Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/K007440/1
Potential ecological impacts of marine renewable devices on diving seabirds: Modelling FORaging STrategies In high energy Environments
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Professor B Scott, University of Aberdeen, Inst of Biological and Environmental Sci
- Grant held at:
- University of Aberdeen, Inst of Biological and Environmental Sci
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- The wide spread deployment of marine renewable devices may represent one of the best national strategies for the rapid change from an oil and gas dependant nation to one with economic growth in low CO2 emissions industries. The UK could lead the world with a blueprint of 'best practice' of how to use the most advanced scientific knowledge to ensure the rapid increase of marine developments while minimising short and longer term ecological impact. One of the most important unknowns and ecological risks associated with the widespread deployment of subsea structures is whether the devices may change the availability of lower trophic level prey (fish) to higher trophic levels, such as mammals and seabirds. This area of study has been identified as a NERC priority area (ENERGY) and this project covers 3 of the subtheme priority areas: Uncertainty and Risk, Cost effective monitoring and Cumulative impact assessment. Seabirds in particular are excellent indicator species, being highly visible (and can be tagged) and rapidly change their behaviour and spatial distributions in response to changes in foraging opportunity and success. The potential range of changes to feeding efficiency and how those changes could affect population level vital rates (e.g. reproductive success and adult survival) can be accurately modelled within a new 3-D spatial modelling framework. This project supervisory team includes one of the leaders in the creation of spatial behavioural modelling frameworks and preliminary use of prototype models have shown intriguing, non-intuitive results on seabird foraging efficiency arising from subtle changes in prey availability due to the placement of subsea devices,. However real data on prey behaviour and seabird foraging behaviour in high energy environments are needed to accurately parameterise such a model and produce robust outputs. Two major projects, run by individuals on the supervisory team, are collecting just the type of data needed to parameterise spatial behaviour models of foraging seabirds. This PhD project will have available the first ever collection of acoustic sonar data on the behaviour of both seabirds and their (fish) prey in highly energetic environments (NERC project FLOWBEC, http://noc.ac.uk/project/flowbec) which comes from a moored instrument that collects information throughout the water column over a tidal turbine structure covering a 2 week spring-neap cycle. The project will also have available data on the detailed behaviour of seabirds underwater from time depth recorders (TDR) from a wide range of diving seabirds around the UK in an ongoing collection of the largest seabird tagging programme in Europe, FAME, http://www.rspb.org.uk/fame. The PhD student will have the benefit of working with both these research groups, as well as taking part in field work with RSPB in the first field season of the project. For the UK to become world leaders in the design of low environmental impact renewable developments, we need not only the ability to make robust predictions of potential cumulative impacts, but also to have them rapidly taken up by policy makers and used appropriately in licensing decisions. This project has as its CASE Partner Marine Scotland Science (MSS), represented by Dr Ian Davies, who leads the Marine Renewable Energy Programme. MSS plays a central role in the drive to develop robust advice and regulation through its responsibilities for marine spatial planning and marine licensing. Therefore, this PhD student will be provided with an outstanding opportunity to gain experience in crossdisciplinary and multidisciplinary aspects of fundamental theoretical ecology, spatial modelling frameworks, fieldwork and the applied use of science. They will join the internationally recognised Ecology group within the University of Aberdeen, as well as being hosted within MSS, an influential regulatory institute and supervised by experts within one of the largest UK NGOs, RSPB.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/K007440/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Open CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £76,571
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Fees | Total - RTSG | Total - Student Stipend |
|---|---|---|
| £13,978 | £13,400 | £49,194 |
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