Common indicator 5: Population demographic characteristics - Seabirds

Reporter:: SPA/RAC
Geographical scale of the assessment:: Regional, Mediterranean Sea
Contributing countries:
Mid-Term Strategy (MTS) Core Theme:: 2-Biodiversity and Ecosystems
Ecological Objective:: EO1: Biological diversity is maintained or enhanced. The quality and occurrence of coastal and marine habitats and the distribution and abundance of coastal and marine species are in line with prevailing physiographic, hydrographic, geographic and climatic conditions.
IMAP Common Indicator:: Common Indicator 5 (CI5): Population demographic characteristics (EO1, e.g. body size or age class structure, sex ratio, fecundity rates, survival/mortality rates related to seabirds)
Indicator Assessment Factsheet Code:: EO1CI5

GES Definition: Species populations are in good conditions: Natural levels of breeding success & acceptable levels of survival of young and adult birds.

GES Targets:

State: Populations of all taxa, particularly those with IUCN threatened status are maintained in long term following the indication of population models.
Pressure: Incidental catch mortality is at negligible levels, particularly for species with IUCN threatened status.

Background

The Mediterranean Sea is considered an important habitat for seabirds, including particularly the Critically Endangered Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus), the endemic Yelkouan shearwater (Puffinus yelkouan) and the little tern (Sterna alibifrons). In addition to these species, a number of other seabird species are listed in the Annexes of the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean of the Barcelona Convention (SPA-BD Protocol).

Assessment methods

The basic methodology to gain information on seabird demography consists on the regular monitoring of nests at their colonies, coupled with ringing schemes and capture-recapture studies. In this case it is easier to monitor shearwaters, as they often breed in well-defined nests where it is easy to capture and ring both the adults and their chick, and adults are highly faithful to the same colony (and usually also the same nest) year after year.

Results and Status, including trends

Information on seabird demographic parameters is scarce and very sparse in the Mediterranean region. For most species, there is some available information on productivity (breeding success and average number of chicks fledged per pair), whereas there is far less information for demographic parameters that require quality data and elaborate analysis (e.g. survival). Results provided here focus on the two shearwater species, as this type of information is essential to understand their population dynamics.

Conclusions

Information for this common indicator is far scarcer than that for common indicators 3 (distribution) and 4 (population size). However, for some species this type of information is essential to properly understand population trends, as well as to assess the relevance of different threats in context. This is particularly so for the Procellariiformes, represented here by the Balearic and Yelkouan shearwaters.

Demographic information is essential to properly assess the trends of certain seabirds, particularly shearwaters.
The limited information available for Balearic and Yelkouan shearwaters suggests that both species are undergoing a severe decline, which threatens them with extinction. Introduced predators and fishing bycatch deserve particular attention on this regard.

References

The reference list includes Works that are not specifically quoted in the text but have been consulted to assess distribution and population figures:

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Biodiversity and Ecosystem (EO 1)