Abstract
Understanding the movement patterns and foraging areas of seabirds is critical for their conservation and for mitigating potential impacts from human activities, such as offshore wind farm (OWF) development. We provide the first GPS data on foraging trips and travel altitudes of European storm-petrels (ESP) Hydrobates pelagicus in the Bay of Biscay, near planned OWF development areas. We obtained 28 complete trips from 19 individuals during the incubation periods of the 2023 and 2024 breeding seasons at three colonies along the Spanish Cantabrian shore. Distribution models for ESP were developed using the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) method for each colony, and flight heights were measured using GPS triangulation, analysing data separately for daytime and nighttime. Mean trip duration was 2.7 days and mean trip distance travelled was 803 km, with no relevant differences among colonies. Our results indicate that foraging areas were concentrated along the edges of both the French and Iberian continental shelves. However, at night, ESP showed a more concentrated use of the continental shelf edge and exhibited a more coastal distribution, occasionally foraging in bays and estuaries and showing inter-colonies nocturnal movements. This nocturnal scenario may pose a risk of direct impact of OWFs on the breeding population of the species in the Gulf of Biscay.
Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Sara Diaz and Gonzalo Pardo for their help at field surveys. We also acknowledge the logistical support provided in Asturias by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. All necessary permits were issued by the Department of Environment of the Biscay Country Council and also by the Principality of Asturias. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments, thanks to which the present article has improved significantly.
Funding
The work carried out in Asturias was developed within the framework of the CORMIÑOS Project, with the support and assistance of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Biodiversity Foundation, as part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), funded by the European Union-NextGenerationEU. The first funding was provided to C.M., J.B., M.I., M.G.V., and S.R. The work carried out in the Basque Country was supported by BiMEP–Biscay Marine Energy Platform. The second funding was provided to I.Z., J.Z., M.Y., I.A., and L.Z.
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All authors conceived the study and collected the data in the field (M.Y, J.Z, M.G, M.I, I.A, S.R, L.Z, J.B, I.Z, C.M). J.B., I.Z., and C.M. analysed the data. C.M., I.Z., and L.Z. wrote the main manuscript text with contributions from all co-authors. C.M. and J.B. prepared Figs. 1–4 in the main manuscript and Figs. S1–S7 in the supplementary material. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
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Morey, C., Yarza, M., Bécares, J. et al. Diel movements and flight altitudes of the European storm-petrel in the North Atlantic and their implications for conservation.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-45534-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-45534-w
Keywords
- GPS tracking
- Seabird distribution
- Offshore wind farms
- Flight heights
- Foraging areas
- Gulf of Biscay
Source: Ecology - nature.com
