What determines the distribution of seabirds at sea? 

EDITORS: KJELL EINAR ERIKSTAD, ROBERT T .  BARRETT AND FRIDTJOF MEHLUM 

Preface 

The rationale behind the Nordic workshop, 'What determines the distribution of seabirds at sea?', held in Skibotn, near T r o m s ~ .  
17-21 October 1988, was the initiation of a new pelagic scabird rcscarch programme at Tromsca Museum. Wc felt a need to gathcr 
experts within oceanography, fishcrics biology and marine ornithology to discuss how to best organize such rcscarch in relation 
to thc available resources. It was attcndcd by 24 students and scientists from 7 countries. including those specially invited from 
the USA, Canada and Scotland. 24 papers were presented, of which 12 make up this volume. 

Seabirds spend most of their time at sea. yet the vast majority of seabird research has becn (and still is) limited to the short, 
hcctic breeding season when the seabirds come ashore and are easily accessible. Only during thc last few decades have seabirds 
been recognizcd as an integral part of the marine ecosystem and multidisciplinary programmes have becn initiated to investigate 
the mcchanisms and processes which regulate thc patterns of their distribution at sea. 

Knowledge of the pelagic ecology of seabirds away from the colonies is critical for the understanding of their population dynamics 
and hence also for a sensiblc managcmcnt of the various species. After the reviews presented by the non-Scandinavian guests, the 
majority of the contributions t o  the workshop addressed various processes which arc thought to be critical causal mcchanisms 
affecting the distribution of seabirds at sea i n  a Scandinavian contcxt. A central topic rcpcatedly presented was the distribution of 
birds in relation to that of their prey, but underlying the discussions were thc unccrtainties of how well they werc corrclatcd and 
to what extent physical processes such as wind, currents, ice-cover, fronts, etc. determine the movements of both birds and their 
prey. These have been the subjects of several wcll documented papers, yet it was agreed that a lot more data are needed at a 
variety of spatial and temporal scales before seabird movements in relation to physical and biological features can be fully 
understood. Such studies will necessitate a continual close cooperation between occanographers, fisheries biologists and marine 
ornithologists. 

The workshop was organized by Tromscb Muscum, and we are very grateful to the Nordic collegiates for Ecology, Wildlife 
Research and Marine Biology (Nordisk Kollegium for 0kologi. Nordisk Kollegium for Viltforskning and Nordisk Kollcgium for 
Marinbiologi), and the University of Tromscb for financing the workshop. 

Tromsca & Oslo, February 1990 
Kjell Einar Erikstad', Robert T. Barrett" & Fridtjof Mchlum" 

* Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Troms0 Museum, Univ. of Tromsca, N-9000 Tromsca, Norway 
* *  Norwegian Polar Research Institute, P.O. Box 158, N-1330 Oslo Lufthavn, Norway