SENSEI is a BNP-funded project, logistically supported by IPEV, that investigates the behavioural and demographic responses of seabirds and seals to changes in sea ice both in the Arctic and in the Antarctic.
SENSEI's Blog is open!
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Hi all,
This is the first post of the SENSEI's blog. Watch out for the forthcoming information on fieldwork reports, scientific publications, symposium and other events.
Pierre-Loup went to spend a few weeks in Cooper Island to work with George and his team on our guillemot friends. Read the report of this year's situation here . Started well... Ended up not that good!
George was live on the U.S. National Public Radio show, On Point , based at WBUR in Boston, Massachusetts. Together with Karen Frey, lead author of the "Arctic Ocean Primary Productivity" chapter in this year’s NOAA Arctic Report Card, they described how the Arctic has been warming, pushing The Region — And Planet — Into Uncharted Territory! And George nicely advertised the role that SENSEI played in helping him continue his research with the assistance of foreign funds...
George is finishing up his second week on the island and the news are not super positive. There has been an extremely late snowmelt and guillemots laid eggs as late as they did in the 1970s: the first egg was seen on 24 June, while in 2015 the first egg was seen on 6 June! But the timing of egg laying is far less important than what George observed for overwinter survival and population size. Only 70% of the birds that bred last year are in the colony. About a third of this year's breeding pairs are composed of two birds whose mates died over the winter. There are now only 45 nests with eggs. There could be as many as 15 more but it is clear the breeding population will be less than the 85 pairs of last year. In 2016 there were 100 pairs. The only thing that is preventing an even larger decline in the population is the return of a rather large pulse (about 25) of the 2015 Cooper Island cohort. They have paired with widowed birds and not with each other. Immigration to the colon
Yeah! :D
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