Assessing Multiple Pressures on Seabirds

Seabirds are one of the most threatened groups of organisms on the planet, their lifecycles entangling with multiple human threats such as bycatch, fisheries competition, pollution, energy generation, and the unique and exacerbating effects of climate change. This project seeks to empirically assess the differing levels of threat to seabird populations in the UK posed by these challenges, with a view to identifying the species and populations that are most vulnerable to their combined effects. By working with the JNCC (Joint Nature Conservation Committee) this assessment will create an evidence base for more targeted mitigation strategies and improve conservation and impact management efforts. Seabird conservation efforts are a balancing act between known and unknown threats and consequences, old uncooperative and new optimistic industries, and political interest and human wellbeing, with the protection of vulnerable species. We are currently lacking both critical quantitative and critical qualitative understanding of the ways that seabird populations are responding to human activity. Furthering our understanding of the threats that seabirds face, their severity and interactions, and creating a framework to compare them may prove very useful in determining where to direct these energies in the future to best protect them.

Project Aims
1. To understand the ways in which seabird populations are vulnerable to human threats
2. To find a way to empirically measure, and compare and combine the human pressures acting on seabirds in the UK
3. To use this understanding to identify vulnerable populations and species
4. To develop evidence-based recommendations for conservation focusses that JNCC can use in pursuit of better protection and mitigation strategies