School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2024 Oct;8(10):1907-1915. doi: 10.1038/s41559-024-02496-4. Epub 2024 Aug 15.
Seabirds play critical roles on islands. By catalysing terrestrial and marine productivity through guano nutrient input, seabirds support natural island functioning. In the Indo-Pacific, atolls comprise one-third of all islands but only ~0.02% of island area. The importance of atolls as seabird nesting grounds has been historically neglected except on a few key atolls. We compiled a global dataset of seabird surveys on atolls and modelled seabird distribution and nutrient deposition on all Indo-Pacific atolls. We found that atolls are breeding sites for 37 species, ranging from a few dozen to more than 3 million individuals per atoll. In total, an estimated 31.2 million seabirds nest on atolls, or ~25% of the tropical seabirds of the world. For 14 species, more than half of their global populations nest on atolls. Seabirds forage more than 10,000-100,000 km² around an atoll and deposit, on average, 65,000 kg N and 11,000 kg P per atoll per year, thus acting as major nutrient pumps within the tropical Indo-Pacific. Our findings reveal the global importance of atolls for tropical seabirds. Given global change, conservation will have to leverage atoll protection and restoration to preserve a relevant fraction of the tropical seabirds of the world.
海鸟在岛屿上起着至关重要的作用。通过海鸟粪便中的营养物质输入来促进陆地和海洋的生产力，海鸟支持着自然岛屿的正常运转。在印度洋-太平洋地区，环礁占所有岛屿的三分之一，但仅占岛屿面积的 0.02%。除了少数几个关键环礁外，历史上海鸟在环礁上筑巢的重要性一直被忽视。我们编纂了一份关于环礁海鸟调查的全球数据集，并对所有印度洋-太平洋环礁的海鸟分布和营养物质沉积进行了建模。我们发现，环礁是 37 种鸟类的繁殖地，每个环礁的鸟类数量从几十只到超过 300 万只不等。总共有估计有 3120 万只海鸟在环礁上筑巢，约占全球热带海鸟的 25%。对于 14 个物种来说，它们全球一半以上的种群都在环礁上筑巢。海鸟在环礁周围觅食超过 10000-100000 平方公里，并平均每年在每个环礁上沉积 65000 公斤氮和 11000 公斤磷，因此成为热带印度洋-太平洋地区的主要营养物质泵。我们的研究结果揭示了环礁对热带海鸟的全球重要性。考虑到全球变化，保护工作将不得不利用环礁的保护和恢复来保护世界上相当一部分热带海鸟。
