Tracking seabird migration in the tropical Indian Ocean reveals basin-scale conservation need

Alice M Trevail¹, Malcolm A C Nicoll², Robin Freeman², Matthieu Le Corre³, Jill Schwarz⁴, Audrey Jaeger³, Vincent Bretagnolle⁵, Licia Calabrese⁶, Chris Feare⁷, Camille Lebarbenchon⁸, Ken Norris⁹, Sabine Orlowski³, Patrick Pinet¹⁰, Virginie Plot³, Gerard Rocamora¹¹, Nirmal Shah¹², Stephen C Votier¹³

Affiliations

¹ Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK. Electronic address: a.trevail@exeter.ac.uk.
² Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London NW14RY, UK.
³ Écologie marine tropicale des océans Pacifique et Indien, UMR ENTROPIE, Université de la Réunion, 15 Avenue René Cassin, BP 7151, 97715 Saint Denis, La Réunion, France.
⁴ School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK.
⁵ Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC-CNRS), 79360 Beauvoir sur Niort, France.
⁶ Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC-CNRS), 79360 Beauvoir sur Niort, France; Island Conservation Society, Pointe Larue, Mahé P.O Box 775, Seychelles; Island Biodiversity and Conservation Centre of the University of Seychelles, Anse Royale, Mahé, Seychelles.
⁷ WildWings Bird Management, 2 North View Cottages, Grayswood Common, Haslemere, Surrey GU27 2DN, UK; School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of New South Wales (UNSW), NSW, Sydney 2052, Australia.
⁸ Université de la Réunion, UMR Processus Infectieux en Milieu Insulaire Tropical (PIMIT), INSERM 1187, CNRS 9192, IRD 249, Saint Denis, La Réunion, France.
⁹ Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
¹⁰ Parc national de La Réunion, Life+ Pétrels. 258 Rue de la République, 97431 Plaine des Palmistes, La Réunion, France.
¹¹ Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC-CNRS), 79360 Beauvoir sur Niort, France; Island Biodiversity and Conservation Centre of the University of Seychelles, Anse Royale, Mahé, Seychelles.
¹² Nature Seychelles, P.O. Box 1310, The Centre for Environment and Education, Roche Caiman, Mahé, Seychelles; The Centre for Environment and Education, Roche Caiman, Mahé, Seychelles.
¹³ The Lyell Centre, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK. Electronic address: s.votier@hw.ac.uk.

PMID: 37972589
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.060

Free article

Tracking seabird migration in the tropical Indian Ocean reveals basin-scale conservation need

Alice M Trevail et al. Curr Biol. 2023.

Free article

. 2023 Dec 4;33(23):5247-5256.e4.

doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.060. Epub 2023 Nov 15.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK. Electronic address: a.trevail@exeter.ac.uk.
² Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London NW14RY, UK.
³ Écologie marine tropicale des océans Pacifique et Indien, UMR ENTROPIE, Université de la Réunion, 15 Avenue René Cassin, BP 7151, 97715 Saint Denis, La Réunion, France.
⁴ School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK.
⁵ Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC-CNRS), 79360 Beauvoir sur Niort, France.
⁶ Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC-CNRS), 79360 Beauvoir sur Niort, France; Island Conservation Society, Pointe Larue, Mahé P.O Box 775, Seychelles; Island Biodiversity and Conservation Centre of the University of Seychelles, Anse Royale, Mahé, Seychelles.
⁷ WildWings Bird Management, 2 North View Cottages, Grayswood Common, Haslemere, Surrey GU27 2DN, UK; School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of New South Wales (UNSW), NSW, Sydney 2052, Australia.
⁸ Université de la Réunion, UMR Processus Infectieux en Milieu Insulaire Tropical (PIMIT), INSERM 1187, CNRS 9192, IRD 249, Saint Denis, La Réunion, France.
⁹ Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
¹⁰ Parc national de La Réunion, Life+ Pétrels. 258 Rue de la République, 97431 Plaine des Palmistes, La Réunion, France.
¹¹ Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC-CNRS), 79360 Beauvoir sur Niort, France; Island Biodiversity and Conservation Centre of the University of Seychelles, Anse Royale, Mahé, Seychelles.
¹² Nature Seychelles, P.O. Box 1310, The Centre for Environment and Education, Roche Caiman, Mahé, Seychelles; The Centre for Environment and Education, Roche Caiman, Mahé, Seychelles.
¹³ The Lyell Centre, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK. Electronic address: s.votier@hw.ac.uk.

PMID: 37972589
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.060

Abstract

Understanding marine predator distributions is an essential component of arresting their catastrophic declines.¹^,²^,³^,⁴ In temperate, polar, and upwelling seas, predictable oceanographic features can aggregate migratory predators, which benefit from site-based protection.⁵^,⁶^,⁷^,⁸ In more oligotrophic tropical waters, however, it is unclear whether environmental conditions create similar multi-species hotspots. We track the non-breeding movements and habitat preferences of a tropical seabird assemblage (n = 348 individuals, 9 species, and 10 colonies in the western Indian Ocean), which supports globally important biodiversity.⁹^,¹⁰^,¹¹^,¹² We mapped species richness from tracked populations and then predicted the same diversity measure for all known Indian Ocean colonies. Most species had large non-breeding ranges, low or variable residency patterns, and specific habitat preferences. This in turn revealed that maximum species richness covered >3.9 million km², with no focused aggregations, in stark contrast to large-scale tracking studies in all other ocean basins.⁵^,⁶^,⁷^,¹³^,¹⁴ High species richness was captured by existing marine protected areas (MPAs) in the region; however, most occurred in the unprotected high seas beyond national jurisdictions. Seabirds experience cumulative anthropogenic impacts¹³ and high mortality¹⁵^,¹⁶ during non-breeding. Therefore, our results suggest that seabird conservation in the tropical Indian Ocean requires an ocean-wide perspective, including high seas legislation.¹⁷ As restoration actions improve the outlook for tropical seabirds on land¹⁸^,¹⁹^,²⁰^,²¹^,²² and environmental change reshapes the habitats that support them at sea,¹⁵^,¹⁶ appropriate marine conservation will be crucial for their long-term recovery and whole ecosystem restoration.

Keywords: environment; habitat selection; high seas; itinerancy; marine protected areas; movement ecology; multispecies tracking; non-breeding distributions.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests.

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Tracking seabird migration in the tropical Indian Ocean reveals basin-scale conservation need

Affiliations

Tracking seabird migration in the tropical Indian Ocean reveals basin-scale conservation need

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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