AUTHOR=O’Hanlon Nina J. , Thaxter Chris B. , Burton Niall H. K. , Grant Dave , Clark Nigel A. , Clewley Gary D. , Conway Greg J. , Barber Lee J. , McGill Rona A. R. , Nager Ruedi G. TITLE=Habitat Selection and Specialisation of Herring Gulls During the Non-breeding Season JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=9 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.816881 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.816881 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=
Understanding both the distribution and habitat use of populations through the annual cycle is vital to understanding how vulnerable species are to environmental change. However, distributions and habitat use can vary among individuals and populations, particularly in generalist species, with variation depending on external environmental factors, such as resource availability. Comprehensive information across multiple populations is important to guide spatial planning of protected areas and is increasingly available for breeding individuals, but it is still lacking for many species, particularly seabirds, during the non-breeding season, especially those with declining populations. We investigated within-species variation in migratory strategies, non-breeding habitat selection and habitat and spatial specialisation in a declining, opportunistic, generalist seabird, the European herring gull