Rob van Bemmelen
@robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
430 followers 220 following 20 posts
Dad, birder, sound recorder, ecologist mainly studying (North Sea) seabirds, tracking terns, skuas and phalaropes.
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robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
New #OA paper in the #seabird journal (@theseabirdgroup.bsky.social)! We GPS-tracked Black-legged #Kittiwakes breeding on an offshore platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. In short, we show that they have a short foraging range compared to coastal... 1/6
www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/seabird-37
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
edanalord.bsky.social
I'm super excited to share our new paper on Norwegian lemming genomics just published in @pnas.org!! Read the paper here: www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....
Summary ⬇️
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
duckswabber.bsky.social
Mass mortality of Black-legged Kittiwakes, Norway, 2023: more than 15,000 birds dead, population reduction of 50%. genotype EA-2022-BB
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
raoulbeunen.bsky.social
Zoals verwacht komt de Ministeriële commissie Economie en Natuurherstel niet met een oplossing voor de stikstofproblematiek. Het kabinet kiest ervoor om de natuur verder te laten verslechteren en ondernemers nog eens 10 jaar in onzekerheid te laten zitten. nos.nl/artikel/2564...
Kabinet wil uitstoot stikstof in 2035 halveren
Vrijdag komt het kabinet met de contouren van het nieuwe stikstofbeleid. Leidend daarbij wordt de uitstoot van stikstof bij de bron, dus bij boeren en bedrijven zelf.
nos.nl
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
steffopp.bsky.social
NEW PAPER in #ornithology shows that the survival of migratory #seabirds (Arctic skuas) has decreased in the last decades, but is not related to large-scale ocean indices: www.int-res.com/abstracts/me...
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
And: thin black vertical line along the bill base. Nice bird!
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
alexanderlees.bsky.social
Working on avian vagrancy? @pauldufour80.bsky.social and myself are organising a symposium at the EOU Conference 2025 at Bangor University, Wales (UK) from 18-22 August 2025 #Ornithology please submit abstracts to: auth.oxfordabstracts.com?redirect=/st... 🪶🌍
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
...past. These visited platforms could be prioritized when surveying platforms for breeding kittiwakes. 6/6 @waardenburgeco.bsky.social @sovonvogels.bsky.social
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
...in June in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, based on aerial surveys. It remains unclear what part of these breed on platforms. Our tagged kittiwakes visited several (up to 7) other platforms, including platforms where breeding has been observed in the... 5/6
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
...habitat for the species -- our only breeding kittiwakes are those on platforms. The first report of breeding on platforms stems from 2000. There is very scant information on breeding numbers since then. For the past six years, up to several 10 000s kittiwakes were estimated to be present... 4/6
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
...changed temporally. There was a sudden drop in distances about a week after tagging, which we interpreted as the start of the chick-phase. Then, distances increased during chick-rearing and dropped again during the post-fledging period. In the Netherlands, we don't have natural breeding... 3/6
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
...colonies of the same size. We suggest this is because they can venture in all directions and therefore have reduced density-dependence around the colony compared to coastal colonies that have less access to sea area. With data well into September, we could show how max trip distances... 2/6
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
New #OA paper in the #seabird journal (@theseabirdgroup.bsky.social)! We GPS-tracked Black-legged #Kittiwakes breeding on an offshore platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. In short, we show that they have a short foraging range compared to coastal... 1/6
www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/seabird-37
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
birdlifemarine.bsky.social
🚨NEW OPEN ACCESS PAPER🚨details how we delineated six #MarineFlyways using #seabird #tracking data & novel analytical methods

➡️ doi.org/10.1111/geb.70004

🧪 #ornithology #migration #BLScience
@birdlifeglobal.bsky.social

We are grateful to GOBI @iki-germany.bsky.social for funding the project

🧵1/5
Infographic map showing the six marine flyways (Atlantic Ocean Flyway, North Indian Ocean Flyway, East Indian Ocean Flyway, West Pacific Ocean Flyway, Pacific Ocean Flyway, Southern Ocean Flyway) in a spilhaus projection, and the general direction of travel by migratory seabirds
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
tammyedavies.bsky.social
🚨NEW OPEN ACCESS PAPER🚨details how we delineated six #MarineFlyways applying a novel approach onto #seabird #tracking data: doi.org/10.1111/geb.70004 🧪

See the short animation via: www.seabirdtracking.org/case-studies... explaining how the marine flyways can be a framework to support #conservation
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
... positively impacting the performance of the parents in the subsequent breeding season, leading to improved young survival prospects. 3/3
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
Interestingly, models also indicated an increased young survival following an El Niño winter. We suggest this time-lagged effect reflects downstream propagation of environmental conditions, particularly food availability, or a potential carry-over effect of El Niño conditions... 2/3
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
The second paper, led by Kat Snell and Ines dos Santos (at @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social), is about Arctic Skuas breeding at the Faroe Islands. Here, analysis of 24 years of ringing data suggests strong declines in the survival rates of both adults and juveniles. 1/3 doi.org/10.3354/meps...
Wintering, rather than breeding, oceanic conditions may modulate declining survival in a long-distance migratory seabird
KEY WORDS: Mortality · Carry-over effects · CMR modelling · Stercorarius parasiticus
doi.org
robvanbemmelen.bsky.social
... in wintering areas, with birds from single breeding sites wintering in areas across the Atlantic (see movementecologyjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....). We found that which and how much organochlorine contaminants are present in Arctic Skua blood depends on the wintering area. 2/2
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
davegoulson.bsky.social
Our new paper, based on data from 1,705 studies, shows that pesticides are toxic to organisms they are not intended to harm, including fungi, microbes, plants, insects, & vertebrates such as ourselves. Questions the wisdom of applying over 3 million tonnes of them every year...
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
annieleymarie.bsky.social
Peatlands occupy just 3% of all land but contain more carbon than all of the world’s forests.
Often overlooked: typically flat, wet, often inaccessible, not always picturesque & all the carbon they hold is hiding below the surface.
80% of the UK bogs are degraded by draining, overgrazing, burning.
Reposted by Rob van Bemmelen
rheisman.bsky.social
Sobering. When I talk to people about long-term bird population declines in N America, I mention that the main cause is habitat loss, not climate change - yet. But new research shows that climate change is causing bird declines even in otherwise pristine places. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
In the most untouched, pristine parts of the Amazon, birds are dying. Scientists may finally know why
Populations have been falling for decades, even in tracts of forest undamaged by humans. Experts have spent two decades trying to understand what is going on
www.theguardian.com