Utilizing social media to enhance communication among seabird researchers: the first World Seabird Twitter Conference gets underway this month

The first World Seabird Twitter Conference (#WSTC1) gets underway on 20 and 21 March.

“A Twitter conference is a social media event that occurs from the comfort of your living room!! (or wherever you might be currently seated).  This event is meant to bring together seabird scientists from around the world in an online setting to encourage communication and collaboration, particularly when costs of travel are currently high.”

Registration is now closed with 42 “talks” offered from 12 countries.  Presentations will consist of a maximum of six 140-character tweets with 15-minute time slots accorded to each author over the two-day time period.  Discussion and questions are encouraged by sending tweets to the authors.

Of the 42 talks to be tweeted at least eight will be about procellariiform seabirds as listed here by author and title.

Martin Berg:  Using the fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) as an ecological indicator for marine ecosystem health in northern New Zealand.

Rachel Buxton:  One method does not suit all: variable settlement responses of three procellariid species to vocalization playbacks.

Rachael Sagar:  Optimising translocation efforts of Mottled Petrels (Pterodroma inexpectata): growth, provisioning, meal size and the efficacy of an artificial diet for chicks

Dilek Sahlin:  Are there more yelkouan shearwaters than we thought? [Puffinus yelkouan].

Matthew Savoca:  Procellariiform seabirds link chemical ecology to marine biogeochemistry: implications and future directions.

Kylie Scales: Ensemble ecological niche models identify preferred foraging habitats of grey-headed albatrosses Thalassarche chrysostoma.

Alice Treval:  Elevated levels of plastic ingestion by a high-Arctic seabird: the northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis).

Saskia Wischnewski:  Exceptionally long provisioning trips to the mid-Atlantic and western Scotland by Manx Shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus) breeding on the edge of Europe.

A Fluttering Shearwater in its artificial burrow, photograph my Shane Cotter

Click here to for details of time slots and authors’ twitter handles.

Following a judging process the winner of the first WSTC will be awarded a free registration to the Second World Seabird Conference to be held in Cape Town, South Africa in October this year.

Click here to read more about this innovative use of social media.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 March 2015