Líffræðifélag Íslands
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2015
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V30
Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson (1,2), Sölvi Rúnar Vignisson (2,3), Yann Kolbeinsson (4)
1. Háskóli Íslands, Líf og umhverfisvísindadeild, 2. Náttúrustofa Suðvesturlands, 3. Þekkingarsetur Suðurnesja, 4. Náttúrustofa Norðausturlands
Kynnir / Presenter: Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson
Tengiliður / Corresponding author: Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson (gunnih@hi.is)
Until recently, the potential to study wintering distributions and migration of seabirds has been poor due to lack of suitable methods. However, during the past decade the number of studies on this aspect have increased dramatically on seabirds due to the development and common use of geolocators. This technique has opened a sight into the mysterious world of seabirds outside the breeding season. Here we report novel results from a migration study on Arctic Skuas (Stercorarius parasiticus). This seabird species has a circumpolar high latitude breeding distribution but wintering grounds are poorly known. We deployed loggers on skuas in Iceland and discovered that this species has a unique wintering distribution ranging from southern South America eastwards to southern South Africa. No other Arctic seabirds seem to use concentrated wintering areas on both sides in the southern Atlantic. We were also able to add information on the importance on staging areas for seabirds, previously described in other studies.