André Bellvé discusses the nutrient contributions of burrowing procellariformes in AoNZ. Seabirds globally contribute more than 48,000 school buses worth of excreta every year! Nutrient flux area is only 8% of what it was prior to seabird colony declines in AoNZ, impacting primary production. #WSC4

Ilana Nimz shares stories of the tree-nesting Manu-o-kū on Oahu, where ‘nesting’ is a generous term! Citizen scientists are integral to understanding these urban-dwelling birds. #WSC4

Licia Calabrese describes seabird censuses, estimates of breeding success for 14 species, along with habitat selection across islands within three key sites in Saudi Arabia. #WSC4

Nina Cossin-Sevrin describes the ‘seabird paradox’ - how does the physiology of king penguins enable them to survive in extreme environments? #WSC4

Although little penguins are classed as ‘least concern’, local population declines of >90% in recent years indicate that all is not wel. Using ddRAD + environmental data, Lucy Ockert identified SNPs associated with environmental variables and assessed diversity. #WSC4

Shy and white-capped albatrosses remain difficult to distinguish. Anna MacDonald uses ddRAD data to provide more finescale inference of species differentiation and population structure among colonies for each species. #WSC4

Matthieu Le Corre explains that in the absence of invasive pest control, Barau’s and Mascarene petrels on Réunion Is will collapse. Grounded Mascarene petrels were found to have higher inbreeding coefficients, demonstrating impacts of light pollution combined with small population size. #WSC4

Juan Massello describes genetic structure across prions, and differences in breeding phenology and bill morphology. This led to a deep dive to investigate introgression hybridisation and species differentiation in more detail. #WSC4

Guillem Izquierdo Aranega applies whole genome sequencing for species pairs, using ancestral recombination graphs to understand the evolutionary history, and periods of divergence or gene flow fluctuating with sea level changes. #WSC4

‘Missing data doesn’t exist in a biological vacuum’.Catharine Horswill explains how we can use partial info from life history traits to reconstruct profiles of traits where we have incomplete knowledge. We can then use this info in population viability analyses to inform management decisions. #WSC4

Andrea Varela asks whether population genetic structure correlates with foraging segregation in pink-footed shearwaters in Chile. Small but siginficant differentiation is present between the breeding sites, and stable isotope analysis differentiates Isla Mocha from the other islands. #WSC4

Chris Haney discusses the impacts of heavy industrialisation of the Gulf of Mexico on seabirds, including offshore wind infrastructure. All the dominant seabirds in the region are aerial foragers, with distinct flight patterns. Most spp fly below the turbine zone - but not all. #WSC4

My favorite part was when they reminded us that scientist wellbeing is important and that it takes good people to do good science. They also mentioned it’s hard to do our jobs and deal with ecogrief and suggested we should talk about it more. 🧪 #WSC4

Killer talk by Drs Lavers and de jersey of @adriftlab.bsky.social. They did a meta-analysis of plastic impacts to Sable shearwaters on Lord Howe. They used data from 20+ datasets collected over 15 years on 90-day old chicks. They found at low plastic levels there are major impacts. #wsc4 🧪

Kirsty Franklin describes further work from ProcBe using GPS and barometer-derived flight heights to understand offshore windfarm risks for European & Leach’s storm-petrels. #WSC4

Orea Anderson is part of the ProcBe team assessing offshore wind infrastructure impacts on Manx shearwaters and storm petrels in the Celtic, Irish and NW Scotland Seas, demonstrating the role of wind speed at sea on flight heights bringing birds into the collision risk zone. #WSC4

Morgane Declerck investigates the combined impacts of offshore windfarms and oceanic changes on Northern gannet foraging patterns to infer habitat changes arising from the increasing infrastructure, demonstrating potential impacts that could reduce breeding success. #WSC4

Julia Gulka incorporated behavioural states derived from tracking data into collision risk models for Northern gannets interacting with windfarm infrastructure development in the US Atlantic. Lots of work to come validating models and understanding annual variability. #WSC4

Nora Theurich demonstrates that juvenile Northern gannets are shaping their migration routes around wind farms from their very first flight. #WSC4

Two highlights I’m still thinking about:
1. Juan Fernandez petrels starting their own new colony in the Indian Ocean, doubling their breeding locations to 2.
2. Male grey-faced petrels have 2x higher natal philopatry (return to breed where they hatched) than females. #wsc4 🧪