The Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research Expert Group on Birds and Marine Mammals (EG-BAMM) is tasked with the role of providing expert scientific advice on issues relating to birds and mammals, as well as helping to facilitate and coordinate research in the Southern Ocean. During the recent 2016 SCAR Open Science meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (August 2016) members gathered for the annual EG-BAMM meeting and the new APECS representative to the group, Jaimie Cleeland, attended the meeting. Here some of the exciting EG-BAMM projects discussed:
1. Antarctic Biodiversity
The Antarctic Biodiversity Portal is an electronic biodiversity infrastructure that houses biological data on Southern Ocean and Antarctic species. The portal; an official SCAR product, brings together large and small biodiversity datasets from both marine and terrestrial realms, with the aim of producing an open source digital biogeographic atlas. Scientists are encouraged to contribute to the portal to expand the register of Antarctic species.
2. Satellites, drones and wildlife monitoring
The primary role of the SCAR Action Group on Remote Sensing is to develop Antarctic-wide approaches to monitoring bird and marine mammal populations. The group, in collaboration with EG-BAMM, is aiming to develop a set of operating guidelines for the use of AUVs around Antarctic birds and marine mammals to avoid disturbance. This group is actively supporting Early Career Scientists working in this area by providing travel funding to attend the SCAR Biology Symposium in Leuven, Belgium, 2017. More information can be found here.
3. Wildlife health in Antarctica
The Health Working Group, led by Dr Andres Barbosa operates within EG-BAMM and focuses the influence of climate change on disease emergence and spread in Antarctic wildlife. Filling research gaps in Antarctic wildlife health is a priority for the group, who have identified that knowledge of disease in Antarctic marine mammals is currently lacking. Consequently, they are seeking marine mammal experts to collaborate with EG-BAMM. The group is presently working to document the emergence of a new feather loss disease in Antarctic penguins. A summary of Antarctic Wildlife Diseases can be found here.
4. Areas of Ecological Significance for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Birds and Marine Mammals
The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is one of the largest initiatives run by EG-BAMM. It aims to bring together ecologists, statisticians and data managers to produce circumpolar habitat maps for Southern Ocean marine predators and identify areas of ecological significance. Currently, over two million locations from penguin, seabird, seal and whale tracking data have been contributed to the project. The future of the RAATD program is looking good after securing a French-based grant to host two workshops a year for the next two and a half years.
EG-BAMM works closely with APECS to support early career scientists. You can find out more about EG-BAMM and its initiatives here.
