Ellie Owen, Sian N. Haddon, Robert D. Hughes, Alison Barratt, Jack H. Barton, William Bevan, Tessa Broholm, Christopher Cachia-Zammit, Ian R. Cleasby, Frith Dunkley, Alice J. Edney, Alexandra Fink, Katie J. Ford, Jodie M. Henderson, Katie E. Horton, Eliška Kosová, Georgia K. Longmoor, Greg Morgan, Oliver Prince, Sabiya Sheikh, Hannah Snead, Fritha West, Constance J. Tremlett
{"title":"通过数字摄影和公民科学描述一种衰退海鸟食物的空间和季节变化","authors":"Ellie Owen, Sian N. Haddon, Robert D. Hughes, Alison Barratt, Jack H. Barton, William Bevan, Tessa Broholm, Christopher Cachia-Zammit, Ian R. Cleasby, Frith Dunkley, Alice J. Edney, Alexandra Fink, Katie J. Ford, Jodie M. Henderson, Katie E. Horton, Eliška Kosová, Georgia K. Longmoor, Greg Morgan, Oliver Prince, Sabiya Sheikh, Hannah Snead, Fritha West, Constance J. Tremlett","doi":"10.5751/ace-02619-190117","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding an animal’s diet is a crucial component of conservation, but diet data are often labor intensive to collect and are frequently scarce. Atlantic Puffins (<em>Fratercula arctica</em>; hereafter Puffins) are vulnerable to global extinction and have declined in some parts of their UK and Irish range. Differences in population trajectories may relate to diet, but Puffin diet data are currently only collected at a handful of colonies. We explored whether citizen science could address this data gap by inviting visitors to Puffin colonies in 2017 to submit their photographs of Puffins carrying prey. In total, 602 people submitted 1402 images from 35 colonies. We identified the species group, size, and number of prey items in each bill load. Photograph quality was excellent, with 89% of birds in images providing useable diet information. In total 11,150 prey items were counted and measured from 1198 Puffins across 27 colonies. We demonstrated a lack of bias in the sample of photos provided by citizen scientists and described how Puffin chick diet varies in prey composition, prey length, number of prey per bill load, and load biomass over large spatial scales and throughout the breeding season. The diet of Puffin chicks from regions where severe declines have occurred, most notably Shetland, were characterized by a lower prey biomass, higher numbers of fish per load, and a high proportion of small, transparent sandeels consistently through the season. By contrast, in regions where Puffin populations are thought to be increasing, load biomass was high, the number of prey per load low, and larger non-transparent sandeels were the dominant prey, which persisted right through the breeding season. Results from our study show colonies and regions where birds may be expending more effort (collecting more prey items) for lesser returns (lower load biomass) and emphasize the value of collecting diet data across large spatial scales.</p>\n<p>The post Spatial and within-season variation in the diet of a declining seabird described through digital photography and citizen science first appeared on Avian Conservation and Ecology.</p>","PeriodicalId":49233,"journal":{"name":"Avian Conservation and Ecology","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Spatial and within-season variation in the diet of a declining seabird described through digital photography and citizen science\",\"authors\":\"Ellie Owen, Sian N. Haddon, Robert D. Hughes, Alison Barratt, Jack H. 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We explored whether citizen science could address this data gap by inviting visitors to Puffin colonies in 2017 to submit their photographs of Puffins carrying prey. In total, 602 people submitted 1402 images from 35 colonies. We identified the species group, size, and number of prey items in each bill load. Photograph quality was excellent, with 89% of birds in images providing useable diet information. In total 11,150 prey items were counted and measured from 1198 Puffins across 27 colonies. We demonstrated a lack of bias in the sample of photos provided by citizen scientists and described how Puffin chick diet varies in prey composition, prey length, number of prey per bill load, and load biomass over large spatial scales and throughout the breeding season. The diet of Puffin chicks from regions where severe declines have occurred, most notably Shetland, were characterized by a lower prey biomass, higher numbers of fish per load, and a high proportion of small, transparent sandeels consistently through the season. By contrast, in regions where Puffin populations are thought to be increasing, load biomass was high, the number of prey per load low, and larger non-transparent sandeels were the dominant prey, which persisted right through the breeding season. 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Spatial and within-season variation in the diet of a declining seabird described through digital photography and citizen science
Understanding an animal’s diet is a crucial component of conservation, but diet data are often labor intensive to collect and are frequently scarce. Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica; hereafter Puffins) are vulnerable to global extinction and have declined in some parts of their UK and Irish range. Differences in population trajectories may relate to diet, but Puffin diet data are currently only collected at a handful of colonies. We explored whether citizen science could address this data gap by inviting visitors to Puffin colonies in 2017 to submit their photographs of Puffins carrying prey. In total, 602 people submitted 1402 images from 35 colonies. We identified the species group, size, and number of prey items in each bill load. Photograph quality was excellent, with 89% of birds in images providing useable diet information. In total 11,150 prey items were counted and measured from 1198 Puffins across 27 colonies. We demonstrated a lack of bias in the sample of photos provided by citizen scientists and described how Puffin chick diet varies in prey composition, prey length, number of prey per bill load, and load biomass over large spatial scales and throughout the breeding season. The diet of Puffin chicks from regions where severe declines have occurred, most notably Shetland, were characterized by a lower prey biomass, higher numbers of fish per load, and a high proportion of small, transparent sandeels consistently through the season. By contrast, in regions where Puffin populations are thought to be increasing, load biomass was high, the number of prey per load low, and larger non-transparent sandeels were the dominant prey, which persisted right through the breeding season. Results from our study show colonies and regions where birds may be expending more effort (collecting more prey items) for lesser returns (lower load biomass) and emphasize the value of collecting diet data across large spatial scales.
The post Spatial and within-season variation in the diet of a declining seabird described through digital photography and citizen science first appeared on Avian Conservation and Ecology.
期刊介绍:
Avian Conservation and Ecology is an open-access, fully electronic scientific journal, sponsored by the Society of Canadian Ornithologists and Birds Canada. We publish papers that are scientifically rigorous and relevant to the bird conservation community in a cost-effective electronic approach that makes them freely available to scientists and the public in real-time. ACE is a fully indexed ISSN journal that welcomes contributions from scientists all over the world.
While the name of the journal implies a publication niche of conservation AND ecology, we think the theme of conservation THROUGH ecology provides a better sense of our purpose. As such, we are particularly interested in contributions that use a scientifically sound and rigorous approach to the achievement of avian conservation as revealed through insights into ecological principles and processes. Papers are expected to fall along a continuum of pure conservation and management at one end to more pure ecology at the other but our emphasis will be on those contributions with direct relevance to conservation objectives.