Monday 9 January 2012

One-third: minimum level of fish needed for seabirds

An international group of scientists co-led by Professor Ian Boyd, Director of the Scottish Oceans Institute, has shown that many seabirds begin to suffer when the food available for them in the ocean declines below a critical level of about one-third of the maximum amount of food observed in long-term studies. They have shown that this critical level is about the same for seabirds wherever they happen to be in the world and provides a minimum food level needed to sustain seabird productivity long-term.

Their study – the most comprehensive ever undertaken – covers birds from the Arctic to the Antarctic and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. [more] [‘Science’ article]