Marine hotspots of activity inform protection of a threatened community of pelagic species in a large oceanic jurisdiction

Requena, S.; Oppel, S.; Bond, A. L.; Hall, J.; Cleeland, J.; Crawford, R. J. M.; Davies, D.; Dilley, B. J.; Glass, T.; Makhado, A.; Ratcliffe, N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3375-2431; Reid, T. A.; Ronconi, R. A.; Schofield, A.; Steinfurth, A.; Wege, M.; Bester, M.; Ryan, P. G.. 2020 Marine hotspots of activity inform protection of a threatened community of pelagic species in a large oceanic jurisdiction. Animal Conservation, 23 (5). 585-596. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12572

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Abstract/Summary

Remote oceanic islands harbour unique biodiversity, especially of species that rely on the marine trophic resources around their breeding islands. Identifying marine areas used by such species is essential to manage and limit processes that threaten these species. The Tristan da Cunha territory in the South Atlantic Ocean hosts several endemic and globally threatened seabirds, and pinnipeds; how they use the waters surrounding the islands must be considered when planning commercial activities. To inform marine management in the Tristan da Cunha Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), we identified statistically significant areas of concentrated activity by collating animal tracking data from nine seabirds and one marine mammal. We first calculated the time that breeding adults of the tracked species spent in 10 × 10 km cells within the EEZ, for each of four seasons to account for temporal variability in space use. By applying a spatial aggregation statistic over these grids for each season, we detected areas that are used more than expected by chance. Most of the activity hotspots were either within 100 km of breeding colonies or were associated with seamounts, being spatially constant across several seasons. Our simple and effective approach highlights important areas for pelagic biodiversity that will benefit conservation planning and marine management strategies.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12572
ISSN:	13679430
Additional Keywords:	seabird, pinniped, satellite tracking, marine protected area, marine conservation planning
Date made live:	31 Mar 2020 15:18 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527368

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12572

ISSN:

13679430

Additional Keywords:

seabird, pinniped, satellite tracking, marine protected area, marine conservation planning

Date made live:

31 Mar 2020 15:18 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527368