There are just two weeks remaining to the deadline for applications for the 2015 SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) and COMNAP (Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs fellowship Schemes.  SCAR and COMNAP fellowships are worth up to US$ 15 000 each and up to six fellowships in total are on offer for 2015.  The fellowships enable early career researchers to join a project team from another country, opening up new opportunities and often creating research partnerships that last many years and over many Antarctic research seasons. The deadline for applications is 3 June 2015.

For more information on SCAR and COMNAP Fellowships, visit the SCAR or COMNAP websites.

Sooty Albatross, photograph by Ross Wanless

The SCAR and COMNAP schemes have again been launched in conjunction with CCAMLR (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) Scientific Scholarship Scheme, which provides funding of up to AU$ 30 000 to assist early career scientists to participate in the work of the CCAMLR Scientific Committee and its working groups over a period of two years.  The scheme was established in 2010 and a maximum of three awards will be made in 2015.  The objective of the scheme is to build capacity within the CCAMLR scientific community to help generate and sustain the scientific expertise needed to support the work of CCAMLR in the long-term. The deadline for CCAMLR applications is 1 October 2015.  For more information, visit the CCAMLR website.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 May 2015

The USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries project “Preventing Migratory Seabird Mortality in U.S. West Coast Groundfish Longline Fisheries” is the 2015 recipient of the Presidential Migratory Bird Federal Stewardship Award.  The award was announced at the annual meeting of the Council for the Conservation of Migratory Birds on 7 May.

NOAA Fisheries, in collaboration with many partners, works to keep seabirds off the hooks of vessels using bottom longline gear in fisheries off of the U.S. west coast of Washington, Oregon and California (click here).

The award project “involves a relatively simple and low-cost solution known as streamer [bird-scaring] lines.  Streamer lines consist of a long piece of rope with strands of orange tubing suspended every 5 meters that hang down to the water’s surface.  Fishermen deploy the streamer lines from the stern of longline fishing vessels along with the line of baited hooks.  Because the streamer lines are attached to a high point on the back deck of the vessel, they extend back to cover and protect the area where the baited hooks are sinking, preventing the seabirds from get hooked or entangled” (click here).

Twin bird-scaring lines deployed, photograph by Barry Watkins

The award is shared (among others) with Washington Sea Grant’s Ed Melvin, a long-standing member of ACAP’s Seabird Bycatch Working Group, who has trialled different designs of bird-scaring lines in the North Pacific and off southern Africa.  “In 2009 Melvin and team traveled farther afield to work with the Japanese tuna fleet off South Africa.  After testing multiple streamer and weighted long-line combinations, they found a configuration that, together with setting baited lines at night, eliminated seabird bycatch with virtually no impact on crew labor or fish catches” (click here).

With thanks to Barry Baker for information.

Selected Literature:

Melvin, E.F., Guy, T.J. & Read, L.B. 2013.  Reducing seabird bycatch in the South African joint venture tuna fishery using bird-scaring lines, branch line weighting and nighttime setting of hooks.  Fisheries Research 147: 72-82.

Melvin, E.F., Guy, T.J. & Read, L.B. 2014.  Best practice seabird bycatch mitigation for pelagic longline fisheries targeting tuna and related species.  Fisheries Research 149: 5-18.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 May 2015

The phylogeography of many seabird species remains poorly known.  They are highly mobile organisms supposedly free from geographical barriers to dispersal, which should theoretically prevent population differentiation through isolation.   However, population differentiation within a species can be significant despite high mobility (Friesen et al. 2007).  Many species of seabirds are highly philopatric, partially or completely removing the effects of dispersion. Petrels (family Procellariidae) are among those species.  Despite a large number of ecological studies on petrels, little is known of their phylogenetic relationships and their phylogeography, and many taxonomic issues are yet to be resolved.

The overall objective of the proposed project is to study the phylogenetic and phylogeographic characteristics of the Procellariidae to describe better their current distribution, and attempt to characterize the population differentiation processes that took place among species in this family.  From a large collection of field and museum samples (genetic samples of nearly 4000 individuals from 44 different species; morphological data from 12 000 museum specimens already available) and behavioural data (vocalization data for most species), the aim of this PhD project will be to improve our understanding of procellariid evolution and biogeography by selecting a few emblematic case studies (e.g. speciation radiation in the Pterodroma genus; species complex or super species in either Pterodroma or Puffinus) and by expanding already available data sets.  For instance, whether retained ancestral genetic variation is masking contemporary barriers to gene flow, and how past population bottlenecks contribute to contemporary genetic structure, could be evaluated using coalescent-based methods.  This work will be strongly anchored in conservation biology, since half of the petrel species are currently threatened.

Applicants should have a Master’s degree in a relevant field, experience with molecular laboratory techniques, experience with phylogenetics and phylogeography and an excellent background knowledge in evolutionary biology below, at and above the species level.

To apply send CV with your publication record, a list of skills relevant to the project, contact information for two academic references, and a one-page cover letter by 25 May 015 to Eric Pante (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Vincent Bretagnolle (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Balearic Shearwater at sea

Read the full advert here.

Reference:

Friesen, V.L., Burg, T.M. & McCoy, K.D. 2007.  Mechanisms of population differentiation in seabirds.  Molecular Ecology 16: 1765-1785.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 May 2015

Elisa Dierickx (Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biologyand Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA) and colleagues have published in the journal Evolutionary Applications on the genetics of Black-footed Albatrosses Phoebastria nigripes.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Evaluating the genetic and demographic independence of populations of threatened species is important for determining appropriate conservation measures, but different technologies can yield different conclusions.  Despite multiple studies, the taxonomic status and extent of gene flow between the main breeding populations of Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes), a Near-Threatened philopatric seabird, are still controversial.  Here we employ double-digest RADseq to quantify the extent of genome-wide divergence and gene flow in this species.  Our genome-wide dataset of 9,760 loci containing 3455 single nucleotide polymorphisms yielded estimates of genetic diversity and gene flow that were generally robust across seven different filtering and sampling protocols and suggest a low level of genomic variation (θ per site = ~0.00002 – 0.00028), with estimates of effective population size (N_e = ~500 – 15,881) falling far below current census size.  Genetic differentiation was small but detectable between Japan and Hawaii (F_ST ≈ 0.038 – 0.049), with no F_ST outliers.  Additionally, using museum specimens, we found that effect sizes of morphological differences by sex or population rarely exceeded 4%.  These patterns suggest that the Hawaiian and Japanese populations are distinguishable and should be considered separate Management Units, although the evolutionary and adaptive consequences of this differentiation remain to be identified.

Black-footed Albatross, photograph by Cynthia Vanderlip

Reference:

Dierickx, E.G., Shultz, A.J., Sato, F., Hiraoka, T.& Edwards, S.V. 2015.  Morphological and genomic comparisons of Hawaiian and Japanese Black-footed Albatrosses (Phoebastria nigripes) using double digest RADseq: implications for conservation.  Evolutionary Applications DOI: 10.1111/eva.12274.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 May 2015