Winged ghosts wandering the oceans: the spatial ecology and conservation of the world’s smallest and elusive seabirds, the storm petrel

Storm petrels are excellent indicators of the marine ecosystem, but their small body size and secretive behaviour has made it almost impossible to study well. There is so little knowledge about these species. Few people have seen them, and they are associated with many myths. Hence, we have entitled the project SEAGHOSTS. New research methods are now available to study several aspects of storm petrels’ biology that previously has been unknown. By using miniatyrized tracking devices we will reveal where the storm petrels find their food during the breeding season and where they migrate to spend the winter. We will analyse stable isotopes and perform dna metabarcoding to reveal their diets, and we will perform genetic analyses to improve the taxonomy of the species. Only two species breed in Norway, the European storm-petrel and the Leach’s storm petrel. However, this is a large collaboration between 15 partners from 11 countries studying 6 species of storm petrels breeding in colonies in the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The project aims to identify the major threats storm petrels face at sea on their breeding grounds and their wintering grounds. These threats include climate change, renewable energy infrastructures, aquaculture, contamination, including plastic exposure. This project will provide new essential knowledge about the spatial and trophic ecology and taxonomy of the storm petrels. This is needed for their effective management and conservation, both at land and at sea.

Understanding the spatial and trophic ecology and taxonomy of free-ranging fauna is needed for the effective conservation of global biodiversity and defining accurate Conservation Units (CU). SEAGHOSTS aims to build on limited knowledge of the spatial and trophic ecology of the storm petrel species (Hydrobatidae and Oceanitidae) and their populations breeding in Europe. Specifically, it aims to assess the major at-sea threats storm petrels face on their Mediterranean and NE Atlantic breeding grounds and on their suspected Southern Atlantic wintering grounds. These threats include climate change, renewable energy infrastructures, aquaculture, contamination, including plastic exposure. Storm petrels are excellent sentinels of the marine ecosystem, but until now, their small body size and secretive behaviour has posed a major constraint on their study. The project will combine ultra-miniaturized tracking devices, habitat modelling, bulk and compound-specific stable isotope analysis, diet DNA metabarcoding analysis, geometric morphometrics, and microplastic determinations to fill important geographic gaps across Europe. SEAGHOST has a multi-colony and multi-species approach and include 15 partners from 11 countries. It will provide new essential knowledge on year-round, metapopulation distributions of storm petrels (O1, O2), an updated list of storm petrel CU inhabiting European seas (O3), and on how diverse human activities at sea may affect oceanic habitats of seabirds (O4). Overall, it will help identifying priority conservation areas across international boundaries, ie Marine Protected Areas. The project will also quantify any detrimental effects of research on such small seabirds and will assess restoration techniques that increase their breeding performance (O5), directly contributing to their effective management and conservation, both at land and at sea.