JASMIN helps to predict seabird breeding abundance in a changing climate
Many of us have been to the coast and seen seabirds, but have you ever considered how they might be affected by climate change? The UK is surrounded by important populations of seabirds, including Arctic Tern, Kittiwake, and Puffin, that play a key role as top predators and indicators of the health of marine ecosystems. Like many animals, seabirds are exposed to climate change in both marine and terrestrial environments, but the combined effects are rarely considered. Climate change impacts seabird species through a number of mechanisms; for example, by shifting the distributions of prey species, influencing storminess which affects mortality rates, causing overheating at the nest site, or increasing sea level and reducing available breeding habitat. CEDA services were used by researchers at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to predict future seabird abundance under both marine and terrestrial climate change, as part of the Marine Protected Area Management and Monitoring ( MarPAMM ) project.
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