진학프로석·박사 채용 접수 플랫폼

SEAGHOSTS aims to build on limited knowledge of the SPATIAL AND TROPHIC ECOLOGY of the storm petrel species (Hydrobatidae and Oceanitidae) and their populations breeding in Europe. It aims to assess the major at-sea threats storm petrels face on their Mediterranean and NE Atlantic breeding grounds and on their suspected Southern Atlantic wintering grounds. These threats include climate change, renewable energy infrastructures, aquaculture, and contamination, including plastic exposure. 

Storm petrels are the smallest seabirds on Earth, and they are normally only accessible to researchers when at land in the colonies during breeding. They are thus particularly challenging to study outside this period when they are at sea and during which they migrate and usually moult their feathers. Due to their small size and elusive lifestyle, storm petrels appear often unnoticed in at-sea censuse, and tracking studies on them have not been possible until very recently. 

In general, most species of storm petrels are known to feed preferentially on ichthyoplankton and zooplankton during the breeding season, and often these preys are consumed along with a relevant proportion of microplastics. In this regard, storm petrels are good candidates for evaluating impacts at low and mid trophic levels of the pelagic food web, because they respond sooner to environmental changes than larger seabirds may do, even the last ones are often seen as the ideal sentinels. 

Overall, we still know little about their feeding grounds and foraging strategies in both breeding and non-breeding periods. This lack of knowledge in storm petrels’ ecology represents the current last frontier to a comprehensive understanding of the foraging ecology and spatio-temporal distributions of seabirds. Even though the interaction of storm petrels with offshore anthropogenic activities has been partially studied, the present proposal aims at gathering key knowledge on the global spatial ecology of these taxa and contributing to assess knowledge gaps on marine biodiversity and anthropogenic impacts on it along European seas.

SEAGHOSTS will combine available biologging, genetic and isotopic data with newly collected data over the project to fill important geographic gaps across Europe. This transnational project will combine ultraminiaturized tracking devices, habitat modelling, bulk and compound-specific stable isotope analysis, diet DNA metabarcoding analysis, geometric morphometrics, and microplastic determinations. This multidisciplinary methodology, combined with multi-colony and multi-species monitoring, will provide new essential knowledge on year-round, metapopulation distributions of storm petrels, and a review on how diverse human activities at sea may affect oceanic habitats of seabirds. Overall, this knowledge will help identifying priority conservation areas across international boundaries, i.e. Marine Protected Areas. 

A Spatial Ecology Data Science position is offered at Universitat de Barcelona. The Spatial Ecology Data Scientist will focus on the spatial and trophic ecology of the European-breeding storm petrels as well as their anthropogenic impacts on European seas. Concretely, the Spatial Ecology Data Science position will have the following responsibilities:

• Gathering, integrating, and managing datasets from diverse sources, including GPS and GLS tracking of seabirds, and environmental variables.

• Modelling of breeding and non-breeding habitat of storm petrels, projecting shifts under diverse IPCC scenarios.

• Inferring year-round at-sea activity of storm petrels from immersion data.

• Quantification, characterization, and spatial modelling of microplastic abundances at sea.

• Overlapping diverse anthropogenic impacts with storm petrel habitats.

• Develop engaging and informative data visualizations (e.g., charts, graphs, dashboards) to communicate results to a wide range of audiences.

• Collaborate closely with project partners, data providers, and stakeholders to ensure effective data sharing and coordination across teams.

• Provide training and support to project partners, students, and stakeholders on data handling, analysis, and interpretation techniques.