Impacts of global changes on the demography of vulnerable marine predators: a comparative approach
Seabirds are one of the most threatened groups of birds, especially albatrosses which suffer from additional mortality due to bycatch in fisheries, diseases, and impact of introduced predators. This is why since 2001 France has ratified the Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels. Moreover, in the current context of global changes, we can wonder how these changes will affect the population dynamics of albatrosses. Knowing the magnitude of this impact can allow us to take it into account in order to set up sustainable resources management methods for the conservation of species and biodiversity.
Although several studies have shown that global changes affect some albatross populations, most ignore the interactions between species, and demographic responses to environmental variability may differ at the inter- and intra-specific levels. We therefore propose to study 4 albatross populations belonging to two species: the sooty albatross (Phoebetria fusca) and the light-mantled sooty albatross (Phoebetria palpebrata), two phylogenetically related species with different conservation status, respectively endangered and near threatened.
The study areas are in the French Antarctic and Austral Territories, where two sooty populations (Crozet and Amsterdam islands) and two light-mantled sooty populations (Crozet and Kerguelen islands) are monitored. My work will allow to enrich the knowledge on the population dynamics of these two species, and their response mechanisms to global changes, by comparing interspecific and intraspecific responses.
PhD in Marines’ Predators Team (2022 – 2025)
Supervisor: Christophe Barbraud
camille.schatz(at)cebc.cnrs.fr
