Biodiversity is critical for maintaining ecosystem function but is threatened by increasing anthropogenic pressures. In the Southern Ocean, a highly biologically productive region containing many endemic species, proactive management is urgently needed to mitigate increasing pressures from fishing, climate change, and tourism. Site-based conservation is one important tool for managing the negative impacts of human activities on ecosystems. The Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) Standard is a standardized framework used to define sites vital for the persistence of global biodiversity based on criteria and quantitative thresholds. We used tracking data from 14 species of Antarctic and subantarctic seabirds and pinnipeds from the publicly available Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) data set to define KBAs for a diverse suite of marine predators. We used track2kba, an R package that supports identification of KBAs from telemetry data through identification of highly used habitat areas and estimates of local abundance within sites. We compared abundance estimates at each site with thresholds for KBA criteria A1, B1, and D1 (related to globally threatened species, individual geographically restricted species, and demographic aggregations, respectively). We identified 30 potential KBAs for 13 species distributed throughout the Southern Ocean that were vital for each individual species, population, and life-history stage for which they were determined. These areas were identified as highly used by these populations based on observational data and complement the ongoing habitat modeling and bioregionalization work that has been used to prioritize conservation areas in this region. Although further work is needed to identify potential KBAs based on additional current and future data sets, we highlight the benefits of utilizing KBAs as part of a holistic approach to marine conservation, given their significant value as a global conservation tool.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
In the absence of an internationally coordinated management strategy, continued exploitation of the North Sea is expected to exacerbate underwater radiated noise (URN), heightening risks of adverse impacts on marine life. Identifying indicator species and their habitats is a fundamental step in the EU framework for setting a scientifically grounded underwater noise limit value (UNLV). While past research has primarily emphasized marine mammals, there is an increasing effort to highlight that the impacts of URN extend to fishes and invertebrates. To support indicator species selection in the North Sea for URN risk assessment, a trait-based vulnerability scoring system for marine mammals, fishes and invertebrates was developed. Each scoring system evaluates multiple attributes related to a species' capacity to detect and produce sound, as well as the documented impacts from both impulsive and continuous anthropogenic noise, and highlights species of particular concern and socio-ecological significance. Five potential indicator species were identified from each of the three taxonomic groups (marine mammals, fishes and invertebrates) for URN risk assessment. The proposed vulnerability scoring system serves as an adaptive framework, open to iterative refinement as bioacoustics knowledge advances. Although data gaps persist, the establishment of regional UNLV to safeguard vulnerable species should not be delayed. By linking URN exposure with key habitats of identified indicator species, this approach facilitates an ecosystem-based management of URN in the North Sea and provides a transferable framework for other regions.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2026
