Atlantic seabird tracking says MPA placement matters nearly as much as MPA area
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Researchers synthesized 3.56 million tracking locations from 13,060 adult seabirds representing 44 species and 206 colonies. Existing Atlantic MPAs cover about 6.9% of the ocean area and overlap roughly 11–13% of tracked-species use density; optimization suggested the same protected-area footprint could capture about 30–34%, while a strategically located 30% network could capture roughly two-thirds or more.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Area targets are incomplete spatial strategy for mobile species. If protected coverage expands without tracking where animals actually aggregate across seasons and jurisdictions, a larger network can still miss the ecological process it is meant to protect.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
The metric is tracked-species use density, not total bird abundance. Tracking coverage is uneven among taxa, colonies and years, adults dominate the dataset, some devices have coarse positional accuracy, and optimization demonstrates spatial potential rather than political feasibility or ecological effectiveness of protection.
SOURCE
Conservation Letters
View original evidence ↗
A 13,000-bird tracking synthesis suggests today’s Atlantic protected-area footprint captures far less migratory seabird use than the same area could if biodiversity layers shaped placement.
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