Seabirds are important health indicators for marine ecosystems and can help map areas with high biodiversity value. But seabird populations are also facing serious threats from multiple human activities along the coast and out at sea. In the Seabird-MPA pilot project, we investigate how seabirds may benefit from marine protected areas through diet quality. The project aims to investigate how to study the reproduction of two coastal seabird species, the black-backed seagull and the common eider, and potential benefit from a network of different marine protected areas (e.g. no-take area, lobster reserve, nature reserve) in South of Norway. Methods include individual GPS-tracking of spatial use, analysing ecophysiological parameters, monitoring of breeding success, and quantifying biodiversity through e-DNA linked to diet quality within vs outside marine protected areas.
