Abstract
Work under this package critically reviews the suitability of different seabird species as exemplars for the type of integrated analysis developed in the project. Considerations of conservation priority and data availability, as well as statistical challenge are combined into a shortlist of proposed species submitted to the ORJIP Steering Group and the Project Expert Panel (PEP) for final decision, at the midpoint of the project. Based on our assessment of the available data, we suggest that the analysis focus on seabird populations on the east coast of Scotland during the 2010-2017 period. The key species for analysis would be black-legged kittiwake, common guillemot and razorbill, with GPS tracking data available for all three species from multiple sites within the region. Of secondary interest is northern gannet. Whilst GPS data are only available from a single site for this species, data are available for both adult and immature birds, which can also be distinguished from digital aerial imagery, enabling us to consider differences in distributions between age classes. All four species are well represented in digital aerial survey data collected from this region.
The specific deliverables from this WP are:
- A detailed summary report outlining the review findings.
- Presentation of results to the ORJIP SG and PEP.
The review serves the broader objective of informing about the state of the art in data availability and species prioritisation. Within the project, the review will identify suitable exemplar species and rank them in order of suitability for data integration. We propose that this is done according to a set of hierarchical objective criteria, outlined in the following section. For coherence, it makes sense to structure the review according to these three criteria.