track2KBA: An R package for identifying important sites for biodiversity from tracking data

Beal, Martin; Oppel, Steffen; Handley, Jonathan; Pearmain, Elizabeth J.; Morera‐Pujol, Virginia; Carneiro, Ana P. B.; Davies, Tammy E.; Phillips, Richard A.; Taylor, Philip R.; Miller, Mark G. R.; Franco, Aldina M. A.; Catry, Inês; Patrício, Ana R.; Regalla, Aissa; Staniland, Iain J.; Boyd, Charlotte; Catry, Paulo; Dias, Maria P.

doi:10.1111/2041-210x.13713

Cited by 61 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Following methods developed by Birdlife International 58 , 59 , IBAs for the African penguin during their pre- and post-moult stages were identified using the R package track2KBA 120 . An IBA is defined as a site that is known to regularly hold significant numbers of globally threatened species or a site that supports > 1% of the global population of a congregatory bird 59 , 121 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For each data group, areas where > 10% of individuals’ core areas overlapped were identified. These areas were then assessed to check if they were representative of the tracked population and thus adequately described the at-sea distribution of the data group by calculating the ‘representativeness’ of the data group (function: repAssess, R package track2KBA 120 ). They were deemed representative if their representativeness score was > 70%.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Important marine areas for endangered African penguins before and after the crucial stage of moulting

Carpenter-Kling

Blocq²,

Hagen³

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The population of the Endangered African penguin Spheniscus demersus has decreased by > 65% in the last 20 years. A major driver of this decrease has been the reduced availability of their principal prey, sardine Sardinops sagax and anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus. To date, conservation efforts to improve prey availability have focused on spatial management strategies to reduce resource competition with purse-seine fisheries during the breeding season. However, penguins also undergo an annual catastrophic moult when they are unable to feed for several weeks. Before moulting they must accumulate sufficient energy stores to survive this critical life-history stage. Using GPS tracking data collected between 2012 and 2019, we identify important foraging areas for pre- and post-moult African penguins at three of their major colonies in South Africa: Dassen Island and Stony Point (Western Cape) and Bird Island (Eastern Cape). The foraging ranges of pre- and post-moult adult African penguins (c. 600 km from colony) was far greater than that previously observed for breeding penguins (c. 50 km from colony) and varied considerably between sites, years and pre- and post-moult stages. Despite their more extensive range during the non-breeding season, waters within 20 and 50 km of their breeding colonies were used intensively and represent important foraging areas to pre- and post-moult penguins. Furthermore, penguins in the Western Cape travelled significantly further than those in the Eastern Cape which is likely a reflection of the poor prey availability along the west coast of South Africa. Our findings identify important marine areas for pre- and post-moult African penguins and support for the expansion of fisheries-related spatio-temporal management strategies to help conserve African penguins outside the breeding season.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Important marine areas for endangered African penguins before and after the crucial stage of moulting

Carpenter-Kling

Blocq²,

Hagen³

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…The approach applied was one developed by BirdLife International, which aims to identify important at‐sea areas – based on tracking data – used by a threshold number of individuals, meaning a representative percentage of the population studied. Sites identified in this way can then be assessed against the global IBA criteria (Lascelles et al, 2016; Beal et al, 2021). This approach is based on three steps: (1) the identification of core‐use areas for each individual based on kernel density estimation (KDE); (2) the assessment of population‐level representativeness of the tracked sample; and (3) extrapolation to the population level and delineation of areas meeting a threshold of importance (Lascelles et al, 2016; Beal et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sites identified in this way can then be assessed against the global IBA criteria (Lascelles et al, 2016; Beal et al, 2021). This approach is based on three steps: (1) the identification of core‐use areas for each individual based on kernel density estimation (KDE); (2) the assessment of population‐level representativeness of the tracked sample; and (3) extrapolation to the population level and delineation of areas meeting a threshold of importance (Lascelles et al, 2016; Beal et al, 2021). Utilization distributions (UDs; i.e.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Owing to the lack of accurate at‐sea distribution information for this near‐threatened species, the aim of this study was to describe the important at‐sea areas of the black‐vented shearwater during the breeding period. This was done utilizing two approaches: (1) an accepted method to identify IBAs based on the description of core areas at the population level (Lascelles et al, 2016; Beal et al, 2021); and (2) an approach based on the behavioural classification of tracks to describe areas specific to foraging behaviour (Garriga et al, 2016b). Using these complementary approaches to identify important sites will be critical for identifying areas in which potential threats should be monitored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A novel combination of methods identifies priority conservation areas for an endemic California Current seabird

Soldatini

Albores‐Barajas

Rosas‐Hernández

et al. 2022

Aquatic Conservation

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1. There are growing pressures on marine biodiversity. Seabirds in particular are one the most-threatened groups. The black-vented shearwater (Puffinus opisthomelas) is endemic to Mexican islands and the only shearwater living its entire life cycle in the California Current System, one of the most productive large marine ecosystems in the world. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in this region, however, were designed without consideration of accurate data on seabird distributions.2. Here, 57 black-vented shearwaters were GPS-tracked from their main breeding colony (95% of the global population) over four seasons (2016)(2017)(2018)(2019) to estimate their at-sea distribution. Two methods were applied to identify priority conservation areas: the approach developed by BirdLife International to identify marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas and a method using expectationmaximization binary clustering to identify core foraging areas.3. One potential marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Area close to the breeding colony and five core foraging areas were identified. These priority conservation areas were largely beyond the bounds of the current MPA network in the region. 4. Our results detail opportunities for improving the implementation of conservation and management measures in the California Current System region with respect to seabirds. The approach of combining site identification methods can be applied to other seabird species for which high-resolution tracking data are available and can help guide conservation action plans and MPA design.

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The foraging behavior of nonbreeding Adélie penguins in the western Antarctic Peninsula during the breeding season

et al. 2022

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Information on marine predator at‐sea distributions is key to understanding ecosystem and community dynamics and an important component of spatial management frameworks that aim to identify regions important for conservation. Tracking data from seabirds are widely used to define priority areas for conservation, but such data are often restricted to the breeding population. This also applies to penguins in Antarctica, where identification of important habitat for nonbreeders has received limited attention. Nonbreeding penguins are expected to have larger foraging distributions than breeding conspecifics, which may alter their interactions with physical environmental factors, conspecifics, other marine predators, and threats. We studied the movement behavior of nonbreeding Adélie penguins tracked during the 2016/2017 breeding season at King George Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. We quantify how nonbreeding penguins' horizontal moment behavior varies in relation to environmental conditions and assess the extent of spatial overlap in the foraging ranges of nonbreeders and breeders, which were tracked over several years. Nonbreeders increased their prey search and area‐restricted foraging behavior as sea surface temperature and bottom depths decreased, and in response to increasing sea ice concentration. Nonbreeders tended to transit (high directional movement) over the relatively deep Central Basin of the Bransfield Strait. The majority of foraging behavior occurred within the colder, Weddell Sea–sourced water of the Antarctic Coastal Current (incubation) and in the Weddell Sea (crèche). The utilization distributions of breeders and nonbreeders overlapped in the central Bransfield Strait. Spatial segregation was greater during the crèche stage of breeding compared to incubation and brood, because chick provisioning still constrained the foraging range of breeders to a scale of a few tens of kilometers, while nonbreeders commenced with premolt foraging trips into the Weddell Sea. Our results show that breeding and nonbreeding penguins may not be impacted similarly by local environmental variability, given that their spatial and temporal scales of foraging differ during some part of the austral summer. Our study highlights the need to account for different life history stages when characterizing foraging behavior of marine predator populations. This is particularly important for “sentinel” species monitored as part of marine conservation and ecosystem‐based management programs.

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track2KBA: An R package for identifying important sites for biodiversity from tracking data

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 61 publications

References 16 publications

Important marine areas for endangered African penguins before and after the crucial stage of moulting

Important marine areas for endangered African penguins before and after the crucial stage of moulting

A novel combination of methods identifies priority conservation areas for an endemic California Current seabird

The foraging behavior of nonbreeding Adélie penguins in the western Antarctic Peninsula during the breeding season

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