The world's monitored seabird populations have diminished 70 percent between 1950 and 2010, say findings being reported by the
Sea Around Us project. In a paper published one month ago in
PLoS ONE:
We found the monitored portion of the global seabird population to have declined overall by 69.7% between 1950 and 2010. This declining trend may reflect the global seabird population trend, given the large and apparently representative sample. Furthermore, the largest declines were observed in families containing wide-ranging pelagic species, suggesting that pan-global populations may be more at risk than shorter-ranging coastal populations.
The lead author of the paper is UBC graduate
Michelle Paleczny:
“Decline in seabird abundance stands to disrupt natural processes in island and marine ecosystems in which seabirds play an important role — by acting as predators, scavengers, cross-ecosystem nutrient subsidizers, and ecosystem engineers,” Paleczny says.
The authors stress that their findings show a global need for seabird conservation. If their findings are even half right we need serious conservation.