Using DNA metabarcoding to understand seabird diets and demographic trends in a changing environment

Seabird populations have declined significantly in recent decades due to human pressures, particularly climate change and the depletion of forage-fish stocks. The development of offshore wind farms represents an additional novel pressure. The UK has an international responsibility to conserve seabird populations and has designated numerous Special Protection Areas. However, some regional populations are performing much better than others. These spatial differences may relate to regional variations in the impacts of climate change, fisheries on fish stocks, and other human impacts on marine ecosystems.

Diet is thought to limit seabird reproduction and may play an important role in population dynamics. Currently, understanding of seabird diet is limited to a few colonies where seabirds are easily accessible, particularly during the chick-rearing period. DNA metabarcoding, a molecular ecology technique that involves simultaneous sequencing of heterogeneous mixtures of DNA, offers the potential to study seabird diets in detail throughout the breeding season, possibly the non-breeding season, and across a wider range of colonies. Despite its promise, DNA metabarcoding has not yet been widely applied to the study of UK seabird diets.

This project will develop the use of DNA metabarcoding to investigate seasonal and spatial patterns in the dietary composition of seabird species, possibly including kittiwake, guillemot, razorbill, puffin, and gannet. The main aim is to apply the technique to seabirds at colonies with differing population or productivity trends to assess the likely influence of diet on demography. There is also scope for the student to develop this research in complementary directions of their choice.

The student will be trained in DNA metabarcoding, sophisticated bioinformatic and statistical analyses, and science communication—skills that can be widely applied in ecology, evolution, and broader fields. They will coordinate and carry out sampling from selected seabird species at colonies on the east coast of England and Scotland. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee Seabird Monitoring Programme provides world-leading long-term monitoring data on seabird breeding success and population change, which can be used together with diet data to identify the role of prey abundance as a key driver of seabird populations.

This industry co-funded PhD project gives the student the benefit of working with industry and will have supervision input from Emeritus Professor Bob Furness, who now works with leading environmental consultancy MacArthur Green. This PhD studentship will help to inform government conservation policy and will help developers of offshore renewables to gain a better understanding of the ecological needs of seabirds that may be impacted by their industry.