Cécile Trocado - France
Identification of candidate pelagic marine protected areas (MPAs) off west Africa: evaluating their effectiveness in protecting marine predators and risk of fishery bycatch.
​
Cabo Verde is an archipelago off West Africa which is a hotspot of biodiversity, hosting numerous species of seabirds, turtles, whales, dolphins and fishes that are threatened by industrial fisheries and barely protected by a small network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The implementation of protected areas in this region is essential to preserve its biodiversity and maintain the ecosystem services needed by the local population of the islands.Seabirds possess many characteristics which turn them suitable to be used as sentinel species. They feed from the sea but breed on the land which makes them more accessible. These attributes make them easy to be observed and monitored, thus seabirds are often used in research to estimate the health status of ecosystems.In order to determine Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) of Cabo Verde, we used two species of seabirds: the Cape Verde shearwater (Calonectris edwardsii) and the Bulwer’s petrel (Bulweria bulwerii) from Cabo Verde. Two colonies of each species were tracked during 7 years, from 2013 to 2019 during the incubation and chick-rearing periods. Their core foraging areas were estimated using the ‘track2KBA’ R package. Their distribution was then compared to the current KBAs and MPAs networks, other species distribution and fishery activities around the archipelago.The Cape Verde shearwaters performed long trips to the coast of Senegal and Mauritania and short trips around the colonies. The Bulwer’s petrels were more pelagic but their core foraging areas were focused around their colonies. These core foraging areas highly overlap with the current network of KBAs around the archipelago, but not with the MPAs (with the exception of Curral Velho’s population of Cape Verde shearwaters). Moreover, the core foraging areas of the Cape Verde shearwater and the Bulwer’s petrel overlap in total with 21 species out of the 24 selected for the analysis, and, overall, the fishing vessels off West Africa overlap with most of the core foraging areas of the Cape Verde shearwaters, especially trawlers. However, fishery activities barely overlapped with the core foraging areas of the Bulwer’s petrels. Therefore, the Cape Verde shearwaters and the Bulwer’s petrels showed different Key Biodiversity Areas that are also used by other taxa and threatened by industrial fisheries. The next step is to implement protection regulations on these areas to preserve biodiversity and its ecosystem services.
Linda Kochniss - Germany
Seasonal camouflage mismatch in colour moulting species, mountain hare (Lepus timidus) and rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta)
​
In the Northern hemisphere, several species adapted to the pronounced seasonality by moulting from white fur or feathers in winter to brown or greyish coats during the summer. This improves their camouflage against their immediate environment and lets them blend in with snow and vegetation alike. However, due to climate change, the extent and duration of snow cover continues to decrease. Several regional scale studies have confirmed that this leads to a camouflage mismatch in those species, as the moult is initiated by day-length rather than temperature or snow cover. This leaves prey species more vulnerable to predation and can ultimately endanger them.
My project focused on mountain hares and rock ptarmigan, two prey species that both occur in Scotland. The initial project plan was to gather my own data in the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands and complement the data set with citizen science data. However, due to heavy storms and fog, I had to shift to solely using citizen science data. The platform iNaturalist provided images of hares and ptarmigans from all over the Northern hemisphere, some of them dating back to the 1970s. This wide scale data set allows for more general assession of trends and impacts on the seasonal moult. The photos were used to compare the colour of the animal against the snow coverage in the immediate environment and determine the level of camouflage mismatch.
The models showed that populations at the Northern extend of the range experience higher levels of camouflage mismatch, with the highest levels of mismatch during the beginning of the moulting season. In addition, isolation seems to be another risk factor for populations. However, only a rough proxy was used to determine isolation of populations, and this result needs further validation. Overall, the results of this project are in line with regional scale studies that describe the camouflage mismatch experienced by mountain hares and rock ptarmigans and adds to them by identifying vulnerable populations and time periods, which is essential in guiding conservation efforts.
