Quantifying and mitigating transboundary effects of anthropogenic activity is a key challenge in environmental management, particularly for wide-ranging species such as large predators, fish and migratory birds, relying on habitats across multiple national jurisdictions. This challenge is especially complex in marine ecosystems, where the movement of species and impacts across borders is largely unobserved. Central-place foragers, such as pinnipeds and seabirds, exemplify this complexity: abundance is typically assessed on local (regional or national) scales on land, yet at-sea movements and drivers of abundance occur on broader transboundary scales. Resolving this mismatch is critical to effective conservation, especially in areas such as the Northwest European Shelf (NWES), which features globally important predator populations (including two pinniped species) alongside growing anthropogenic pressures and a mosaic of national maritime borders. We model an unprecedented GPS dataset from 236 grey (Halichoerus grypus) and 606 harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) tracked in waters of seven countries across the NWES (United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark). Using regional habitat association models, we generate at-sea distribution estimates for both species at 5 km resolution, scaled to haulout counts, producing country-specific and NWES-wide density maps. Analysis of the extent to which seals making foraging trips from one country occupy the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of other countries revealed substantial transboundary overlap, particularly for grey seals, and harbour seals in the southern North Sea. A case study apportioning grey seal density within three adjacent offshore marine protected areas in different EEZs revealed that, where total density in a given area is required, overlooking transboundary distribution can underrepresent numbers by an order of magnitude. Synthesis and applications. This study provides the first comprehensive, regionally scalable distribution estimates for pinnipeds across the NWES and its constituent countries. The modelling framework is adaptable to other central-place and migratory species, supporting transboundary biodiversity assessments and international conservation policy. We discuss common limitations and misconceptions of species distribution estimates, highlight priorities for future work and underscore the need for transboundary efforts to manage wide-ranging species, providing a foundation for future ecological modelling and decision-making across shared ecosystems.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2026
Abstract Ants, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems. Further, ants are widely used as bioindicators of the ecological impact of land use. We gathered information of ant species in the Atlantic Forest of South America. The ATLANTIC ANTS data set, which is part of the ATLANTIC SERIES data papers, is a compilation of ant records from collections (18,713 records), unpublished data (29,651 records), and published sources (106,910 records; 1,059 references), including papers, theses, dissertations, and book chapters published from 1886 to 2020. In total, the data set contains 153,818 ant records from 7,636 study locations in the Atlantic Forest, representing 10 subfamilies, 99 genera, 1,114 ant species identified with updated taxonomic certainty, and 2,235 morphospecies codes. Our data set reflects the heterogeneity in ant records, which include ants sampled at the beginning of the taxonomic history of myrmecology (the 19th and 20th centuries) and more recent ant surveys designed to address specific questions in ecology and biology. The data set can be used by researchers to develop strategies to deal with different macroecological and region-wide questions, focusing on assemblages, species occurrences, and distribution patterns. Furthermore, the data can be used to assess the consequences of changes in land use in the Atlantic Forest on different ecological processes. No copyright restrictions apply to the use of this data set, but we request that authors cite this data paper when using these data in publications or teaching events.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
