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Filters: Tags: {"type":"theme","name":"birds"} (X) > Categories: Project (X) > partyWithName: Aleutian Bering Sea Islands LCC (X)

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This project will expand abundance & distribution models for seabirds, currently underway in Aleutian Is region (USFWS-funded project under Survey, Monitoring & Assessment program) to the greater ABSI-LCC region, and integrate 2013 seabird surveys into the analysis. In particular, this expanded effort would first focus on the North Bering Sea/Bering Strait/southern Chukchi region, which has greatest potential for increased vessel traffic and development. Using at-sea survey data, colony data, and environmental parameters, Tern Again Consulting (Dr. M. Renner) is developing seasonal species-specific models of seabird distribution in the Aleutian Islands region for use in a shipping risk assessment. The resulting...
Continuous, long-term monitoring of the food habits of marine birds is a key component in detecting responses to anticipated climate change of both the birds and the prey populations on which they depend. The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR) has been collecting seabird diet samples from the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands for more than 30 years. With support from previous LCC funding, AMNWR has developed protocols for zooplankton sample analysis, created a reference collection of seabird prey items, and helped develop and populate a publicly available data management system. Still needed are process and capacity for whole fish samples and digested fish samples (hard parts such as otoliths). This project...
The distribution and abundance of small, schooling forage fish (e.g., sandlance, capelin) in Alaska is known from small-scale directed studies, but mostly inferred from incidental catches in large-scale trawl surveys that were not designed (by gear or location) to sample forage species. In contrast, seabirds are conspicuous, highly mobile, samplers of forage fish that go to great distances (100+ km) and depths ( 200m) to locate ephemeral prey with great efficiency. Thus, data on their dietary habits provides a valuable complement to traditional fisheries sampling. We propose to analyze large diet databases for three abundant seabirds (puffins, murres and kittiwakes) to: 1) characterize forage fish communities in...