 15/09, which itself replaced a 2006 measure (click here).

CM 25/12 requires all longline vessels fishing south of 30°S to carry and use bird-scaring lines to an agreed design and to set longlines only at night under minimum deck lighting.  In addition offal is not to be discarded during line setting and hooks are to be retained on board.  However, if adequate line-sinking rates are achieved by line weighting then day setting is allowed providing not more than three seabirds are killed on hooks per fishing trip.

For trawling operations bird-scaring lines are to be deployed and offal is not to be dumped during setting and avoided during hauling.

Under Agenda Item 19 for this year’s meeting it is noted that the Commission requested the Scientific Committee “to follow up on the by-catch of seabirds by longline fisheries.  The SC should establish whether other birds were caught, the status of the birds and if more could be done to protect seabirds during fishing operations.”

ACAP Latest News will report on outcomes from the meeting relevant to the conservation of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels once information becomes available.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 September 2015