SEAPOP About seabirds – for a richer ocean

The SEAPOP programme - a milestone for mapping and monitoring of seabirds in Norway

SEAPOP (SEAbird POPulations) is a long-term monitoring and mapping programme for Norwegian seabirds that was established in 2005. The programme covers seabird populations in Norway, Svalbard and adjacent sea areas, and will provide and maintain base-line knowledge of seabirds for an improved management of this marine environment. The data analyses aim to develop further models of seabird distribution and population dynamics using different environmental parameters, and to explore the degree of covariation across different sites and species. This knowledge is urgently needed to distinguish human influences from those caused by natural variation.

Organization and funding

All work within SEAPOP is organized and conducted by personnel at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) and the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI). Researchers from these two institutes form the SEAPOP Science Group. The programme is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association. The SEAPOP Steering Committee is comprised by representatives from the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the Norwegian Maritime Authority, the Norwegian Coastal Administration and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association. The Institute of Marine Research (IMR), NINA and NPI also participate with one observer/advisor each. Data and knowledge produced by the programme is continuously organized and presented on this web site in order to serve various users.

Monitoring

The national monitoring of seabird population trends was initiated in 1980 and formally established in 1988, and has continued since for a variety of species. Since many seabird species have a scattered nesting distribution, the monitoring is distributed over a large number of locations. Furthermore, we have expanded and adjusted the monitoring of reproduction, diet and adult survival rate for a number of selected species in the previously established key sites on Røst, Hornøya and Bjørnøya, and we have established 13 new key sites from Spitsbergen in the north to Vest-Agder in the south. This is necessary in order to identify the environmental impacts affecting the populations at an early stage. By utilizing time series data collected over several decades, SEAPOP reveals a series of interesting trends for different species and parameters, both within key sites and over larger regions.

Mapping

Within the scheduled programme period of ten years, SEAPOP aims to map in detail the distribution of breeding, staging and wintering seabirds along all coastlines of Norway and the Svalbard archipelago. For logistic and economic reasons, much of the highly dynamic distribution of seabirds at sea in the vast areas covered by the programme will be predicted using multi-disciplinary models. This work is conducted in cooperation with the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen and is based on data collected on their ecosystem surveys in parts of the area.

Special studies

SEAPOP also funds a number of more specialised, shorter-term studies of seabird ecology and habitat use. These studies are aimed at species that are particularly vulnerable to certain environmental influences, or that in some way are of special interest or valuable in terms of conservation.