The summer distribution, habitat associations and abundance of seabirds in the sub-polar frontal zone of the Northwest Atlantic

Abstract

Acknowledgements Funding was provided by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) [grant number NE/M017990/1] and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) [grant numbers MARE -UIDB/04292/2020 and UIDP/04292/2020]. Remotely-sensed data were supplied by the NERC Earth Observation Data Acquisition and Analysis Service (NEODAAS) and the Copernicus Marine Service. Permission to track birds was provided by the Tristan da Cunha Government (Gough Island), the Falkland Islands Government (permit R09/2016, Kidney Island), the Região Autónoma dos Açores (permit 84/2016/DRA, Corvo), and Orkney Islands Council and BTO (Eynhallow). Logistical support was provided by the RSPB, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology and South African National Antarctic Programme (Gough Island), the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (Kidney Island), and Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves (Corvo). Stefan Schoombie, José Pedro Granadeiro and Ewan Edwards provided raw GPS data to inform movement parameters used in the shearwater GLS data analysis and Rob Ronconi, Alex Bond and Gail Davoren provided advice on the study design. Support for NOFU loggers and analysis was provided through the SEATRACK project http://www.seapop.no/en/seatrack/, funded by the Norwegian Ministries of Climate and Environment, and Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association. We are very grateful to Captain Antonio Gatti and the crew of the RRS Discovery, the many fieldworkers who deployed/recovered the GLS tags and Igor Belkin, who generously provided constructive advice on the study design and manuscript. ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF