Winged ghosts wandering the oceans: the global spatial ecology and conservation of the world’s smallest and elusive seabirds, the storm petrel (Hydrobatidae & Oceanitidae), across the Mediterranean and the North East Atlantic Ocean

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Petra Quillfeldt, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions ; Oceanography
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 532008306

Global societies are engaged in green transition processes to mitigate global changes, with large efforts focussed on marine environments. However, the large investment in low-carbon technologies and the rapid shift to renewable energy sources (i.e. offshore wind and solar farms) largely affects marine environments. The development of these renewable energy infrastructures needs to avoid detrimental impacts on marine and coastal habitats. Similarly, international fishery policies have recently prioritised marine aquaculture to ensure global food and nutrition security of many states, without knowing their real impact on marine environments. Understanding the spatial ecology of free-ranging fauna including their distributions, movements and migrations, their phenology and their diets, lead to better management and conservation. For instance, conservation efforts of migratory populations that focus solely on breeding areas cannot safe-guard these populations against threats faced along migration routes or in non-breeding areas. Animal movement and migration are also important because they influence the behaviour, the life histories and even the anatomy of many species. Moreover, migratory and feeding behaviours may differ within and among species and populations, and therefore, it is essential to identify the routes and non-breeding areas used at each of these levels, all the more so because they may also be associated with different threats. Furthermore, the study of different populations can also help understand whether the spatial ecology of the species is driven by genetic and/or environmental variables. One way to determine the movements and non-breeding distributions of migratory species, recently even for the smallest species, is by using light-level geolocators. In addition, fine-scale movements can be tracked now by the smallest GPS device from just 0.95 g. Storm petrels (families Hydrobatidae and Oceanitidae) are the smallest seabirds and they are normally only accessible to researchers when at land in the colonies during breeding. They are thus particularly challenging to study outside this period when they are somewhere at sea and during which they migrate and usually moult their feathers. Most species are known to feed preferentially on ichthyoplankton and zooplankton during the breeding season, and often these prey is consumed along with a relevant proportion of microplastics. Even though the interaction of storm petrels with offshore anthropogenic activities has been partially studied, the present proposal aims at gathering key knowledge on the global spatial ecology of these poorly researched taxa, and contributing to assess knowledge gaps on marine biodiversity and anthropogenic impacts on it along European seas.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants