Two new research projects will investigate the impacts of large-scale development of wind energy along the coast and offshore on migrating birds and marine life.
How bird-ringing can be used to determine lethal effects of marine stressors.
Human activity in the coastal zone is increasing worldwide, including Norway. Aquaculture, kelp harvesting, fisheries, increasing boat and ship traffic present sources of disturbance and pose a variety of potential threats to seabirds.
By using a more than 100-year-old record of a puffin Fratercula arctica chick harvest on Iceland, researchers have found a relationship between ocean temperatures and production of puffin chicks.
How do seabirds find enough food to survive the darkness of winter? In a study on colonies in Great Britain, Iceland and Norway, researchers used geolocators to reveal that European shags adopt various strategies to handle the winter darkness.
In response to a warming climate, many species are shifting their range norhtwards. Protected areas play an important role in helping bird species to adjust - if the sites follow a clear management plan.
The advantages for animals migrating to northern breeding grounds are being eroded, as the animals experience lower food availability, higher pathogen pressure and increased predation rates.
The release of Norwegian white-tailed sea eagle fledglings this summer marks a milestone in the restoration of the species in Europe.
More than 38 500 species are threatened with extinction globally. A new tool can help reverse this trend.
A wild idea can be the solution to get fish past power plants.
The NorthWind research centre on wind energy launched its activities today with its first General Assembly.
130 years of catch data show that global warming is contributing to population decline in the world's largest puffin colony.
Changes in seabird breeding productivity reflect hemispheric differences in ocean warming and human use, and call out the need for policies that reduce the impacts of climate change on the world’s marine ecosystems.
Researchers seek to use turbulent eddies in the river to safely guide salmon and eels past hydropower plants.
This year, a major campaign is being launched in northwest Russia aimed at preventing the spread of alien species to Russian parts of the Arctic. Scientists fear that seeds, insects and parasites will establish themselves in the vulnerable northern regions, and ask travelers to take action.
Scientists have developed a new method to map and monitor alien species in the polar regions.
This study signals the need for fisheries management to account for ecosystem constraints when setting catch limits in periods of low forage fish biomass.
Reduced availability of key prey forces adult puffins to fly further from their colonies to find food. Meanwhile, their chicks starve at the nests.
The Scandinavian and Finnish brown bear populations are among the largest in Europe but were until recently separated. A new study by Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish researchers demonstrates that connectivity has been restored with decent exchange of individuals and genes between countries.
Using data from five different marine ecosystems, researchers have tested the hypothesis of predator‐pit dynamics for forage fish. By examining the consumption of fish by seabirds and the effect of such predation on fish population dynamics, they found that seabird-induced mortality of forage fish varies with fish abundance.
More than a quarter of the individual auks in which mercury levels were measured outside the breeding season exceeded the toxicity threshold.
Offshore oil rigs serve as a breeding refuge for Norwegian Black-legged Kittiwakes. Although they are few in number, these birds produce more chicks than kittiwakes in natural colonies along the coast, to the benefit of the impoverished
The Circumpolar Seabird Group under CAFF and the Arctic Council has proposed a conservation plan for the black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla, a species which has been declining severely
Sustainable certification of oil palm plantations can reduce poverty, but the timing of certification is among the factors that influence the effect.
It is no longer sufficient to protect nature – there is also a need to restore what has been degraded. Ecological restorations are actions to improve the ecological condition and values of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. Mitigation and compensating measures can also be part of restoration.
Foraging shags and commercial kelp harvesters very often utilize the same marine areas.
Simple measures can make wind turbines more bird friendly. New research shows that measures such as painting the rotor blades or towers, using UV-light and smart micro-siting of wind turbines, decreases the risk for bird collisions considerably.
Vultures and other avian scavengers characteristically circle the skies, scanning the ground for carcasses. New research has revealed that these birds can, in addition to sight, respond to auditory cues indicative of potential foraging opportunit
In a world where wild spaces are becoming fewer the central steppes of Kazakhstan uniquely contain hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of grasslands which represent an amazing opportunity for wildlife conservation. However, several of the
Puffins change their diet while razorbills seek out new foraging areas.
Migratory animals are actively adjusting their traditions to climate change.
A new study reports China’s planting of trees and India’s intensive crop cultivation as the main reasons why the Earth is greening throwing doubt on the role of carbon dioxide fertilization, which climate change skeptics have
By measuring body mass and wing length of adult Atlantic Puffins on their breeding grounds and in their wintering areas near the Faroe Islands, researchers have now estimated the seasonal changes in body mass for two populations breeding in Norwa
More than 7500 oil and gas platforms and wind turbines will become obsolete in the next few decades. Full removal may not be the best plan after all, according to new survey of international experts.
2 July 2018 Author: juliet.landro Number of views: 7926
NINA’s key statistics and activities throughout 2017.
Most seabirds have a long life span, delayed maturity andspread their reproduction across many years. This life history pattern makes seabird populations particularly sensitive to decreases in adult survival rates. Mass mortality events can there
Signe Christensen-Dalsgaard defends her academic thesis as part of the doctoral work at the Norwegian University of Science (NTNU): Drivers of seabird spatial ecology – implications for development of offshore wind-power in Norway
The genetic relationships between different populations of what was formerly known to belong to the species Leach’s storm petrel have been complicated for a long time. Researchers have now compared DNA from nearly 300 different individu
Recent Norwegian research shows that the black-legged kittiwake is surprisingly flexible when it comes to finding food for itself and its chicks. The ability to adapt makes this small gull robust to changes in the marine environment – t
The stress levels in elephants living in the areas outside Etosha National Park is higher than in elephants living inside the park. This is revealed in a study where researchers from NINA and NTNU measured the levels of stress hormones in elephan
New report concludes: Considerable evidence exists that there is a link between farm-intensive areas and the spread of salmon lice to wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout.
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